August 2010 Celebration and following through

This was originally written as a facebook note on August 14, 2010

So I usually write a note right after celebration, but this time I waited a little bit later. Ultreya sparked some memories, so I decided to go ahead and write.

First of all, I wanted to say that I had a great time being in a family. My first celebration staffing I wanted to be in a family, but was chosen for caritas. As you can read in one of my previous notes, I still had a great time doing caritas and loved it. I was music for #8 and #9, and loved that too. However, since I knew that we had some guitar players, I figured I would sign up for a family. It was great.

Last Tuesday I went golfing (as a side note, I must say that I am pretty sure Jesus can help my golf game also, cause I got two pars in the same round!!!) I got to thinking, our lives are a lot like a game of golf. Golf is a game that requires a lot of perseverance and concentration. You have to be able to concentrate and take your best swing on every shot. And even then a momentary lapse can put you out of bounds. And for those of you that know anything about golf, it is a lot more complicated than just swinging a club. There are several things that you have to remember for every shot. Similarly, life isn't that easy either. There are so many things to remember on each day of your life. The way you swing at a certain situation in life may put you in the rough, but you have to go ahead and take another swing. You may make a great shot and get lucky, maybe even a whole in one, but you inevitably have to come down from that high. How you respond to adversity is the real thing. You are going to get stuck in the bunkers or go into the water, but, by God's grace, you always have another chance.

So I have to say I always have a great celebration. It is so great to be in a community with you guys and worship together, and do awesome stuff with each other and everything else. I really love the way everyone is so relaxed around each other and really loves their neighbor. I also had a great time doing my talk. To understand what I am to say in this paragraph, you should definitely read my note that I wrote after NTC #9. I really tried to mirror what I said when writing my Jesus Christ talk last time. Actually, one memory that kept coming back to my mind was at #9, when I prayed for a friend right before she did her reality talk, and she prayed that she would just be a vessell for God to speak through, which I believe is a scripture verse somewhere. Anyways, as you read in my talk, that wasn't always the easiest thing to do, so often we want to put our own agendas into what we speak to others. I really tried hard when writing my talk to just set time aside to just write what God wanted to speak through me. And talks are a whole lot better when you strive to speak God's words rather than man's words. We all do not make our own light, we only reflect the light of our Creator, and anything we try to do outside of him is foolishness.

Celebration ended about a week ago. You were on a mountain top, and no doubt, like myself, you are lower know than you were a week ago. Not super low, but lower than at Gilmont. In fact, on monday or tuesday, I probably would have written a better, more inspiring note than I am now. And that happens inevitably, we all have highs and lows. But you have a choice. You can let life get you down, or you can fight that and strive to be a person more in tune with God. Do not forget how you felt at Celebration. Do not let that feeling fade away. In my mind, if Celebration or any other major spiritual experience does not make some sort of change in your everyday life, than all Celebration is is just another weekend spent doing something fun. So, as you think back, look for ways to strive to follow Jesus' life better every day.

January 2010 Celebration and the Spirit at Work

This was originally written as a facebook note on January 19, 2009

I am always touched by Celebration, but something was different this time. This weekend I was head music gopher, which was a lot of work. I also had to do a talk on prayer and piety. I believe God has blessed me with the gift of leadership, and I try to use that. I really try and say what affects people the most. Sometimes, though I try too hard and too much. Everything that really touched me was not what I said, but what others said that was exactly what I wanted others to hear and what I needed to hear. I will try and say what I said at closing without stopping to cry every few seconds. :) So like I said, when I first went into the upper room to put my footwashing stuff up there, I got chills. Rev. Krummenacher, who also was spiritual advisor at my first celebration, was the same at #8. I had a good feel for him, and I did footwashing with Lizzie, and it was an amazing experience. I was moved, and I felt like I had it all under control this weekend. But that was the problem. After the first rotation, I was confused because Dr. Parr would talk during the middle of a song. I realized something, I am flexible when it comes to me being in control but not when others are in control, even God. So after the first rotation, I talked with Mr. Parr and said that I would play one song before and other stuff, and he responded by just saying that he was being led by the spirit to talk whenever the moment arose. Of course, I was not going to argue, but I was still uncomfortable. If I would have had it my way, we would have always done Sanctuary last, and the theme sone when they were walking in, but slowly, I started to feel calm. The spirit started to move. I would change up the order a little, sometimes I would randomly be going through and find a song that just needed to be played. After the third one, I just smiled afterwards and Mr. Parr could tell what I was feeling and said just let the spirit work. Annalise started praying the most beautiful prayers, and not through any of her own doing, but by the sprit's lead. When Elise came in to sing with me after Sarah, she was worried that she would not sing the right note and stuff, but I was way too calm to worry with her, all I tried to do was be calm and just do what God wanted to do. Elise, you started to become calmer also. I was becoming calm. The spirit was moving. Then the caritas group came in. I look forward to them since I know most of them. There were a lot of people and so it took a long time to do footwashing for everyone. I went on through the songs, and I started doing sanctuary, even though I did not feel that it would be the last song. So we sang through the first second and third verses, and by the time we went back to the beginning, I did not know when they would end footwashing. A few people had moved around so I did not know how far we were to being done. But the spirit was moving. So we did the first verse once more, then went up a step, then, through the spirit, I played one last chord, and we sang it one more time a capella. Ten seconds later, the last person was done and every one stood up. The spirit was in control. I put down my guitar, and walked up to join the circle, as we finished Sanctuary. Then Annalise made an amazing prayer, and I was in tears.

