Whew. I have so much to say! I don't even know where to begin (; A couple weekends ago was one of the best experiences of my life. I would say it was the* best, but being born was a pretty great experience too (haha!) What was supposed to be a simple trip, Friday evening and part of the day Saturday- morphed into an awesome three day God experience..
Day One- The Journey Begins
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This picture is probably not significant to any of you, but to me it's gorgeous :) We've been studying God's will for our life- and how that will is for us to glorify Him in EVERYTHING we do. Including what we listen to.. being a lover of music and coffee, this picture warms my heart<3 PS- this is inside of our church van... |
After approximately two and a half hours riding in the van.. we finally arrived! To an itsy bitsy church. Not what you were expecting? No, it wasn't what we were expecting either. We all just sat there, tummy's grumbling (it was 7 pm and we hadn't had dinner yet) for a minute, staring at this tiny church and wondering what kind of conference this was going to turn out to be. We soon discovered that we were 30 minutes early and there was a McDonald's right up the road... so away we went. 40 minutes later, we returned. Now I don't know if y'all have ever experienced this- but when a group of ten makes an entrance into a building that only seats about 100 people in the first place, your entrance does not go unnoticed. So, being the great comedian he is- Creation Today speaker Eric Hovind, from the stage, asked if there was anything he could provide for us.. possibly a watch? Needless to say, our punctuality was a standing joke for the rest of the weekend. ;) Eric immediately dove into God's word and shared truths with us regarding evolution and creation. Did you all know that according to evolution, we all came from an explosion of nothing? Then a couple million years later some rain(which also came from nothing) mixed with the dirt on earth(which also both came from nothing) and created something called primordial soup... that soup was then struck by lightning(which also came from nothing) and life began! Then mister soup found something to eat, and someone to reproduce with. Sound like a very likely story, right?! ;) ha! However, a lot of scientists still believe in the big bang theory. The main questions they can not answer revolve around time, space and matter. God answers all of these questions with 10 simple words in Genesis 1:1 "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." God created us all in the image of Himself (Genesis 1:27) and because satan hates God, he also hates us. Satan has used evolution and science as a huge lie to deter people from believing in God. This is a prime example of a quote by Adolf Hitler, "People are more likely to believe a big lie than a small one." This first night of the conference was mainly an introduction to set up a base of our understanding for the sessions to come on Saturday. Eric also shared some interesting statistics with us. For example- "75% of all children who were raised in Christian homes who attend public schools will reject their faith after the first year of college." A lot of these people begin to believe as Joe Blow Skeptic explains, "Religious belief is irrational because of the utter lack of evidence for God's existence." These statements break my heart. Evidence of the God of the universe is EVERYWHERE, if we can only get people to see beyond satan's lies.There are so many stars that every person on earth could own at least 11 trillion of them! For evolution to be true, 16,500 stars would have to be made every second for 13.4 billion years. Eric showed us many mind blowing things that debunk evolution/the big bang and point to intelligent design.
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| Not only did Eric explain how these rubber bands are more effective when shot differently, but he explained how this technique relates to our spiritual journey. His rubber band shooting method requires there to be more tension on one side of the band before it is released(it really does work a TON better). This is and example of how the spiritual side of our life should be a lot more "tight" and relevant than the side of our life that follows the instincts of our flesh. This concept comes from Galatians 5:17 which says, "For the flesh desires what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit desires what is against the flesh; they are opposed to each other." |
These pictures are all products of the "McDonald's Experience" After Eric's first session on creation, we went to McDonald's for a snack.. Eric showed us all how to shoot rubber bands the most "scientifically" effective way...So of course a giant rubber band war broke out in the parking lot.. Mrs.Trish and I began collecting them ;) Less ammo= less chances we could get hit haha the other pictures are just from us sitting in the parking lot waiting for PT to finish talking so we could leave.. over all it was a great night of fellowship (:
Lyndsey, Savannah, Ashley and I got to share plenty of girl time and giggles in our hotel room.. We laid awake for quite a while and just talked about the things we had learned, and the amazing God that we serve :) I'm so grateful for these sweet life moments.
Day Two -The Journey Grows!
