The Youth Are on Fire!

This past week I had the privelage to travel to the ELCA National Youth Gathering in San Antonio as a representative for Luther Seminary. I had never been to one of these before and I was blown away. Think of camp on a bigger budget and on more steroids than Barry Bonds! There were 20,000+ Lutherans in San Antonio for this event and it was quite the experience. There was no escaping the Lutherans (what a scary thought!).

I got to help run the booth for all the ELCA seminaries and got the pleasure of meeting reps from all over the country. We handed out seminary cups, coerced people into getting their picture taken behind out little people cut outs like this:
It was fun and I got to meet a lot of people and talk to high schoolers and experience the Gathering at its best.

Among my favorite parts were the mass Gatherings for Bible Study in the morning or for the big show/speaker/band at night. It was amazing to worship with 20,000 other people and high schoolers at that! The Newsboys was the highlight in worship for me. Singing "He Reigns" and "Blessed Be Your Name" with that many other people was amazing!!! It was almost enough to bring tears to me eyes (and you know, it might have, I don't quite remember). And though not all of them might have been there to learn more about God, I think and know that a lot of seeds were planted this week and the past week and here's hoping these seeds are given the opportunities to grow and maybe one of those kids we talked to will end up where I am a few years down the line.