The Believe Conference

Last weekend we took 5 kids from our after school program to the Believe Conference at Hope College. We had a week leading up to it too! Tuesday at school lunch I can't tell you how many kids who had signed up (and even paid $$) told us they weren't going. Not only were they not going but they really didn't have good excuses for not going. Needless to say we went into overdrive the next few days trying to recruit new students....no such luck. 5 was our number. Looking back now, I'm thankful for the 5 and that there were only 5..... The conference started out Friday night, it is put on by Christ In Youth and they always do a great job! The band this year was the Jordan Howerton Band and they were awesome, and they had a comedy team that was really funny called Slap Happy Comedy. The speaker talked about being lost the first night and told the parable of the sheep, the coin, and the prodigal. On the way to the church that we were staying at, I was asking a few of the girls if they had ever felt lost. One of them proceeded to tell this story that was like nothing I have ever heard before! I was hoping to follow up with her over the extended lunch period that we had the next day. The rest of the night was fairly uneventful, lots of laughing and talking...not much sleeping. Saturday morning we headed to McDonald's for breakfast and then back to the conference. The morning session was great, they explained that God's Kingdom is upside down and we need to change our perspective to see it. The kids did great and were having fun, we even saw some of the boys singing and dancing with the band. It's awesome to see these kids let go and just be kids. Off we went to Village Inn for lunch, pizza, pop and some more discussion. On the way out the door, one of the boys screamed hey we need some help here! I turned around to see one holding his head and blood running down his face. Long story short, he passed out and hit his head. Thankfully Mom was home and we were able to get him to her, and she took him to the hospital for 5 stitches! We made it back in time for the last session. On the way back to the Intersection to get picked up, the kids were all so excited to have gone and were going to call some of their friends who had bailed earlier and tell them they missed out. Thanks for all your prayers for us this past weekend. Please continue to pray for us this week as we follow up with the students that went with us last weekend.