The final night of the 2013 LCMS National Youth Gathering. And what a night it was.We met with the fellow Eastern District churches that had students at the gathering. We had a wonderful time of fellowship and food with them. To wrap up the time together, we played a game similar to "Let's Make a Deal" fast deals. They asked for an item, and the first 4 tables to bring the item to one of the judges, would win a point. Our table started off a little slow, but we picked up around half way through the game. And guess what... WE WON!!!!
From there we moved over to the Alamodome for the final night time Mass Event. As usual, the worship was powerful with all the voices singing. The band was really grooving and enjoying the feedback from the audience.
Then for the 4th of July, all of the state's flags processed in preceded by the American flag and followed by the Christian Flag. We sang a few more songs.
We then moved into movies and speaking times to go with the message. After talking to a few students from the convention. A movie was showed next containing different students, standing on boxes, saying who they saw themselves as. Some examples were a good student, cheerleader, athlete, and D student. Each student then also had other descriptions of themselves. The D student was frustrated and what to be something else. The cheerleader just found out she was going to be a mother, and afraid of the social stigma attached to it. The good student was scared of being alone.
Then the guest speaker was introduced. She was a typical high school student. An athlete, good grades, and had a bright future, until a simple bug bite ended her life. She contracted a very rare neuro-muscular disease. Her name was Jessica Stevens. she went through her testimony involving the steps taken to treat her medically. It is really interesting and worth researching if you have the chance to.
She finished by saying that through the medical procedures, she felt even closer to Christ. She found out that she was a child of God before anything else. That every other title she may have had before can change but that one. This would be the main point for the evening. No mater what happens to us, or how we view ourselves, we will always, ALWAYS, be a child of God first and foremost.
Then we had a video dance combination of a book called "The Bush that thought it was a Tree." It is the usual, but very useful and with a God message at the end, something wants to be something else but isn't story. The end however reminds us that everything has a task and purpose the way that it is.
We then used water given to us in little bottles to do something unique but powerful again. Using the water, we make a finger wet, then used it to make the sign of the cross on the person next to us' head. During this we said, "You are new. Live Loved." Rev Dan stressed to us that this is not a baptism in any form, but just a reminder and physical action to help us remember.
We finished with worship, involving internal fireworks, pyrotechnics, and many other special effects.
We then finished the day with 4th of July fireworks put off by the town of San Antonio, TX.
Only one more day,
Hat Man
