My Part of the Conversation

About 10 minutes ago, Dustin and Josh, our guest speaker and worship leader, headed out the door for the airport.  Almost immediately, I felt the weight of the weekend come off my shoulders, and was replaced with a overwhelming desire for a long-needed nap.  It’s going to be nice to get some rest and finally spend some time with my beautiful wife and my smiling baby boy.

The weekend was incredible.  Everything came off amazingly.  It was all God.  My prayer was to follow His leading in putting it together, and He led in amazing ways.  Josh was again an inspiration to our youth and even the entire congregation.  He has an incredible gift for leading worship.  Our theme was “Rise Up”, and Dustin taught lessons from the life of Peter and how he needed to rise up into the calling Jesus had for him.  Very powerful.  There were about 250 teens there, and I think they were all blessed.

Revival did a great job with their skits.  We prayed that God would make it all come together, and He followed through.  Of the 6 skits, I had not seen any one of them done better in any practice session.  It was incredible.  There were even a few line changes and improvs that seemed to give skits new layers and deeper meanings.  God really used those teens to teach, and it was amazing.

Our entertainment this year was Jeff Allen.  Honestly, how I picked him to come, didn’t involve a lot of research.  I prayed about it for a while, but never found anyone that seemed right.  At the NYWC Youth Minister’s convention, I got some free promo stuff for several comedians.  I popped in Jeff Allen’s Banana’s tape- and was rolling for 10 minutes straight.  I literally stopped the tape and booked him.  A little later, I went back and watched the rest of the tape.  Most of his stuff was about raising teenagers, and I started sweating whether or not he could relate.  Turns out my worries were unfounded- they loved him, and several parents have even told me their kids were quoting him all night long.  Personally, I laughed so hard my face hurt.  It was a great way to cap off a great weekend.

Well, off to say goodbye to a few more people, get some lunch, head home, and get some well-needed rest.

Thanks for the prayers!  They were answered positively!

Blaine