so it seems like its been such a long time since i last journaled. i’m not sure if thats true because i haven’t checked. anyway, time has been jam packed with things to do and places to be, and thus, it feels like the longest and shortest week i’ve experienced in a long time. long because it feels like eons ago that we had large group, when it was just thursday. long because there can be so much in a silly little day that times seems to expand itself. short because of all the blur of running from one thing to the next without getting much time to stop and take in the surroundings, or engage the people i come into contact with.

enough of the philosophy sounding stuff.

i’m simply going to recap the weekend.

friday, woke up early, went to the library. rode my bike over to nystroms for a bit, then to laura’s, where i zoned out until i had one on one time with her. rode back, got ready, went to revelation generation to volunteer. we handed out passes to see band interviews and handed out tracks. it felt a little weird because i knew that most of the people there were christians or would at least claim they were. the line up was mandisa, leeland, and chris tomlin.

made it home by like 11something.

next day, back at the farm by 9. (its like 45 minutes away)

spent the day handing out more passes to see band interviews, and handing out tracks and talking to kids. it was very hot, and i was pretty gross by like 10 or eleven, haha. every now and then we’d have down time. at one point i took a break and watched a few songs from matt wertz. then it was time for hte speakers. i really hope they don’t call back the same guys again next year, although its likely because they were here last year. justin lookadoo is so annoying.  he kinda growls alot and yells instead of just talking, and he’s gross and uses semi-vulgar language thats really not helping his talk, but i guess he thinks it makes him “hip”. his message included moments like, “so its like you’d want to be driving down the road, and hit a deer, come on bambi!” (to describe how people used to make animal sacrifices and what if we still had to do that today. i’m not even an animal person, but it just seemed violent and unnecessary. what else, i’m not sure but it was just ridiculous. the only thing i liked was his one hundred dollar thing.

and stephen baldwin. oh wow. he uses all this “jargon” to try to sound cool and young but no one talks like that and he sounds stupid. and he talked about all these random things together that had nothing to do with needing jesus. oh well.

its not that i’m really putting them down, rather just observing and actually feeling rather bad for them, because i would have been embarrassed if that was my talk. i mean, why do people feel like they have to say all this interesting things, but the message of jesus, explained with compassion and realness would be far more effective. a straight up gospel presentation. oh well.

i was there all day, and then after about 5:30 i was free. after stephen baldwin, i talked with a lady who’s been in chronic pain for 5 years. she’s a christian, got off of drugs and alcohol a while ago, just switched like that in one day with Jesus. she had an active lifestyle, she was a roofer. and now, with this pain, some days she can only make it from the bed to the couch. and she wanted to know if she was really a christian, because she felt like she wasn’t doing anything to share her faith. there was a talk the day before about being a disciple, not just a believer. and she felt like she was “just” a believer becuase she can’t go very far. she was only at the concert because of tons of pain medication. (which might have even been effecting her talking to me, who knows) but she was just hurting (in her heart) so much. i prayed for her and i will continue to lift her up because she’s getting discouraged, that the lord isn’t going to heal her of this chronic pain, and that she won’t be an effective tool for Him. it hurt my heart the whole rest of the night.

shoot i have to go to breakfast now. but i’ll update on the second half of my night, and my feelings on concerts, seeing as those come up when i attend them. adios!