This past week I was able to hang out with 80 awesome students and leaders from CCC church in Naperville. We went to a conference called CIY- Christ in Youth (www.ciy.com) held at Hope College in Michigan- so beautiful- it's where my sister goes. At the end of the trip my mom asked me if I got anything out of the week since I've been on so many conferences, retreats, etc. I told her that it was honestly one of the most wonderful times I've spent growing closer to the Lord! Here's some of the reasons why!1. The Music- even though the worship leaders wore v-neck shirts that revealed their hairy man chests, I LOVED the music and had so much joy over singing beside the students. It was awesome to look around the auditorium and see 1,000+ people praising God, singing and dancing.
2. The other leaders- I was able to have awesome talks and see the giftedness of the leaders there. Alison H and I had a talk one night- she told me about how conversational her relationship with God is, how she often talks to Him aloud, sometimes getting so choked up by the fact that when she prays she is ushered into God's presence. What an awesome reminder of how near our Creator is.
3. My small group! I was able to lead a small group with Shawn Williams who is the youth group leader at CCC. He made me laugh so much and when students shared in our group I could hear in them their excitement about God and desire to follow Him with their lives. These kids are so different from one another but they are united for sure by their passion.
4. Plexiglass- so there were these plexi-glass walls put up all over the auditorium one night and during worship, the speaker told the students to go write on the walls a few words that described the painful issues in their lives. I walked around and looked at the hundreds of words and saw so many things that broke my heart- depression, rape, abuse, divorce... these students are living in a very broken world. There were so many times throughout the week I was moved to tears by the stories some of the high school girls shared with me. But there is hope. So many of them realized that healing can come from the love and connection we're all made for through Jesus. That night some staff of CIY prayed for 14 hours for every un-named individual that wrote on the plexi-glass and for their pain. Definitely an example of how God seeks to be a part of our every hurt and enter into it with us
5. Ones- The theme of the week was ONES- Here is the mission statement I found on the CIY website about the week (the picture below is some of our students holding hands and singing):
"In our differences, we are the same. We are a wide spectrum of people, with distinctive traits and talents, each reflecting a different characteristic of God. Each of us is playing a role in a saga so big that it can not be confined by time or space.In our pockets of isolation, we search for significance and yearn for true community. So we come together, broken and injured, looking for a place to rest. Some come to support, some come to be healed, in coming together, are made whole.
They all come to be known, to matter. We are here as more than just a number or a statistic. We are here because we were created to bring value. We are here to make her laugh, to cause him to think, to convict them, and to grow. Here to be more than just ONE person, ONE failure, ONE sinner, or ONE saint. We are here as a part of the ONES. And we are here…
…Because we were never meant to be alone."
