Update: After 13 hours I finally finished. Its times like these that make me think I shouldn't be in this department.
I haven't posted anything of much substance lately. Mostly cause I haven't sat down at the computer at home long enough to put my thoughts in order.
This weekend I was re-brainwashed/got my faith back a little bit again. The best parts were singing and dancing to the in-house band. They did all the old and new standbys - Lord I Lift Your Name on High, In the Secret, Shout to the Lord and other worship songs including my favorite: When Justice Rolls Down Like a Mighty Water which was the xian aerobics song for the weekend... and stuff I sang at camp 9 years ago like Blind Man and Sanctuary. I was suprised they were singing some of the same songs that we sang when I went to JUMYs as a YOUTH like Big House and of course Jesus Freak...You can't beat seeing a 60 year old man jump around to DC Talk!
They told us their name once - but I didn't catch it. The band was made up of United Methodist youth that I grew up with. Some of whom I traveled to TN with in 1999.
Another highlight of the weekend was the Communion service on Saturday night. Youth Service Fund sold tealights as a fund-raiser (can we say Catholic :) for the evening, the late time encouraged the 1200 middle schoolers to be quiet which made for a nice atmosphere.
The weird part though was the slide show to Switchfoot's Only Hope. Unfortunately they used the version by Mandy Moore and used clips from the movie - didn't really make sense with the rest of the slides or the theme for the weekend (Jesus Keeps Me Going...).
I picked up the Message version of the New Testament and enjoyed looking up well known passages to see how they were interpreted.
I was glad to come home - and luckily had very few problems staying awake on the drive.