Many years ago as I was starting my this venture, when the books were just an idea, I attended the very first GrandCon at a small convention center at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI. That year I volunteered for many hours, ran several games and had a great time. I did not hold a chapel service that year but simply helped around the con as a volunteer and games host. The next year I hosted my first Sunday Morning Chapel at a con. I had attended one or two at Gen Con with the Christian Gamers Guild and I had done similar services in National Park campgrounds during college. The year after that I believe is when our first book came out and i had the joy of both tabling and running games and the chapel.
Sept. 2-5 I joined in as GrandCon returned from the 2 year COVID hiatus. I had a table with all 3 books, T-Shirts, and so forth. I hosted a few games including Commissioned, Unmatched, and Lost Ruins of Arnak. I often cosplay and this year I was Aragorn on Friday to go along with the premiere of Rings of Power and on Saturday I was Obi Wan. I had submitted my event “Nerd Chapel at GrandCon” as I do each year and received an email. They did not have a space for seminars this year, the contract did not originally include a room for it. Fortunately, they worked it out with Devos Place. 20 of us gathered with an amazing view of the river, bridges, the Ford Presidential Museum, and a park between the museum and the river.
I met some great people at the table this year. My table neighbor was also named Eric and has developed a card game called House Rules and yes, the rules do change each round. Imagine Superfight mixed with Fluxx. I met the several people who work on RPG materials, including Justin Handlin, the guy behind Crit Academy. They had several RPG books but one caught my eye. As a Sunday School teacher and RPG guy he worked with his pastor to create a kid friendly Christmas RPG called The Living Testament where the players are guardians for the Magi that brought gifts to Jesus. Of course I met other wonderful people and interacted with friends I had already known before.
The Service was wonderful. We were 20 people and my friend Joy pulled together a worship team. My message was on Jeremiah 29 and discussed life in exile. While my best illustration for this was the Marvel version of Thor, I also referenced Obi Wan Kenobi and Stranger Things.
Comments
Oh my gosh! I was just mentioning how my husband and I have been listening to Podcast about Exile and it further talks on story writing in the Bible!
This article is wonderful and relatable! Thanks for sharing and hope we can meet someday!