Every three years our denomination has a HUGE youth conference in Estes Park Colorado. It's mostly only the Synod of the Heartland, which includes Minnesota, South/North Dakota, and Iowa. It does not include us, but we've gone I think every time it's been held since we started our church 21 years ago by tagging along with a church in Des Moines. That church has gotten HUGE so this year we went as our own entity because they saved spots of out-of-synod groups like us.
It's held at the YMCA of the Rockies and if you're looking for an AMAZING place to stay in Colorado, this is it. It's a conference/retreat center so it has lodges and cabins, dining halls, meeting rooms, and a huge gym that they turned into our worship center for the week. But it's all nestled in the mountains. I mean, seriously, this was the view
from my balcony.
So we spent the week going to seminars in the morning and hanging out in the afternoon. Each morning and evening we'd have main sessions, which was basically a giant church session. Worship was led by Kristian Stanfill. I had head of Stanfill before -- he has a song on the local radio station and he's recorded on the Passion CDs -- but I wasn't incredibly familiar with him. He totally ROCKS. He has a song called Like a Lion that kind of became the anthem of the week. A few other artists led worship as well, but seriously Stanfill was the worship leader who has the most rock infused worship which pretty much meant he was my favorite.
The messages were delivered by a few different people. The main guy was Jared Herd and he did an AMAZING job of relating to the kids in a way that they were absolutely enraptured by him. The them for the week was "Amplify," tuning in to God and turning up His message. Trusting Him. Knowing that He has plans for our lives.
"I don't know where I'm going, but I know who I'm following" was the biggest lesson we learned that week. We tell our kids to trust God week after week but this guy? He conveyed it in a way that they
got it. I've got kids dealing with heart surgery, drug addiction in the family, death of a family member, moving 900 miles away... Not to mention the things they're dealing with that I don't know about. It was awesome.
There was another guy there named Ben Glen who was a chalk artist. The kids who went in '08 had raved and raved about him and I was worried that he wouldn't live up to the hype. He is a motivational speaker who speaks at school and youth events (different things depending on the audience) and to teachers. He was diagnosed with ADHD in school and struggled a lot with it. Now in his tours, he'll talk and then "draw a pit-cher" (or the other way around -- draw and then talk). People this guy is AMAZING. He takes a giant bed sheet sized piece of canvas and turns it into an amazing piece of art. I took a video of the breakout session he did but I want to respect his work and not post it (which is a bummer because seriously this guy is AMAZING). But you can go to his YouTube channel and take a look at some of his work. Here is a short video that shows an example of his work. He actually did this drawing at Rocky and I was in tears, folks. Amazing.
Tuesday morning, a bunch of us climbed Hallet Peak in RMNP. We left campus at 6 in the morning, when the sky looked like this:
It's about a ten hour hike round trip. I didn't make it all the way to the top, sadly. I made it about 3/4 of the way. I wanted to quit about a mile before we actually did so in that respect I am INCREDIBLY proud of myself. My knees couldn't handle anymore and as much as I wanted to push myself the extra mile to the top, it just got too steep and I didn't want them to have to come and rescue me at the top of the mountain! Not to mention it was COLD up there above the treeline!
It was an amazing week. Jerome can't wait to go back in three years because he says we will make it to the top of the mountain. I personally hope we have a baby by then, but if not that's my goal, too. =)