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| Our Group + Eric Hovind :) |
The next day was even more impacting than the first, and God really spoke to all of our hearts. Eric taught about the humanistic worldview, which claims that life is about your own happiness. This really stuck out to alot of us, because as Christians, some of this worldview has crept into our churches. I know for me personally this really hit home. How many times do we consider what we can gain from a scenario instead of how it will glorify God? Eric also taught about the religion of atheism.. Mark 3:29 says "But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin." There was a challenge proposed on YouTube for atheists to deny the existence of the Holy Spirit... there are literally hundreds of videos of people claiming this belief. My heart broke. I'm not one for crying, but I cried. The Holy Spirit in me cried. Atheists claim that they are not a religion, yet in some places they hold service similar to "church" and have filed paperwork as a non-profit organization. I will never again defend God, because I was reminded that He is more than capable of defending Himself. However, I will still wholeheartedly defend and exclaim my faith in Him. After the sessions were over, we just weren't ready to leave. We were still hungry for more! God was there and we wanted to be where He was. God had touched us all in a way that was impossible to ignore. Several of us asked PT (our youth pastor) before we had even left the building, if we could follow Eric to the next city he would be teaching in, the very next day. We ended up in a circle in the grass, under a beautiful shade tree- praying. We thanked God for the choice He has given us, for the forgiveness He provides, for the opportunity to learn about Him. We thanked Him for revealing to us His truth that we need in our every day lives. We asked for His guidance. We asked for Him to bring comfort to the Lister family (a family friend of ours passed away the day before on our way to the conference.) We asked for Him to open the hearts and minds of the people we had to call home too, for Him to proceed us and clear the path for us to stay another night and relish in His presence. We received His peace. After we prayed, we all took turns calling home- to parents and people that were expecting us to be helping teach, run sound, and sing at church the following morning. One by one we were all eagerly cleared to stay another night, to follow Eric the next day, to absorb as much knowledge in God's presence as we could. We were ecstatic!
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| After the prayer I opened my eyes and this little guy had fallen on my leg.. about gave me a heart attack xD |
As the day went on, we got to see God's providence over and over! By this time it was about 2 pm and once again we were all very hungry. Because we hadn't planned on staying another day, all of us had not brought money for food. We decided to all put our food money together and go from there. We ended up with $70. We then decided to visit McDonald's AGAIN haha and all ate lunch for a little over $17. We then drove to the next city, to find the church that Eric would be speaking at so that we could make hotel arrangements. We noticed a house that was very close to the church, so we decided to knock and see if they could offer any tips about the area... turns out it was the home of the assistant pastor! He shared with us that there is a great website call priceline and that we could probably get some nice hotel rooms on there for a good price.. he got out his laptop and helped us book rooms! We ended up with three "suites" for $40 each! However, for those of you who have used priceline before you know that they do not tell you what type of beds are in the rooms...but more about that later. Next we went to Publix with our remaining $52 to buy dinner. We all rallied together around the sales papers to discuss what we thought would be best. So, me being the extremely casual person that I am, was sitting in the middle of the floor in Publix with the sales papers spread on the floor and our group huddled around me. Soon a concerned employee wandered up to us because he thought that I was injured (seeing as how I'm extremely clumsy, it wasn't too far fetched haha!) We assured him that I wasn't hurt. He was curious and asked us if we were a Christian Group.. we eagerly replied YES and explained what God was doing in our lives. He continued on to his job and we continued gathering items to make wraps for dinner. A few minutes later, he came walking back by and dropped a $20 bill on top of the things in Mrs.Trish's arms "in the name of God!" (picture below) We had been very careful to pick out only foods that were necessity and foods that we could find coupons for... our total cost ended u being approximately $50. We then set off to find our hotel, which wasn't far from Publix. When we arrived we discovered that our rooms only had one queen bed in each of them.. this turned out to be slightly problematic. Now, for PT & Mrs.Trish's room it was fine because they share a bed. And for the boys room it would be find because we all had a recliner in our room and would move the extras into their room. However, four girls and one queen bed wasn't ideal. Turns out the upgrade to get a room with double beds was $20.. and we had just been blessed with $20! Praise God from Whom all blessings flow <3
Night Two
When we finally got all settled in our hotel room, and filled our tummy's with some yummy turkey& veggie wraps, we sat down to discuss the day. We poured over the scriptures that Eric had shared with us, we discussed them and we shared what God had revealed to us that day.
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| This tiny coffee pot was just SO CUTE! and of course Lyndsey being the coffee addict that she is, had to buy some coffee creamer(; |
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| The AC in our room kept blowing our curtains up! we couldn't turn the AC vents and we couldn't open the curtains without a ton of light getting in... scared us at first but then we got used to it and giggled about it (: |
Day Three- Conviction, Beach, Dinosaurs!
This last day of our journey was just over all an adventure! Lyndsey's family decided to wake up early and drive over to join to hear Eric speak... God continued to provide for us, as they offered to bring us lunch! We also go up early Sunday morning and quickly packed our things before heading over to the church. We got there a little early because they provided breakfast.. and then we headed into the church to find some seats and get settled. Now, I personally, have attended the same church for my entire life. I'm very comfortable there and know almost every one... I help run the sound booth and frequently walk around the church grounds barefoot. So being at another church, to say the least, was an eye opener. Because of the spontaneous addition of another night to our trip, none of us had packed church clothes. So here we are, at a church we've never been, with very well dressed people that we have never met.. in jeans and t-shirts. So naturally we just slip into the back of the church and go unnoticed, right? Wrong! PT decided that we should sit on the second row! On top of that, very few people greeted us, and when the worship part of the service rolled around, I found myself feeling rather awkward. I love worshipping my Jesus, I close my eyes, tilt my head back, raise my hands and sing. I don't have a very good voice, but I don't care.. because God made me and my voice and He finds it beautiful no matter if it's up to the rest of the worlds standards. Anyways, about halfway through the first song, I realized that other in the congregation were not raising there hands.. and the awkward feeling set in. I continued to worshipping with my hands raised, just not quite as high or boisterously.. Overall it just really gave me a new perspective for all of the people who attend our church for the first time. Eric once again delivered a fantastic message that stepped on my toes. He taught about humanism and how it has seeped into our churches, how we frequently live to glorify ourselves instead of God. Ouch! However painful to hear, it was a much needed heartfelt sermon.
