LIFE 2010--Day 1

 The trip today was fun, tiring, busy and interesting, but great all in all.  The deluxe bus that we had (in which the girls reaped the benefits of) happened to lose AC during the trip, so we made an unexpected stop in order to hydrate the girls and give them a chance to cool off. 

  Thankfully this happened when we were only about 2 hours away, so they were spared for a super long time of suffering.

  Despite the hardships of the road, we made it alive and in one piece!

  Once we got to the Galt House, we were all in awe at the beauty of the building and all the cool things this amazing hotel had to offer.  We had little time to be awestruck however, because with the AC breakdown and the unexpected stop, we were running a bit behind schedule. 

After everyone got out of the vehicles, settled and unpacked we headed over to the park behind the hotel for some good pizza.  The pizza was from a  well known local pizza shop called Wick's Pizza which was completely delicious.

  Now that our belly's were full, we were ready to head to the Louisville, KY Expo Center (pictured here)

  While here, we headed into the large room where all the fun toys were.  We walked around the room looking at all the sites and gazing at all the toys we know we're going to enjoy this week. 

 While in the large "fun room" Josh Blanchard did and impromptu concert for ACAC (and everyone else) at the Nyack College Booth.

After the concert, we headed into the main session room, where the Holy Spirit was thick and evident.  There were some fun "Pre-session" moments, but once the worship began, it was all focused on God.  It's amazing to see 6,500 people worshipping God all at one time, so to give you a small taste, here is a video:

  After this powerful time of worship, Jason Ostrander got up to speak about Collide (the whole weeks theme).  He explained for us how we have things in our lives that collide with God and we sometimes have collisions with God ourselves.  He briefly described how each day would go and which certain "collisions" we would discuss on each day.  The Collisions will go as follows: Creation; the Incarnation; Faith and the Church.  We will post much more on these specific topics, so make sure you check back each day for more information.

  After the wonderful time of worship, and powerful message from Jason, the President of the C&MA (Gary Benedict) got on stage to bless the youth and to encourage them. 

  When the session was over, we all went into a room in the expo center and with our small groups (broken up by who was in your room) debriefed the night, worship and session.  We asked 3 questions: Why did you come to LIFE?  Where in your life do you collide with God and When the Holy Spirit reveals the changes, the desires and the collisions you need to make, will you yield to Him and allow him to work in you?

   This time was amazing, where we got to see the teens first-hand wrestling with God and these questions.  Please continue to pray for our teens for God to continue to hit them hard and to challenge them deeply.

 Tomorrow morning we are hearing from Francis Chan on the collision of Creation!  More info, pics, videos and interviews forthcoming...stay tuned!