Report on NYLC

National Youth Leaders Conference in Dallas, Texas - March 30th - April 2nd. 
To say it was 'worth it' would be the understatement of the year, no, the decade. 

With Ben's (my youth pastor) motorcycle accident and the chaos that followed it, updates and information on the trip was obviously sporadic. But I believe that through that, God selected a couple of us to meet Him there, along with around 2700 Jesus Freaks who have dedicated their lives to Christ and to further Him kingdom. That alone was amazing. To see Trinity Church filled with people much like myself encouraged me greatly, by allowing me to see that not only did God have a huge, young, passionate army around the US, but that they too faced the same struggles that I used to believe I faced alone. 

We left on the 29th. The 12+ hour drive was a comfortable one and consisted of strange conversations and hours upon hours of the movie game. We discovered some interesting 'points of interest' in Texas and encountered some strange sights. Two dead cows, a herd of antelope, a truck ripped in half by a tree, a town named Chilicothe and...a herd of camels. (And a 'herd' of ants! Lori, you know what I mean.) No joke. We were sober, I swear.
Lori and I were blessed to be able to stay at Courtney's sister's apartment. They were so good to us, and so was their dog, Sonic. On Monday the 30th, we celebrated Ben's birthday by going to watch Monsters Vs. Aliens and eating at Saltgrass steak house before finally heading over to Trinity Church. 
Ben and Holly were privileged enough to have Jeanne Mayo (titled the best Youth pastor in the world) as their youth pastor back when they were my age. And RED is privileged enough to have the product of Jeanne's mentoring as its youth pastors. In my opinion, they're some of the greatest spiritual parents in the world. So for me to be able to hear my youth pastor's youth pastor speak was exciting and eye-opening. 

We parked in a sea of cars and made our way to Trinity Church; a HUGE building perfect for what God had planned for those three days. As soon as we walked in, Ben and Holly were swamped with old friends and acquaintances. I had no idea that my youth pastors were famous. As the rest of us pretended to be as famous as our leaders, we found our reserved seats (which we got through Ben and Holly's acquaintances) and waited for 'whatever'. I doubt that any of us had any clue what we expected out of the trip or what God would do - if anything at all. I think most of us were there because 'Ben said so'. 
And then it began. 
It was as if God had dumped bucket after bucket of wisdom on the entire church, and the speakers (Jeanne Mayo, Ed Young, Chris Hill, Joel Stockstill, Judah Smith...) were the buckets.
I can't even begin to tell you the overwhelming revelations that were shown to me just that first day. Jeanne spoke about how Jesus is our security, and our main audience. The thoughts of the righteous are right and how Jesus won't do anything until you work with him. Not only did she speak to us, but I think she threw a tombstone at satan's face when she said 'Now I don't give the devil too much attention because to find him, I have to look under my feet'. She said things like 'He who has a WHY to live for, can withstand any HOW' and 'Never let your feelings tell you how to feel'. 
i was familiar with the next speaker, but the last time I had heard him, I didn't KNOW God. Greg Stier, from Denver, Colorado spoke about the Gospel and how it means 'good news' and how we so often show it to people as simply 'you're a sinner'. Stier said 'We have 20 minutes left - we're on the clock', 'All roads lead to God - all to judgement and only one to forgiveness'. One that hit me hard was 'They're deaf to us because we're deaf to them'. How long have we suffocated people by shoving the Bible in their face with a 'I'm right, you're wrong' attitude and not Christ's attitude of pure, unconditional love?

The messages felt like a waterfall of ice cold water waking me up from my mediocre christianity. What kind of walk was I walking? I struggled to read the Bible every day and I'd hit a wall. I distinctly remember God telling me to love Him more, right before the trip. I asked Him 'How? How can I grow my heart?' and He answered 'Know me more'. Could God possibly have more for me? Could He be even greater than what i knew already? It was too good to be true. Right?

"You think this is all I've got? Think again. You've barely made a dent in knowing me. I have called you higher than you can see, deeper than you're comfortable going and further than the destination you've circled on your puny little hand-drawn map. I wasn't kidding when I said that I had a plan for you that day you first heard my voice."

I fell asleep praying and woke up praying. I was starving for God's word and itching to share every drop of encouragement and expectation God had given me to every one I knew. I still am. My mind has been constantly on my Savior and I'm praying that I will be able to discipline my mind to do that for the rest of my life. 

The entire conference, Ben had been limping around because of the motorcycle accident. His hip was slanted - one side of his pelvis was higher than the other because it was pushed up when he hit the Jeep Liberty. As a result, his left leg was an inch shorter than his right, causing him to never be able to stand with both legs straight. One night, one of the bands (Desperation Band or CoryEvans Band) played 'Healer'. As Ben was worshiping the Lord, he changed the position of his legs and found that they were the same length. His hip had moved down, and had become level with the other. Now try to tell me that Jesus can't do miracles. Though Ben is not entirely fixed, I know that he will be. God is good and that's a fact. 
The last night of the conference, our group was standing around the table where they sold each sermon for $8 a CD. We wanted to buy four or five on our church budget so that we could let others listen to it and learn from it. As we discussed which ones to buy, we eventually became frustrated and decided to postpone the purchase until we talked to Pastor Bob back at Jubilee. As we turned to leave, the man standing behind us said 'Hey, what do you need? I'll cover ya." Ben insisted that it was okay and that we were simply going to order them later, but the man was persistent. He said 'I've been standing here and I heard God tell me to bless someone with this. I'll get you the whole package." He slapped his credit card down on the counter and buys us the $200 pack with over 70 services. In shock, we received the flash stick. Um, did I mention that God is good?
There was not a single minute of those 3 days that I was not overwhelmed by the love of God. Not only that, I was blessed enough to witness a miracle and an awesome blessing by a total stranger. 
And how could I leave this out, I got to meet the drummer, Keyboard dude and guitarist/vocalist of Desperation Band. I think me and Justus peed our pants a little. Not only were they awesome musicians, it was obvious that they loved God with all of their hearts. OH, and I got a hug from Jeanne AND Sam Mayo, probably the holiest people I've ever met. 
That was my crazy trip to Texas. Yeah.


Here's a bonus for you guys. (haha) >>

Here's an analogy that God gave me at starbucks the day after I got back. I asked Him "Lord, How do I keep this fire burning? I always seem to be asking you to re-light my passion." And He said:

"In order to keep a fire burning, what do you do?
You gotta know WHAT pieces of wood to add and WHEN to add them.
If you add good, dry wood, you'll have a good flame, but if you add weeds and thistles, you'll get a smokey, little fire. Not only will you not be able to see clearly, but you will burn other people's eyes and drive them away from you. No one likes to sit by a smokey fire. 
The fuel that will keep you burning is my Word and your time spent with me in prayer and worship. But things of this world- gossip, slander, lying etc. will only blind you. 
WHEN do you add the fuel? Consistently. All at once and the fire will be put out. You can cram your brain with scripture all at once but if you have so much that you can't take any in, you'll just get confused and that's when satan will mess with your mind the most."

I'm working up a furnace and maybe I'll start a forest fire someday. I knew being a pyromaniac wasn't ALL bad. :) 

If I go on any more, I will never stop, so I'll stop the ranting here.