NYWC

National Youth Workers Convention was in San Diego this year! I've been looking forward to it for months now! I went three years ago and had the time of my life, but I haven't gone since b/c Youth Specialties always seems to schedule it during midterms. When I went three years ago, it was during my midterms, and when I got back and took the tests, I didn't do so hot. I told myself that as much fun as it is, I would wait until I graduated. So this year I FINALLY got to go again! Oh I had a blast!

I went with my old youth director and some of her volunteers. It was so good to see them again and get to spend the weekend with them! We flew up on Thursday, but the conference didn't actually start until Friday, so we decided to spend some time walking along the beach.

We went to a restraunt called "World Famous." It was kinda funny. Betsy went into one of the shops and asked an employee where a good place to eat was. They replied, "Oh, that would be World Famous", and Betsy was confused and was like, "No, what's it called?!" And then she said that the name of the restraunt was World Famous. It really was a good restraunt. I got this shrimp pasta that was REALLY good. It was right on the beach so we could see the beach outside and all the people walking along. There was this one guy on a bicycle that was doing all these tricks in front of the restraunt. He'd put his bike on a wall and lift it up and do all these tricks. I don't know if he was doing this just for his amusement or if he was trying to get people to pay him.

We stayed at the convention center hotel. It was sooooo nice. The outside of the room was absolutely beautiful!




It almost made me want to just stay outside and totally forget about the conference, but I wasn't there for vacation; I was there to get ideas and learn how to do my job better and of course to get closer to God.

The General Sessions were awesome! There was a total of seven of them starting Friday afternoon and ending Monday morning. They have bands come for entertainment purposes and also come as worship leaders. There were speakers who came and gave messages, and then there were different acts in between, illusionists, comedians, sand sculpture, etc. This is a sand sculpture that Joe Castillo made live at the convention.

My favorite speaker was Brenda Salter McNeil. I think everyone else was blown away from Francis Chan, and he was a really good speaker, but Brenda was able to really capture my attention. She started out by saying that we were created for a purpose. We are not a mistake. God had something in mind when He gave us life. And as silly as it may sound, she used the Lion King as a major reference in her message. Seeing as how that was one of my favorite movies growing up, I could really relate to it. She basically said that Simba was our teens, Mufasa was God, and we, the youth pastors were Rafiki. She stated that we need to point them to the truth. We need to bring them back to the life that God called them to lead - to their purpose. We need to show them the Father. She went on to say a lot of good stuff, but that was basically the gist of it.

I guess the highlight of the whole weekend was having the David Crowder Band lead us in worship and getting to see Hawk Nelson perform a couple of songs.




So get this! I actually got to meet Jason, the lead singer of Hawk Nelson!!! One of my kids is a HUGE Hawk Nelson fan, and I texted her telling her that they were going to perform in a couple of minutes. She was like, "Well, if you get to meet them, tell them that I say hey and tell them that I love them!" Well, after the conference, Hawk Nelson stuck around to talk to people and sign autographs and stuff. I didn't know they were doing this, so I found out later and by the time that I got there, the line was really short. There were only two people in front of me. By that time Jason was the only one there. I said hi to him, and I told him about my kid and how she had texted me earlier. Much to my surprise, he ended up taking my cell phone out of my hand and texted her back!!!

It took him forever to try and figure out how to text her though! lol! I don't know what his deal was. So here's a picture of me trying to show him how to text! :)

While he was texting, his manager came up to him and basically told him that he needed to wrap it up and that there was only time for two more people. After he texted her, and I had him sign something for her, and I thanked him, I prepared to leave. And the people I was with were like, "Aren't you going to get a picture taken with him?!" And I was like, "Well he's gotta go soon, and I don't want to take up anymore of his time," but he insisted that I take a picture with him. He was so incredibly nice! Meeting Jason and getting a picture with him totally made my week! :)