LIFE2013

Oh wow.

This week has been HUGE.
Every 3 years my church denomination puts on a huge youth conference. It's like summer camp on steroids. And not in the woods.

But is IS pretty stinkin' awesome. I just got back, and this year was no exception.

We were in St. Louis this year, and it was great! There were awesome speakers, a concert by LeCrae, different seminars every day, lots of great time with my youth group kids, and even some great time with other youth group kids.

One thing I really appreciate is that the content that they presented was deep. It was meaty. We sat through sessions twice a day, plus 2 seminars each day, and for everything I went to the content was right on and very full. No fluff here.

There was service - for 3 days, a group of 2000 kids went out into the city of St. Louis and worked. We cleaned out an old cemetery, we painted a ballpark, we carried trash out of several different places, and it was great. I think when kids throw their hearts into serving others, great things happen.

We talked about God's mission, and how God's mission becomes your purpose. When you are called of God, His mission becomes yours. And he calls you to do this in lots of different places. Sometimes He calls people to go overseas, but most of the time He calls you to do His mission right where you are.

We sang to a video about cranking a chainsaw?!?!?!?

We ghosted people. Well, I didn't ghost anyone, but I did get ghosted. :)

We spent time talking about things that are going on in my kids' lives, and how they respond to what God is doing.

We listened to each other talk about what God was telling them, and their response.

There were seminars on lots of different topics: Identity in the post-church generation, spiritual disciplines, missionary panel, Jesus and consumerism, how to choose a college, how to be a Christian artist in a non-Christian world, and so many more.

It was a great week, and I'm grateful to have gotten to go. I'm grateful that there wasn't any major drama. I'm grateful that we all made the 14 hour drive back.
K