Today was the final day of Challenge 2010. It was a day to finish out strong in all aspects of the conference...training, ministry (sharing, caring, and serving), worship, teaching on the Beatitudes (Matt 5:1-12), and relationships both old and new.
Our morning started with the youth worker's meeting where we were able to meet other youth workers in our district. Hawaii has 8 EFCA churches, of which 6 are on Oahu and 3 are here in Ohio. Of the 6, 5 meet or communicate regularly in youth ministry and collaborate with each other and other churches for larger events and camps. It's amazing to find out that on the mainland, most EFCA churches don't have this collaboration. Many don't even have annual district conferences or meetings. We may be isolated in Hawaii, but I am grateful for my fellow brothers and sisters in youth ministry that hold each other up and provide the support that we need to succeed in ministry. This meeting was the beginning of a network for some of our mainland brothers and sisters.
The day went on pretty much like the previous days. We went into the morning gathering session with worship led by Kristian Stanfill and teaching by D.A. The previous night was our prayer gathering, and you could feel the difference in the air this morning. Our group headed to grab lunch and decided that we would split up for the afternoon in different ministry options. While waiting for that to happen, we went back to visit our friends on the ministry staff. Actually, Kayla was really looking to play volleyball. That was probably one of the highlights of the conference for all of us...making friends with the Floridians! As Ross commented, if we didn't participate in the ministry option, we probably wouldn't make the connections that we did. So true!
David, Ross, Alexia, and Taylor opted to take the opportunity to do ministry out in the community. Kayla, Shirlene, and I wanted to go and sew/assemble backpacks. The goal was 5,000 backpacks by the end of the conference. On Tuesday, they had completed 600. By last night, there were still more than 1500 to go. It didn't look possible, but the call for help went out, and answered it was. In the second shift today, there were more than 500 people who showed up to help! Some groups who had already taken a turn earlier in the week were asked to come back at a later time. They started assigning people to work groups and stations. Kayla and I were one of the last that were still seated, so I told her that we could go back for the next shift. Since she had sewn on Tuesday, what she really wanted to do was personalize one before leaving. Check out my next post for that.
The last gathering tonight focused on persecution. What a great way to wrap up the week. Nick spoke on what it really means to be persecuted for righteousness. Visually, he built a wall and brought all the teaching from the past week together. It was moving enough to drive one to tears. Kristian Stanfill finished strong with leading worship that had the ballroom rocking. I'll try to get some video uploaded on facebook. It's not the same, but you have to imagine yourself in a room of 5,000+ lifting their voices and hands up in unison. It's awesome!
Tonight, the city of Columbus celebrates our independence and freedom. Earlier, the parade went down Front Street and fireworks went off at 10pm. Our group got to watch from the window of the restaurant in our hotel. Our hotel has very tight security. The rooms opposite our hall are booked over a year in advance and start at $500 a night for the holiday weekend. We're told that it's "the" hotel to be at...right across the river. The streets are slighty crazy, but all our kids are safe.
Link to photos from Challenge:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/aiondesign
(This is from Jon Rees on the Challenge blog)
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