citywide event

Its been a long time without writing. Some reasons (got new computer at work, only dialup at work, too much stuff to do at work :), and time with family).

I wanted to write about my first "citywide" event. It was one of five 5th Quarters we have during the school year. Since I am the new YM (one of the only YM in the area, if not the only) in town, I was asked to speak at the first 5th Q. I said yes, of course. It was a lot different than I expected. I had been to a handful of other 5th Quarters, but never been in charge or spoke. In a town of 2,000 people - over 400 youth turned out! Let's just say I didn't expect to speak to that many young people (6-12 grade, plus a few college).

I got 10-15 minutes to speak (which was tougher than I thought to put it into that timeframe). The theme was "igniting the fire" so I got to speak on giving your life to Christ and was pumped about that. I wanted to talk about so much more, but narrowed it to the theme with hopes that the next speakers actually speak on their topics.

A few highlights (some might not be considered highlights, but just memorable)
1. Making over 400 young people sit on the parking lot while I talked to them (that's a way to make lots of friends)
2. Before I started one of the guys in the band (local band with teens I know) told me to use this one specific mic. He told me to trust him and it would be worth it. I know this guy good enough to not trust him. It turns out he wanted me to use the mic with the "alvin effect" on it. Thought it would be funny for me to have a high-pitched voice since most of the crowd had never seen me before. Well, after much "work" to get it working, I tried it out. You the response I got, about 6 people laughed. :)
3. I held the mic and that made using my hands a little difficult. It also made holding the notes with Scripture on them a little more difficult.
4. For the first few minutes I kept hearing the "alvin effect" in the speakers. It turns out the mic was still on and kept picking up my voice and coming through the speakers. It was pretty annoying for me.
5. It was dark.
6. At the end I said "I pray you ignite the fire and burn brightly" and then just walked off stage. I guess this caught a few people off guard. Everyone just sat there waiting for me to do something else. When they realized I was done, everyone at once stood up and went back to whatever they were previously doing. A few people commented on it afterward.
7. Got a few chances to hear people's thoughts on said message.
8. Had one of the senior girls (who had to leave 5th Q before I spoke) make sure she saw me and told me she was leaving, but she wanted to stay and hear me. Told me she was hoping I did well and thought I would. It was encouraging to have that support from someone I've only known for 3 months.


I was reminded that I still don't know about 99% of the youth in this area. :)