My Weekend May 27, 2008

I spent this past weekend in Edmonton Alberta at YC and had an amazing time. For those of you reading this that don’t know what it is you can check out the website. The weekend started on Friday night and went non-stop until Sunday night. I am still exhausted!

Here is a brief summary (thanks to Celine) of the weekend. She wrote her summary on Facebook and I am “stealing” it and changing it a bit. I hope she doesn’t mind…

Sitting on a bus with many others. Watching National Treasure and Mr. Bean episodes while covering my nose from that nasty stench. Putting on neon green bracelets that are our passes into the Rexall building. Passing through the doors while holding our arms up so they can see we payed for this experience and praying they don’t check my purse and take my water bottle away.

Kicking a band out of our awesome seats. Music so loud that it left my ears ringing for hours afterwards. Screaming, shouting, jumping, dancing for God. Losing my voice so that I just have to mouth the words because no sound comes out anymore, but then getting it back just to lose it again. John Bevere speaking about fearing God and how he will magnify our steps as we walk for Him. Singing to our heavenly father with 17,000 people in unison, truly worshiping without worrying about who is watching me.

Unloading the bus and setting up snack. 23 of us on a midnight search for a donair place to find it demolished. Laughing at the idea of walking through the Tim Hortons drive through and then shocked that they actually let us. Iced Capps at 1am. Playing Family Business until 2:30am. Cleaning the kitchen with Marc. Going to bed and waking up to find that I had a conversation with Emily while I was sleeping - weird.

Reggie Dabbs speaking, shouts of “Carpe Diem - Seize the Day” “We are all chocolate!”. Safeway for lunch, ditching Marc (I’m still sorry for that). Trying to get into Amanda Falk’s girl talk but going to a boring missions one instead. Finding Marc and worshiping with Vicky Beeching. Parachute Band! Hearing Omega’s story of God’s Mercy. Liz and Dayna’s turkey baster (KJ52 actually rapped about it!). Eating my second fruit tray. More of Reggie speaking. Moved me to tears. Being shocked at the number of kids who stood up for prayer because of suicidal thoughts. Worshiping God with tears rolling uncontrollably down my face. Getting back to the school for prayer and discussion. Being so proud of my little sister for declaring her conviction for her future. Watching boys play their stupid game. Getting attacked by my sister with a water bottle (I’m still hurting). Laughing so hard I couldn’t stop crying and people being concerned. Cleaning the kitchen with Marc…again. Sleep.

Cleaning and packing the bus. Being late for Sunday’s morning service. Leeland leading worship and the Aussie man making us sing to a DVD. Chicken fingers for lunch at the restaurant. Cute little Asian lady running around to get us our food. Parachute Band once again. Amazing worship. Papa San “shake your tambourine!” Finding Avery, praying that God spoke to her in a huge way! More Reggie, singing to his saxophone playing. Leaving during Newsboys. Getting home exhausted but staying up past 2 again!

Incredible worship. Praising God like how if might be like in heaven. Feeling the Holy Spirit in the room and being moved to tears and singing with a shaky voice. Screaming till it hurt. Feet sore but standing anyway. Realizing that I need to be still and focus on God’s voice speaking to me. Knowing that I should not hold anything back and that I need to focus on what God thinks and not to be concerned with those around me. He made me and thinks I am beautiful. I need to seize the day, every day. No day will be wasted.

BBQ in the Park May 3, 2008

Our youth event yesterday was a barbecue in North Glenmore Park with a couple other churches. There were burgers, hot-dogs, pop, chips and candy for everyone to pig out on. We also played games like tag, Frisbee, football and bocce ball.

The night was so nice and here are a couple of the high lights that brought me joy.

• Spinning around on the Merry-Go-Round until we felt sick
• Playing full contact football
• Playing toilet tag
• Watching Allan’s eyes turn bright red from the smoke from grilling the burgers
• Playing extreme bocce ball for more than 2 hours!

And here are a couple pictures from the night.

Getting Sweet Seats March 5, 2008

Today was the official registration for YC and was it ever a rush. I was asked to help purchase tickets to increase our youth groups chances of getting better seats this year. The previous years we have gone, we’ve always been behind the stage or in the nosebleeds and this year is going to be different. I’m so excited!!!

So, since I didn’t have class today I said yes to sitting by my computer and clicking madly as soon as the clock hit 10:00 am. Kelly our youth pastor and his wife were also doing the same thing and the plan was to call Kelly when I got in to purchase. I got in fairly quickly, entered in all the address info and hit continue when Kelly phoned me. He bought all 50 tickets that were needed and got really great seats!

