DAY 3

Ok, sorry to start this on day three... I'll do the first two days later. Here's the run down on how VBC is going... absolutely awesome.

Tonight started out as it always does... dinner. Baked ziti. I actually got to eat some tonight, and Mrs. Rodriguez was an angel and made some for me WITHOUT CHEESE. It was delicious. I can't have cheese because I get congested... long story.

We had set up a little different tonight. We made three huge tables, at which people would sit for the dinner and the teaching time. Mr. Rabe was the speaker tonight. He did an excellent job talking about the family, and how Christianity starts with the family, since after all, the family is a picture of Christ's relationship to us. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Around lunch time today, I found out that Craig wasn't feeling good, and so it was up in the air if he was going to play with us. This was rather alarming because he was going to lead worship. After we got the the property, we heard that he was definitely not going to be there. Of course, I was not at ease, but deep down, I had a feeling that God was going to do a great work through this. Pray for Craig.

We ran into some trouble with Jon's guitar... which was actually Kristin's guitar. For some reason, the battery decided to quit. We ended up borrowing Craig's guitar, which worked out great. Jonathan had to quickly learn the music for the worship set... which he did a great job doing. He's amazing. And after the sound check was over and we prayed as a group, we headed into my dad's office, where we normally hang out to chill before we play. We like to call it "the green room." I was a nervous wreck. I was all out of sorts because I didn't know how this was going to go. When Craig's not there, it feels like we're missing half of the band. Jon and I ran through What to do with Youth a couple more times, and I managed to smear mascara all over my eye in the process. Shame on me for freaking out, because the night before we were learning about having true security in Christ. I have been reminded to transcend above my fear and nervousness. But then, it was time to start...

We got up there, had an AMAZING time of worship... at least I did. It was a time to let go of all my anxiety. I ended up doing two of the songs from memory, which freed me up a bit. It was great. Our last song: My Chains are gone, was just perfect for what I was going through. After we finished, we were getting off of the stage and Kristin came up to me and said something along the lines of, "Hey, your chains are gone, you're free." She was right.

Mr. Rabe hit so many things right on the head. I think it was recorded, which is good because there's no way I could do justice repeating what he said. But he really brought out the importance of having family worship. One thing I had never thought about that he mentioned tonight was how at church, the family should be experiencing the worship time together. Not spread all over the congregation. So many other points, but I'm running out of time.

At the end was the time to sing What to do with Youth. I was still a bit nervous, but I was feeling a lot more confident. Mark introduced the song and invited everyone to sing along. They all stood, and the song began. I felt free. I was able to enjoy it and share a song that God has given me. I was able to share what we should do with youth.

"It's time to rise above. You gotta keep looking up. Let your strength be renewed; change your point of view, in knowing what to do with youth."

Well, I will say that my strength has been renewed this week. If you haven't gotten to come, there's two more days. Hope to see you there
Grace

Oh, I forgot to mention the game. We played neucome, but the net was a wall, so we couldn't see where the ball was coming from. Then after a few tosses of the regular volley ball, Mark brought in the 8' beach ball. That was fun... but not near as fun as when he brought on round three: octopus. That's right... I stayed out of the way.