First Thing's First Day 1

Well, after a week of God pounding into me that I just needed to chill out and not obsessively plan everything for the conference, it took a very conscious effort to not freak out in the hours before we kicked off the conference. I went to town to just kind of breathe and then it was go time. Benches were brought out, tents set up, worship team was warmed up, and before we knew it, it was go time. By 1:30 we had pretty much our usual kids for youth group and by 2:15, we had about 100 kids.

We began with worship, and then I taught an overview of the Gospels just kind of laying the groundwork for the rest of the conference. I won't lie, it wasn't not the most lively of teachings because 4 Gospels in 45 minutes...well, you get the picture, but at least they hopefully are a little more familiar with those books. Then they broke out into small groups and it seems like always it's in the times of small groups that God really brings a lot of stuff to life, so that was cool.

Also during small groups, we served the kids a snack of popcorn and juice. Now, I know this may seem funny to make a point of, but I was served in such an awesome way today in preparing the snack. Normally it's myself and three other kids (one of which has passed away and another who has moved to the village) all under the age of ten pouring over 100 cups of juice, but today I had a couple of amazing friends take it on and they seriously would yell at me (in a good way) whenever I tried to do anything. Pouring juice... it's funny how that little thing can leave such a mark, but the way that those friends of mine served me in doing that is really something I won't forget. I wish that we all would just look for the simple ways to stoop down and wash one another's feet... it doesn't have to be big, extravagant, or expensive it just simply takes caring about someone enough to see an area they can be served in. It was really too cool.

From small groups, it was then time for Jess to teach and he taught on when Jesus came and his approachability compared to the God Moses spoke to. It was just really a great message to be thinking about our walks with Christ and do we really have a relationship with him? Which was then followed by another small group time.

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After that, we played a game where a team was blind folded and they had to listen to their team member direct them where to go in order to reach their goal while avoiding "mines" as well as not getting distracted but the leaders who were trying to distract them from hearing the voice they were supposed to. We tied that into the idea of what Jess taught on and how we need to listen for God's voice and not allow the "noise" of this world to keep us from hearing and obeying him.




Finally it was dinner time. It was a little chaotic, but in all we had enough food and right as everyone was going home, the skies opened up and I really don't know the last time I got that soaked in a storm. It was seriously perfect timing though and I'm just so thankful that God waited until then to bring the rain.

So here I am processing the day, staying up a whole lot later than I should... but honestly I'm not tired because I had a really great team who just stepped up and made it where I didn't need to do all that I normally do. God was awesome in how He truly did give me a peace that only comes from Him, and I just look forward to what tomorrow may hold.