Life's End...

No, not death. We ended Life 2010 Saturday with a parade of missionaries in the morning along with 6500 students partaking in communion together. In the evening we closed with the idea that God breathes life in to us. Jason Ostrander reminded us that we are the light of the world and with that we closed with a song and glow sticks to represent our light in a dark world. There were many highlights to the week.

• Lunch together with the Burlington Church Monday afternoon.
• Arriving in Louisville and seeing some of my old friends.
• The energy that our kids showed the desire they had to listen God during sessions and seminars.
• The depth with which each student shared during the week about their COLLISION with God.
• A baseball game in which the Life group made the local news.
• Several concerts from Hawk Nelson and Kutless to Corban a band from Central America, a comedian and a magician.
• The opportunity we had to worship God in song and contemplation as each day their there was a pray of blessing prayed over the entire group from the leaders of Life.

Many highlights above but probably the one that touched us the most was the Alliance Youth Project. This was an interactive journey to experience and bring focus to issues around the world. We heard that 1 in 6 people in the world have clean water and in Africa they may walk 3 to 5 miles per day to find clean water. That water is then used for everything from cooking to bathing to washing clothes. We saw a floating school like the ones in Cambodia that refugees must study in. They are great improvements over what they had. We visited an area where human trafficking was explained and shown how people get caught up in that. Or rather should I say tricked in to the schemes of the evil ones. We saw a village in Africa where a well has been put in place. The wells cost $6000 each and are being built through the Great Commission. We were challenged to get involved and the kids in our group really wrestled with this issues as we discussed them as a group. And finally the offering was great we took an offering Saturday morning along with pledges all going to the Great Commission and the total was over $250,000!!!!!!! BY TEENS!!!!!

We have arrived back home after spending 22 hours traveling from Louisville to Greenfield. It is time for rest. Check back for more entries to this blog as we continue to unpack Life 2010 and look forward to Life 2013 in St. Louis MO.