I also had been worrying about what to say during closing before the weekend. I did not trust that God was going to give me something, but he did. God was still speaking. When Annalise and Brad did their talk, they said exactly what I thought I wanted to say. God had given me the words to speak on that weekend, and I finally answered him and said what he wanted to.
In the end guys, I have been changed. Nothing I will say will affect others, only God opens hearts with his holy spirit. And that is what Dr. Parr pushed me too. Everything I thought others should hear was said, but not by me. God wanted me to say what he wanted to say, not what I wanted to say. For we walk by faith and not by sight. The only way I can truly change others for the better is to listen to him calling.

August 2009 Celebration and My Part of my Calling

This was originally written as a facebook note on August 3, 2010

I just want to tell you how great Celebration was for me and my call.

So before the weekend I was wondering what I was going to be and I found out from a secret source that I was going to lead worship by playing guitar. I had a super super super awesome time playing the music team.  I was a little nervous at first, but as the weekend went on I became more and more relaxed and felt like this was home. (I am going to go listen to that switchfoot song now). My really big revelation was when I played for footwashing with Lizzie, our piano player. I played for 2 hours straight pretty much, and by the end my fingers were numb. As the night went on, I felt more in tune with God as the small groups kept rolling through.  Leda and Brad and some of the adults realized I became more passionate in my worship and sang louder as the night went on, as did Lizzie. I really have been thinking about what I want to do in life and what my calling is and just finding out what I love doing, and wouldn't you know it, Celebration came right at the right time. It is amazing how things work out, isn't it? And it really cemented into my brain when Mary and Jared were talking about how natural I was at it, which I did not realize, but now I realize that this is part of my calling and I am very passionate about it.  It's amazing how God uses people mike Mary and Jared to show me the way through life, it is just amazing and I am overhelmed.

January 2009 Celebration Church Retreat

For those of you who are going 'Celebration, what the heck is that?', Celebration is a youth church retreat that I have participated in and staffed several times.  I am posting a few notes that I had written after celebration. If you want to find out more about it go to North Texas Celebration's Web Page.  This was originally written as a facebook note on January 26, 2009

 I was kind of dissapointed because I asked to be a family gopher and instead they put me on caritas. It wasn't a big deal, but I really enjoy small group activities. But then I thought, you know maybe I was put on Caritas for a reason, I will just trust that it is in God's plan.


CARITAS WAS AWESOME!!! It was so fun to pray in the middle of the night and sort caritas and hand out warm fuzzies, I really enjoyed it. I am really glad that I just decided to go along with the flow. I think the thing I liked most was just getting to hang out with the participants and staff. I really like how everyone at celebration has the attitude that serving God and doing spiritual things can be a whole lot of fun, they do not have to be super serious, as long as your heart is in the right place. It is so liberating to stand in wonder in God's grace at one minute, and then laughing with your freinds the next. I think some people miss out on that kind of joyful, loving, and just Jesustastic kind of laughter. I also learned a lot about God's relationship with other's too. I guess this is common, but sometimes I have a hard time imagining other's having a relationship with God like I did. But after reading the stuff in the prayer journal and in other ways, I really had some insight in to the spiritual lives of us teenagers. It really amazing to connect with people our age through our relationship with Jesus.


I also learned a few things about myself. First of all, its wierd, physical pain will not make me cry at all, but I cried like three times at celebration. Second, like I talked about at closing, I think I have overcome looking at the outside of people. Whenever I feel like shunning someone because of the outside, I remember celebration and how I overcame that. You guys are awesome!!!! After closing, I was like REALLY REALLY happy. I felt like bursting out IT FEELS SO GOOD TO BE ALIVE. I actually did, with some help from others. It is amazing how much better and more joyful you feel when filled with Christ's love than that kind of fake happiness that comes with the possession of material things.