Last week my worlds collided. It’s rare to experience what I call a “crack in time.”

Those moments when the world as we know it changes forever.

But last week for five short and beautiful days, my worlds of social networking and reality came together.

I cannot adequately describe the intense feelings last Saturday afternoon in the Celebrity Theatre on the Cruise Ship Century as I stood before 94 human beings that previously had been only pixels and digits.

The re:create Cruise was marketed only through the world of social networking. And somehow, magically, Twitter names and Facebook profiles became people.

People like Idelette McVicker. She was born right into the height of Apartheid in South Africa.

In 1995, after university, she moved to Taiwan and worked as a reporter and columnist. During her first years there, she explored Taipei mainly on her scooter, driving from press conference to interview to outdoor event with a map on her lap. She loved every moment in that city, from slurping fresh noodles at a corner store to dining with the diplomats.

In 1999, she moved to another new continent–this time North America–to marry a Canadian.

People like Sam McLoughlin. A 25 year old writer, musician, and grad student from Vancouver, British Columbia, who likes to write about the intersection of faith, art and pop culture, kinda like Chuck Klosterman and has already climbed Mt. Everest.

People like twenty-something Jared Gilstrap who writes computer software for Air Force F-15 fighter jets. His wife Lindsey is Southeastern University Grad Student who is a groups director for Longleaf and a registered nurse with culture changing dreams.

People like Doug Johns. He is the Lead Pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Brockville, Ontario and he and his wife Yvonne drove all the way from Ontario to Miami for the cruise. A serious runner, Doug intends to enter his first marathon in 2011, before he turns 60!

I could go on and on. 94 extraordinary people with thousands of mesmerizing stories. Watch this 3 minute impromptu interview with the aforementioned Sam on the pool deck of the cruise. It is awesome!

I will never be the same. The inaugural 2011 re:create Cruise was a splashing (ah-hem) success!

Stay tuned here soon for details on our 2012 cruise.

Question: Do you have a great story that happened when your worlds of social networking and reality collided?