After the sermon was over, we headed out to find the beach and a spot to eat lunch. After eating our yummy, healthy lunches packed by Mrs.Nancy, we had a quick discussion about what we had learned that morning. PT shared a few points with us and then asked us all to please consider what Eric had said during his alter call that morning while we enjoyed the beach. I was exhausted from the previous couple days.. so while most of the others enjoyed the ocean, I layed on the beach for a while and reflected what I had learned that morning before eventually drifting off into a much needed nap... I eventually made it down to the ocean and let that salty goodness soak into my skin and hair :)
This last day of our journey was just over all an adventure! Lyndsey's family decided to wake up early and drive over to join to hear Eric speak... God continued to provide for us, as they offered to bring us lunch! We also go up early Sunday morning and quickly packed our things before heading over to the church. We got there a little early because they provided breakfast.. and then we headed into the church to find some seats and get settled. Now, I personally, have attended the same church for my entire life. I'm very comfortable there and know almost every one... I help run the sound booth and frequently walk around the church grounds barefoot. So being at another church, to say the least, was an eye opener. Because of the spontaneous addition of another night to our trip, none of us had packed church clothes. So here we are, at a church we've never been, with very well dressed people that we have never met.. in jeans and t-shirts. So naturally we just slip into the back of the church and go unnoticed, right? Wrong! PT decided that we should sit on the second row! On top of that, very few people greeted us, and when the worship part of the service rolled around, I found myself feeling rather awkward. I love worshipping my Jesus, I close my eyes, tilt my head back, raise my hands and sing. I don't have a very good voice, but I don't care.. because God made me and my voice and He finds it beautiful no matter if it's up to the rest of the worlds standards. Anyways, about halfway through the first song, I realized that other in the congregation were not raising there hands.. and the awkward feeling set in. I continued to worshipping with my hands raised, just not quite as high or boisterously.. Overall it just really gave me a new perspective for all of the people who attend our church for the first time. Eric once again delivered a fantastic message that stepped on my toes. He taught about humanism and how it has seeped into our churches, how we frequently live to glorify ourselves instead of God. Ouch! However painful to hear, it was a much needed heartfelt sermon.
After the sermon was over, we headed out to find the beach and a spot to eat lunch. After eating our yummy, healthy lunches packed by Mrs.Nancy, we had a quick discussion about what we had learned that morning. PT shared a few points with us and then asked us all to please consider what Eric had said during his alter call that morning while we enjoyed the beach. I was exhausted from the previous couple days.. so while most of the others enjoyed the ocean, I layed on the beach for a while and reflected what I had learned that morning before eventually drifting off into a much needed nap... I eventually made it down to the ocean and let that salty goodness soak into my skin and hair :)
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| This is just a neat picture of my friend Tyler's toes.. he has such cute toes for a man xD |
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| Lyn and I being silly on the way back to the conference after our hair had dried from the ocean :) |
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| some cute little flowers we found in the church parking lot haha |
After we made it back from the beach, we were all hungry and once again God provided as our friends (The Hales) paid for our dinner! They are such a sweet family and truly a blessing to our experience. After dinner we wandered back over to the church even though we were about 30 minutes early.. we all sat in a large circle in the grass and once again reflected on what God was saying to us.. we discussed the alter call that PT had asked us to think about, and spent some time praying. After a while, Eric walked by and stopped for a few minutes to talk to us. He ended up joining us in prayer and praying over us as a group. Eric taught a very fascinating lesson that night about dinosaurs! I would love to tell y'all all about it.. but he covered alot of stuff! These are the basics- God made dinosaurs. Dinosaurs were on the ark. In fact, there might still be some dinosaurs that still exist today! Eric went in to depth and explained to us stories that align with the teachings of the bible, and how the words "dragon" and "dinosaur" have been intermingled throughout history. Now when I say that he shared that some dinosaurs most likely still exist today, I don't mean creatures like lizards and alligators. He also taught us how the belief of dinosaurs living "millions" of years ago is being so adamantly taught in schools, and how children are constantly bombarded indirectly with thoughts of the big bang and evolution. Overall the entire weekend was an amazing experience, I'm so grateful I got to go and I look forward to many more God guided adventures in my life time!
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| Last picture of our adventure :) <3 |
