This was an extremely fun trip. We had a lot more free time on this trip than we do on most, so we played cards, went thrift store shopping, hung out around downtown, found the good places to eat, and just generally had a lot of fun.
And I was personally very encouraged on this trip. If you keep up with this blog than you probably saw my post entitled, “Get Real! Confessions of a local church.” It is the post most viewed on this blog. In it I challenge readers to quit pretending and just be real with who they are and what they struggle with so that they can find true freedom. Well, at the 08 Extraordinary Youth Convention that NewFire played at on Friday the speaker encouraged the youth to “Get Real” and preached a sermon basically about confession. At the end during the altar call students began to stand up as the Spirit of the Lord moved on them and publicly confess their sins to the entire congregation.
The very first guy that stood up shouted that he was addicted to pornography and wanted to be free and that he wanted to quit cheating on his girlfriend. Keep in mind that he was not asked by the speaker to publicly confess his sins, he made the decision to do that on his own. Then a girl stood up and confessed to self mutilation, then a girl stood and confessed to living a double life. This continued for about 10-15 minutes with student after student standing and confessing and crying out to God for redemption. By the time the service was over it had turned into a massive celebration as so many students where experiencing a new freedom never previously experienced as a result of the Holy Spirit moving on them to publicly confess and experience complete freedom from guilt and shame. There was dancing, singing, and most importantly Jesus. He was most definitely there. It was very refreshing for me and I was able to get my worship on. It was great. Oh, and By The Tree was there too, they led the worship. They are pure hearted guys and very humble and kind. Go buy a CD of theirs or something.
Then we moved on to First Christian Church in Washington, MO where we . . . well, why don’t you just watch the video. It will speak for itself.
Here’s the vid.
http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=80781ae01bf8ad43dc30
Hey!
I didn’t know you played at conventions. That’s cool. It sounds kinda like Fusion. That’s awesome what happened. I haven’t watch the video yet b/c I’m using Paul’s computer and him and John are playing videogames and I don’t want to turn the speakers on. I look forward to watching it though!
I love you and can’t wait to see you!!!! Yay!!! You’ll be home soon!!!! Everyone’s been asking about you. Today was Amber’s baby shower and Virginia asked about you. I said you’d be home soon.