okay.. so this weekend i hadta go to a National Youth Worker Convention (NYWC) hosted by Youth Specialties (YS). Talbot gives us 3 credits for going since it pretty much sums up what the prof would have taught in the semester. They basically had a bunch of guess speakers, leadership seminars, and everything regarding youth ministry. It was actually pretty cool to see a bunch of youth pastors, leaders, and volunteers all meeting in one place.
Lemme digress. lol i really don't like it when ppl say that phrase. idk why. Anywho.. so on Thursday i drove to my aunty's house. i also picked up crispy cream doughnuts on the way.. ohh so good yet so bad. Anyways, i say anyways a lot. so yah. i got to my aunties house and we played scrabble with friends for a good hour. i was surprised that she was better than me. anyyyways.. she later talked about how she found a doctor who uses natural remedies like with herbs and stuff. I don't really kno how he does it, but he supposedly cured people with different types of cancer too. my aunty said she found that her hypoglycemia is most likely from having a virus plus mercury insider her. Anyways, even though i was super tired and wanted to sleep, i got to bond a little with my aunty and pray for her. Sometimes we have so many things we want to tend to that we often neglect opportunities to be present with others.
Anyways.. i actually booked a flight to San Diego, because everyone including my dad thought that driving with my car would be kind of a risk. She makes a lot of noise, but she can still run fine on sheer willpower and soul. After the weekend i regretted taking a flight out.
From my aunty's house, i drove to the parking lot to drop my car, took a shuttle to LAX, took a 1 hour flight to San Diego, took a shuttle to the hotel.
Hotel room was pretty sweet, i had two queen size beds to jump from. Clean sheets, air condition, fresh towels and a warm shower was awesome... until i later got the bill.. the food there was super expensive, everything was like $5 more than what it should be.
Anyways.. the worship at the conference was pretty awesome. for a moment i got a little teary because it was incredible to be in a room full of 5,000+ Christians. There was some Christian rapper and these two skit guys that were pretty funny. hmm.. One of the speakers was really funny. He's an old lawyer guy that goes after international injustices. He talked about how he thought his friend was playing a joke pretending to be a Uganda president leader guy who wanted to recruit him. But then when he got off the plane, he found out it wasn't his friend playing a prank. He was then made a diplomat counselor of Uganda. and then he said, "yeah they gave me some uganda flags to put on my car, they're so bitchin'!" lol the crowded laughed so hard that this old guy used that phrase at a Christian conference. i was surprised how many bad things some of the speakers said, but it was pretty funny. And then the old guy said, "so sue me. I could kill you! i have Uganda immunity." lol you probably woulda hadta been there.
Anyways..... i went to a Drawing Out the Secret Hurt in Teenagers seminar, Counseling 101 Seminar, Youth Group Fun and Games seminar, and Mentoring One on One seminar. There were group times when we met with the Talbot students to discuss stuff and main conference sermons too. They had a bunch of exhibit booths set up where i got free stuff. It's nice to get 3 credits outta the way, but i still hafta meet up with a cohort 3 times, and have tons of papers and projects for that class.
Doug Fields from Saddleback church is probably the most well known youth pastor out there. it was cool getting to hear him speak. He talked about the importance of not being overly busy. Sometimes pastors give, plan, and serve so much that they compromise their own walk and devotion to God.
oh i met this other youth pastor guy from hawaii, it was cool meeting him. i also got to know some other talbot guys too.
I guess the two main things i learned through this conference was that it's okay to not be so productive. It's good to make space to find rest in God. It's hard to find peace when we overload our schedules. but sometimes it cant be helped. Secondly, i learned how important it is to really invest in students and leaders. I regret not doing a better job and making more time for specific people. Make time for God, and make time for people. It's too easy to let other things get in our way of what's truly important.
Ok, so here's where it began to get frustrating. I took a shuttle back to San Diego Airport, then took a shuttle to the commuter gates, and began waiting for my flight. it's 7pm and my flight was supposed to leave at 9, and arrive at 10. Then they said, oh well the flight is delayed at won't come till 1040. So everyone continues to wait. Then later the lady says, "oh the pilot decided that he's not coming at all.." so everyone is pissed because it was the last flight before midnight, and ppl had connecting flights to get to. So there was one lady and like 40 angry ppl. i probably need to send american airlines an email for a refund.
She finally announced that a bunch of vans would drive us to lax, which is like 3 hours. And so i jumped in a little van with 6 other people. It was weird because no one talked to each other. People were tired and angry. It didn't bother me so much at first. There was this couple next to me, and they were like making out and being all gross. At least they weren't too upset. After sitting in the van so long with a bunch of angry people, it started to really affect me. i regret not driving 2-3hrs there and 2-3hrs back. Instead the entire wait, commute and travel was over 15+ hours. i was so tired. then i caught a shuttle to my car, and went to mcdonalds for ice cream. I miss working out, i ate super bad the whole week. i also spent so much money. In the end, conference was pretty good, but the traveling was miserable. Even tho all i did was sit around all weekend, it was exhausting.
right now im skipping class. i should do my hebrew hw and write a 6 pg paper, but i dont want to. im hungry
1 comment:
HAHAH! the baby picture
Post a Comment