YouthQuake 2010

I just got back from YouthQuake in Camp Como, CO. It was awesome 🙂 It was great to see so many kids’ lives changing as they grew closer to God. The theme of YQ this year was “The Message.” Since I like lists, here’s a timeline of what we did:

Sunday: We split into our family groups and went around to different speakers who gave scripted monologues. Each monologue represented a worldview (or “message”) that people buy into. Some of the worldviews covered were agnosticism, karma, the devil doesn’t exist, “live it up” (the one most people buy into), only looking out for yourself, the prosperity gospel, etc.

Monday: Monday was Family Day. We hung out in our family groups all day. Our family group went down to the little town of Como (population: approximately 22.. not joking) and hung out. The mini-theme for Monday was “Competing Messages.” The devotional & sermon basically went over what we all heard on Sunday night. It was basically to get the kids (and adults) to start thinking about which messages they might be buying into or which messages would be tempting to believe. (Colossians 2:8; 1 Timothy 6:20-21; 1 John 2:15-17)

Tuesday: We went white water rafting at Noah’s Ark. It was the first time I had ever been white water rafting, and it was awesome! Our raft got stuck twice–once between 2 rocks and once on top of a rock. We almost flipped over twice.. That was probably the most fun part of the rafting trip 🙂 The mini-theme for Tuesday was “The Message in the Flesh.” The sermon talked about why Jesus chose to come to earth to spread God’s Word — we needed something to relate to; we needed something concrete. We needed to see God in the Flesh. (Hebrews 2:14-15, 17-18; Hebrews 5; Hebrews 6)

Wednesday: It was Stress Day. We climbed up Old Baldy, one of the mountains in Como. At the top, the elevation was 12,000 feet, and our hike was about 2,000 feet up (The trail was about 3 miles one way). I can definitely say I’ve never done anything like that before. It was REALLY difficult. There were times that I didn’t think I was going to make it, but God gave me the strength to be encouraged by the people around me, push myself, and keep going. It was really cool to see the kids encouraging each other too. The mini-theme for Wednesday was “The Point of the Message.” This was all about Jesus’s death and resurrection and what he did for us by dying on the cross. Jesus took all of our sin and sacrificed himself to cover us so that we could be free to let him live through us.  (1 Corinthians 15:1-11; 1 Corinthians 15:12-23, 29-34, 58)

Thursday: Thursday was our free day. We went to Breckenridge for the day to hang out, shop, shower (haha), and enjoy the city. Breckenridge is a really neat, quaint town. I absolutely loved it. The main point of Thursday’s sermon was that we are the messengers of God’s Word. It’s our responsibility to spread the Gospel. There are so many people around the world, some of them right in our neighborhoods, who don’t know the Truth. The fact that some people have never even heard of Jesus blows me away. How will these people hear about the Gospel unless someone takes the time to tell them? All Christians have a personal responsibility to share the Gospel with those who haven’t heard and to remove any obstacles that prevent us from doing so. (Romans 10:13-15; Acts 1:1-9; Acts 2)

Overall, the week was a really good experience. I’ve been having some personal trouble with anxiety, doubting, etc., and I ended up having a break-down the last night we were there. Regardless of all that, I’m really glad I went. It was a good opportunity to get back to the basics of the Gospel, concentrate on that, and help the high schoolers learn and study it as well. As for my own issues, I’m keeping strong and trusting that God will take care of them 🙂

Times – Tenth Avenue North