Day 7 - #NYCyaLater

This is actually the first night I have been able to sit down and write this blog before midnight local time.

We got up this morning and loaded the busses at 8:30am. We practically went straight from finishing that to the final service of NYC 2011. Dr. David Graves, General Superintendent, was the speaker for this morning. He spoke on being Restored using examples of crossing your hands and arms to show how we can get into habits both good and bad that are hard to break. After his message and Starfield's final performance with us "Nazaraniacs," we all shared communion together. As I said in an earlier post, one of the neatest things was the security personnel at the KFC Yum! Center joining us in worship and prayer. Today, most of them joined us in communion as well. Another special thing some of our and other students did today was to use the rest of the money on their meal cards to buy Powerade and drinks for the Yum! Center staff.

We walked to Louisville Slugger Field to board our bus and head for Jasper. We ate in Elizabethtown, Kentucky and stopped in Nashville to drop off John Parrish. We were then Alabama bound. We got back to Cullman First around 7:30pm to a group of parents happy to see their children.

I know that I have had as good a time at my second NYC as I did in 2007 at my first, and I hope the students and adults did as well. Speaking of which: a HUGE "Thank you" to all of our adults:

• Cindy Hagood (NYC 1995, 1999, 2003, 2007, and 2011) - Mother of Alabama North NYI
• John Parrish (NYC 1995* and 2011) 
• Hunter Cummings (NYC 1999* and 2011)
• Jeremy Pass (NYC 2007 and 2011)
• Christen Pass (NYC 2007 and 2011)
• Jeremy Hagood (NYC 2007* and 2011)
• Joey Wood (NYC 2003* and 2011)
• Johnnie Mayfield (NYC 2011)
• Davonne Davis (NYC 2011)
• Angie Lane (NYC 2011)
• Mary Hale (NYC 2011) - The BEST Bus Driver in the World
  (*) = student that year

Until next time ... #NYCyaLater!

Day 6 - Holiday Wo... (well, it was shorter than we wished)

Today thankfully started slower than some of our others this week. We met and rounded up all of our people to get on the bus for Holiday World in Santa Claus, Indiana. It was an hour an a half trip but took us only thirty minutes to get there. We unfortunately felt the other side of time zone shifts on our way home.

Because of the change in time zone and wanting to be back in time to rest or shower, we only had about three hours at the park. We had a good lunch and were able to ride at least a few rides before we had to leave. Some of our group even had their picture made with Santa Claus.

After we got back, some of our group went to the KICC for a drawing for board games. A few of them even won. We took our group picture right before we went to dinner.

During the service, we collected an offering for 12:7 Serve (www.127serve.org). Like every night, we had worship with Starfield. Mark Matlock spoke on Missions tonight. After the close of the service, the 8 USA Colleges and Universities each gave away $40,000 scholarships. Unfortunately, no one from our district got a scholarship, but a new friend from Hawaii-Pacific got the Trevecca scholarship.

Of course, the highlight of the evening for many was the David Crowder*Band concert. You can check out a video of a real Kentucky hoedown here. Afterward, we had our last District Meeting in the Fields Room of the Galt House. 

Tomorrow, we will have our last service and head home.  

Day 5 - Call a Friend and Dance with the Elderly

We forewent the provided breakfast this morning and chipped in to get bagels again. The day was entirely quite similar to Day 4; however, there were a few differences. First off, Brooklyn Lindsey brought the morning message on presence. One of her key examples was that when we Facebook stalk to catch up with old friends instead of calling or visiting, it is like only reading our bibles or only going to church when trying to have a relationship with Jesus. He wants a call every now and again.

We took a detour from the NYC schedule and went to the Belle of Louisville for lunch. Since we went during already planned activities, we were the only youth group on the boat. In fact the average age of the 150 or so people on the lunch cruise was probably 60 (and that's with us). We had a great lunch and cruise, but the best part was dancing afterward. Anytime you bring our teens and our Trevecca admissions counselors together (BTW, Brianna and Lauren are awesome) you will likely get at least the Cha Cha Slide. Our teens danced to at least a dozen songs and even learned a new one. 

Our teens also made the day of the geriatric set on the Belle. At first, the older people seemed skeptical of the dancing teens, but in the end many of them joined us.

After lunch, we had an hour of workshops and exhibit hall before we went to our "Something to Eat" project. We were divided into 4 teams which each filled two boxes of 32 meals each. Each meal feeds 6 people so ... 4 x 2 x 32 x 6 .... We prepared meals for 1,536 people in Swaziland in about 15 minutes with just our 39 people. 

Tonight's service was Satisfied. Stuart Williams was the speaker, and the main feature of the service was Nazarene Compassionate Ministries Child Sponsorship. We had many youth and adults from our district pledge to sponsor a child. One of the neatest things we have observed over the week is how involved the KFC Yum! Center staff have become in our services - praying, singing, being engaged in the message, and even sponsoring children.

Tomorrow we go to Holiday World in Santa Claus, Indiana.  

Day 4 - Broken and Promise

Today, we awoke to a very similar breakfast of doughnuts. We have some of the best adults, and a few of them decided to go to Einstein Bagels and get us some bacon, egg, and cheese bagels. They were much better than just sweets. We went from there to the second service with Reggie Dabbs. He told a few very touching stories about being broken. The service ended with "broken" students going to the altar to pray and be prayed for.

