This is a day that I've been looking forward to for a long time. Not as much for CIY itself, but for our extended rec time. We went whitewater rafting. It was my first time to go rafting in 5 years. More about that later though. I actually went to McDonald's for breakfast because Kristin and I decided to go to Wal-mart at 7:10 this morning. We had to buy our food supplies for rafting. So breakfast started excellently. I got back and it was time for morning show, which I skipped out on, but went to Encounter. Our theme for the day was Worship. I appreciate the challenges that were given all day. With a theme like worship, you would think that singing songs would be at least one topic of the day. But it was mentioned very few times and not the main topic at all. Instead we talked about idols in our lives. One activity in our D-group time was to mold an idol in our life out of play-doh. Of course we were talking about the Israelites constructing a Golden calf when they had thought Moses had left them. They turned their worship away from the Creator to a creation. We do that too, not on a golden calf level, but with different things that we elevate to the top of our priority list. Which, in fact, are just as serious as a golden calf. We had things constructed from cell phones to people. All had different meanings that we learned about in youth group time. We were to hold on to these until our evening worship.
After D-group it was time for whitewater rafting. We drove about 25 minutes and were ready to go. Some were scared, others were just really excited. It was amazing. I fell out of the raft twice. I must have an inner ear thing. But it was a great experience and most everyone had a great time. They wanted to go again, but they will have to wait for a while.
When we got back, Kristin and I went to run errands. We filled the bus up with gas so we can leave early Saturday morning and not have to worry about making a quick stop to fill up with gas. While we were out we went ahead and stopped at the local Chili's and had some fine dining.
At worship, the music was great, but it was interrupted tonight. We were challenged to get out sculptures and take them outside and trash them symbolically representing a cleansing of ourselves. We went out and met as a group to look at scriptures and talk about the significance of removing idols from our lives. We then were asked to go back into the auditorium quietly, was our hands in a basin and continue in worship by singing. It was really a powerful thing. Some students took it real serious while others missed the point totally. Our speaker challenged us to kill our idols and completely rid them from our lives. That was a challenge I gave our group in youth group time. We all need to give up something. I am going to give up something, I haven't decided what yet, but I will. I challenge them to really think about what they could give up that would allow them to put God #1. I'm curious to hear some responses.
Great day, can't believe the conference ends tomorrow. Keep praying for us.
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