"You came to seek and save the lost. You paid it all upon the Cross....You are stonger"

Hello blog world! Long time not update. Until I sat down to write this I was thinking that I really have nothing to update on and then I noticed that I have more than enough to say. So I hope you have sometime to hang out read some :].

First off, the picture. So today is Sunday and the semester finished on the tenth, but I stayed in Montreat a couple of extra days to "babysit" a couple of the kids from the youth group while their mom was out of town. The cool thing about staying was that there house is one of those cool creepy houses that you just want to creep around and see what you can find... so I took my camera and went on a walk around their yard well the kids were at school. The yard was filled with a lot of gates, cement garden things, and "water features". It quickly become one of my favorite houses in Montreat. Although, it is nice to be sitting in Charleston again... actually not really because it SNOWED in Montreat Friday, but I'm trying to forget that little part.

Second, the title. It is a lyric from "Stronger" by Hillsong. Check it out. It is a good song. This song reminds me that I never told you guys about the National Youth Workers Convention (or NYWC). This part of the blog will probably make me sound like a huge nerd, but oh well, here it goes. NYWC was in Atlanta, GA the weekend before Thanksgiving. To start the weekend off I have to tell a humorous story from the trip up there. So we were driving along the road and we were somewhere in South Carolina and I looked up and there was a car a pretty good distance in front of us. [For those of you who don't know, I'm pretty good at spotting out cars of the people I know.] So anyway, I said to Elizabeth who was sitting next to me "I'm pretty sure that is Stacey Mason in that car up there." And she said, "Well, we are close to Spartanburg." I thought nothing of it, but then I was like no I think that is her. So I asked Don to catch up to the vehicle. I was right. It was Stacey Mason. That was the first highlight of my trip. I enjoyed it A LOT.

Ok, on to the actual convention. The highlights... I had the opportunity to enjoy funny skits, amazing speakers, great music, and freaking awesome break out sessions. I listened to Andy Stanely, Donald Miller, Francis Chan, Perry Noble, Reggie Joiner, and Steven Furtick and that was just in the big room. And did I mention I got to MEET the Skit Guys (there the guys in the picture with me)(& if you don't know who they are check out a few blogs before when I posted one of their skits)?! And the David Crowder Band played during the Big Room on Sunday Morning?! It was truly an awesome experience.

What truly was an amazing during the weekend was getting to hear Francis Chan speak. I think he is one of my new favorite pastors (although the one at Montreat Pres is amazing). He really blows my mind with his ideas of the Christian life. If you do not know who I am talking about he is the pastor at Cornerstorne Church in Simi Valley, California. He semi-recently wrote the book crazylove. That book is amazing, but at the same when I put the book down I had that feeling of "people don't actually live that way". However, when he spoke, I realized that HE LIVES LIKE THAT!! You have to actually read the book to understand what I am talking about, but still... listening to him was - crazy awesome. If you haven't read or heard about the book that might not make sense.

There were three break out sessions that I went too... that I remember. One was on "How to effectively minister to middle school girls"... and it was AMAZING! I learned so much from it. I also began to realize how great Breena is with the girls. Not that I thought she was bad before, but it brought a whole new light to how amazing she really is. I went to a session were we learned how to play games... and my new favorite one has to done with a straw - if you want to know about it just ask me... or give me a straw :]. Ok actually apparently you can upload videos on here... so if this works you can be amazed by Elizabeth's skills. The last one was on "What Kids wish Adults new about Divorce." She was really good. And it was funny going to it because I talked to Breena about which breakout sessions I should go to and she told me I shouldn't go to that one because I already know. However, I'm glad I went. I realized just how weird on non-statistical I am. PTL! (Perhaps I can get to that in this blog... but that might be for a different day.)

Ok hopefully this video will work :] and if it does, I think I found something new and fun to do!

Alright... So I since I last updated I went to Atlanta - and then drove home - and then back to Montreat for two weeks - and now I'm back in Charleston. YAY. Sort of. I mentioned that I missed the snow for a BUNCH of rain right? Because if I didn't... I wanted you - my lovely readers to know.

Other things that I wanted to talk about in this entry. I love good conversations. Those deep conversations that you actually learn something from and you walk away with that feeling of awe. The AWE factor. The reason I bring this up is because I had a semester filled of them. I really have gotten to a point where I really don't care about the rest of the conversations because the deep ones are so much better. It has been good. I sat down with an old friend recently and it was fun because it did not really seem like two people that hadn't seen each other in a while. It really felt like nothing had changed with us - no time had past - nothing. Of course time has past. And we haven't spoken since probably May, but the conversation did not feel that way. It was a conversation that I walked away from feeling hopeful. I guess for me that is the awe factor. These are the conversations that keep me going when I just want to quit and they normally come in those moments too.

I walked away from that conversation knowing that God has something big in store for me. That what I need to be doing (and I'm not always good at to be honest) is falling in love with Him and trusting Him to do His thing. He is going to take care of me, but I have to let Him in to do that. He came to seek and save the lost - I am lost.

For now I think this should be good-bye. More later this week because SANTA comes! ha.