We crawled directly from the service to lunch in the KICC. I say crawled because we went much too slow in much too high heat to call it walking. Lunch today was a BBQ  sandwich, baked beans, macaroni and cheese, grapes, and a cookie. After lunch we hung out in the exhibit hall until our workshops.

The students were allowed to explore different workshop options, and we were represented in quite a few different workshops. Students gained a new point of view for many of the topics presented. After some downtime, we went to the KFC Yum! Center for dinner. I would not suggest trying to feed 6,000+ people out of concession stands around a basketball arena. The line for Taco Bell was probably 40 yards long. Taco Bell just isn't that good. 

After eating, we waited for service to start. Francis Chan spoke on the promises Jesus makes in the bible. (See John 3:16 and then John 14:12). Starfield led the conference in an a capella version of "Amazing Grace" and brought back a tradition from NYC 2007: the benediction song. This time it was with newly-written lyrics.

We had another hour or so of fun in the Exhibit hall before coming back to our meeting room for a few dozen doughnuts.

Our fourth session is in the morning with Brooklyn Lindsey, and we eat on the Belle of Louisville for lunch. 

Day 3 - Ministry and Worship

The day started with a less-than-exciting breakfast ... especially for a day during which everyone eating it would be going directly to work mostly outside. 

Our Ministry With Others sites were the 4Cs (Community Coordinated Child Care) and Woodgreen Apartments (with Volunteers of America). We washed woodwork and weeded flower beds at 4Cs and mulched and worked in the yard at Woodgreen. The 4C team had lunch, but the Woodgreen team was skipped over until we got back to the hotel.

Once we were back at the hotel, we had an hour or two of down time to get ready for dinner at Rocky's Italian Grill. We left for Rocky's in Jeffersonville, Indiana, and Steve, our trusty GPS decided he would stop working. We had a great dinner and cut close to missing the first of service. We got to the KFC Yum! Center a few minutes after 7pm and found a section to sit. Starfield led worship, and Chris Folmsbee spoke on creation. Quite fitting for the first service to be on the first book of the Bible. 

After some post-message worship, a multi-lingual prayer served as benediction. Brooklyn Lindsey guided us through three rounds of our panoramic group photo. But someone blinked, so we had to do a fourth. 

The TobyMac concert was last on the official schedule for the night, and it was a great time.

After the concert, we met to discuss the service and say "Happy Birthday" to Adam Anderson. Tomorrow is a full day of convention including two services, two meals, and workshops. 

Day 2 - Don't take Dr. Boone's shortcuts

We got up and had a slow start to the day (we didn't know it would just get slower). We headed to RiverGate Mall to eat lunch and shop a bit. 

We left right on time and were on schedule until we hit standstill traffic on I-65 8 miles south of Munfordville, Kentucky. Luckily, Dr. Boone passed and waved for us to follow him to a shortcut. The only problem was that he went US-31E and we went US-31W. I did not know that north-south highways could have east-west designations. We were all confused for about 30 minutes looking for each vehicle and eventually decided to go forward on 31W. About two-and-a-half hours later, we emerged at Munfordville ... only having gone 8 miles on I-65. 

We arrived to the Kentucky International Convention Center about 4 hours late having missed our registration appointment (we were the last of all districts to register) and went straight to drop off Bundles of Hope and go to the Southeast Region Beach Party. Thanks to Daniel Medders for helping us out by baby sitting our registration box. 

We went straight from the party to Joe's Crab Shack for an extended party. We arrived about 3 hours after we had planned, but we had almost the entire restaurant to ourselves. It worked out really well. They played music by request and danced to 3 or 4 songs after we ate. We had the entire dining room so there was plenty of room to dance. Even the Mother of Alabama North NYI (ahem Cindy) did the Cha-Cha Slide. We really had a lot of fun.

It is late and it has been a long day, but even with our detours, we have had fun the entire time. Tomorrow we get up for MWOs bright and early. 

Day 1 - To Nashville

Today, we met at Cullman First and Huntsville First at 8am and left from the churches to meet up on I-65 around 9:30am. Our first real stop was at Famous Dave's BBQ in Franklin, Tennessee. We had a great lunch and headed to Nashville Shores straight from there. 

At Nashville Shores, most people stayed in either the lazy river or the wave pool. Mary and Davonne had fun alternating between floating in the lazy river and laying out beside it. There were some odd characters at Nashville Shores to say the least, but we left with everyone, and they all had fun.

We are staying the night at Sleep Inn in which Jeremy and Christen thoroughly checked all beds in all our rooms for cleanliness before we all arrived. We had Chick-fil-A for dinner and left for Nashville First to watch the fireworks at 8:30pm.

Getting to Nashville First was no problem for John Parrish and Miss Mary. Getting in and getting out were both 4-person affairs. The fireworks over the river in downtown Nashville were amazing. We thought it had started ... but it hadn't. Then we knew it had started but thought it had ended ... but it hadn't. When it did end, we knew it. It was a great show.

Back at the hotel, we gave out shirts and went to bed. We all have had a long day and will have another one tomorrow.