We’re in section 136, to the left of the stage and rows 5 to 8. Pretty Sweet! Check out the seating chart here (but remember the stage is to the far right side, not in the centre).
It’s amazing how fast the seats go when registering for YC. As I sit here typing, I’m looking at the seats that are left and the floor has 7 seats left, the bottom bowl is almost all gone and the nosebleeds are now being bought up, and it’s only been 40 minutes since it opened! Crazy!

This picture was from our seats in 2007. This year our seats are to the left of this picture (so we’re in front of the stage)and way down at the bottom!

I’m so stoked for YC 2008!!!

** Update** 1 seat on the floor, 1-3 seats in the sections in the lower bowl and between 50-90 seats in different sections behind the stage and up high @ 10:57

Staying Up All Night and Eating Flavoured Ice February 12, 2008

This past weekend I participated in our annual church Lock-In and was “locked in” our church (Bethany Chapel) from Friday at 8pm until 9:30 am on Saturday with 80+ other people.

We had a band come play for us from Ambrose University College, with the lead singer Caleb Delamont. We played a wide game called Communist church where the leaders were able to throw the students outside the building in the freezing cold and made our own music videos. We ate pizza, played guitar hero, the wii and watched movies. My favourite part by far, which brought me much joy, was the snow cone machine! I loved that thing and we had it running for a lot of the night. Who knew that shaved ice and flavoured syrups could make me so happy. The night was overall a great success and one of the best Lock-In’s I have been to.

Told You We’d Get You Back! February 6, 2008

If you’ve been reading my blog then you’ll know that I wrote one a couple weeks ago about our youth retreat to Camp Okotoks and the intense flour fight we had. My friend Whitney and I swore that we would get our youth pastors back for that and this weekend we did. It involved a prank that took 9 of us to complete on Sunday afternoon with a lot of newspaper. We covered everything in his office with newspaper. His computer, desk, clock, guitar, and most impressively, all of his individual books were wrapped. I loved it so much that I had to make a video of it

Just watch this.

YC Promo Video February 1, 2008

As sad as I was to find out that United isn’t going to be playing at YC this year, I’m still really excited to think about going. Yes, I’m not a youth anymore, but I love going with our youth as a leader. It’s a loud weekend with non-stop concerts, runs to Safeway for food and no sleep. When I think about going I can’t help but smile.

I love the topic for the weekend as well. Passion. I have such a passion for youth and God moving in their lives. Check out this promo video. It just makes me so excited!

YC 2008!!! January 30, 2008

Ok, I just had to post this! I was randomly searching the internet and decided to see if YC had finally put up their new info for this year….and guess what???? THEY DID!!!

I am so excited!

For those of you that don’t know what YC is. It is a youth conference in Edmonton that happens every year. Christian rock bands and excellent speakers come out for a weekend of non-stop concerts and sessions in Edmonton’s Rexall Place. Every year hundreds of teens come to know Jesus as their Saviour and it’s a great time to worship our God with thousands of young people in one place.

The details are as follows:

Theme: Passion (that we will be passionate for God’s heart and His will in every aspect of our lives)

Dates: May 23 -25, 2008

Where: Rexall Place, Edmonton Alberta

Speakers: Reggie Dabbs, John Bevere, Phil Pringle, Bob Stromberg, etc.

Bands: Newsboys, Thousand Foot Krutch (TFK), Skillet, Leeland, Parachute Band, Panic Squad, Amanda Falk, Pillar, Hawk Nelson, etc.

I am so excited about this, so expect many more posts about YC and why it brings me joy!

Feel free to check out the official website by clicking here.

Going to Camp January 23, 2008

I spent this last weekend at Camp Okotoks with 50 - 60 junior and high school students. We had to sleep in the lodge because it was the only heated building so the girls monopolized the basement and the boys got the upstairs for sleeping.

We endured cold weather and no running water, and I had an excellent time! I think it was one of the best retreats that I have been on in a long time.

The theme was “The Price is Wrong” and we all got sweet t-shirts to remind us that money isn’t everything. We played gameshows like “Are you Smarter Than a Youth Leader?” and “Hypothalamus” and watched hours of the Planet Earth documentary series.

The best thing we did though, was the wide game Ring of Fire. The game consisted of two teams, each with their own burning fire pit on each side of the camp. The mission was to put out the other teams fire with snowballs . . . and flour. Yes, flour. Each team had a 10 lb. bag of all purpouse flour and styrofoam cups to put on the fire or to throw at your opponents. The game quickly turned into a full on flour war when I decided to betray my team to help a friend attack certian ruthless men (who shall remain nameless). By the end of the night my friend and I were covered with flour paste. We had flour in our eyes, nose and ears. I had breathed in so much it hurt to inhale, but I can still say that I had a great time and when I look at the pictures I just have to start laughing.