wow! this year was totally different, in really awesome ways. for this year, each room was to stick together and do pretty much everything as one group. i thought that this was a great idea because it formed some really unique friendships among our students. here is a list of my top 11 moments from youth convention oh eight:
1. planetshakers live. their energy is infectious. because of their appearance at convention, i want to go an buy their cds and learn their songs. the lady that led all the slow songs was so powerful. she would speak words of encouragement during the chorus while everyone else was singing, and it was awesome.
2. jeff deyo. he did not disappoint the year. even though he was only there for two services, it just wouldn’t have been yc without him.
3. francis chan. he was the speaker for both night services, and he did an amazing job. he described what God is in a way i had never thought of before. he read from revelation where john paints the picture of what seeing God in heaven will be like. it was insane! then, after describing how great and awesome God is, he ended by picking up his little daughter and them embracing, asking in a small voice, “does your relationship with God look like this?”. WOW! he also gave some great insight into prayer. amazing.
4. seeing students lives change. this one speaks for itself. but i really love seeing a room full of 5,000 students with hands raised in worship to their Creator, crying tears of joy because of the peace they have made with Him, and with themselves. it was especially awesome for me this year because i am so much closer with the students then i have been in years past. plus, my brother was at convention this year.
5. the security. it just wouldn’t be youth convention if we didn’t get in trouble with security. this year was far worse, in a good way, then we have ever had. during switchfoot, we had at least six security guards watching us. michelle almost got kicked out, tyrone was chased by a little female guard, kelly got lectured twice by them. still, i’m pretty sure we had the best time of any youth group there.
6. insulin! ya, if you weren’t there, you won’t get this. but it was very funny. the same yell pattern was also used for words such as salad, ice cream, ice cold insulin, and various other things.
7. deliverage. the cool mix of vanguard’s delivery boys and entourage sketch comedy groups for just EPIC was a really fun way to end saturday night. we were laughing so hard, most of us left in tears.
8. all the pranks. i won’t go into details to describe all of them, but EPIC is full of people who just like to have fun and mess with other people in our group.
9. seeing a vision from ministry tour become reality. when we were at our last church on ministry tour, everyone was praying for one another, and when i went to pray for lorel, something weird happened that i had never experienced before. when i touched her, i saw a single flame rapidly becoming multiple flames spreading like wildfire through this area of land. i immediately started crying. her and i talked about it for a long time after that, and we didn’t really know what it meant. as the months rolled by, i didn’t think about it much. then, we were doing the see you at the pole post-rally, where chloe started a flame and we lit up the room, and i saw it again. this time, i was pretty sure why. i talked with lorel, and i discovered it was about paige. but, God told me to wait to talk about it. then, on saturday night at convention, i saw her go up for the altar call, and i knew it was time to let her in. i went up, told her the story, and we cried and hugged for a long time. she got it; she knew it was for her. i can’t wait to see where her flame ignites. this was a over five month wait, but it was so worth it.
10. the stairs. we were on the sixteenth floor, and taking the stairs was no fun at all. especially the time that no one told us we should get off on the fourth floor and dwight, tyrone, summer, cristel, brooke, and i ended up outside.
11. the trip home. it was going smoothly, then we stopped for food, and that is where it all began. coral face planted, and luckily there was a nurse in del taco to help make sure she was ok. then, a car accident happened right in front of arby’s, and jarrod had this weird sixth sense (what my brother called a seventh sense) that made him move like lightening to the cars to make sure everyone was alright before calling 911. after we left the lunch madness, we started our trip home. our bus began to lose tire pressure and the brakes were being funny, so we stopped to check that out. there, we saw what we swear was dog the bounty hunter, so we videotaped and waved at him. our tires were still being funny when we took off again, so the bus driver called for a new bus to come get us from a rest stop. the new bus, 10 seats less then our current bus. so, i crammed in the van full of boys for the last 45 minutes of the trip home.
all-in-all it was an amazing weekend. i just wish it would have been a little bit longer.
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