This post is beyond overdue, but life has gotten in the way and to be honest, laziness has too!
In my post “How did I get here?” I left off at the fact that I received a great deal of confirmation in August, when I acted as a chaperone for our high school and middle school youth groups for Cultivation Generation.
For a little background Cultivation Generation is the Northwest Vineyard Youth Conference, it was headed up by Jeremiah Carlson from the Vancouver Vineyard, where it took place until last year when it was moved to Boise, because of the continual increase in size.
The youth of my church has been attending Cultivation Generation in small numbers since its start. But for one reason or another I have never felt the desire to go, even when it was only an hour and a half north of where I live. This year was different though, I was asked to be a chaperone months in advance, because our youth leader was leaving the country for work until right before the trip, I stalled on answering him. I needed a job, I didn’t know if I would be taking classes, etc. Another awesome lady from the church instead ended up planning the trip for the most part, and asked me to help chaperone, She was taking the largest group of youth our church had ever sent to Cultivation and needed other drivers. It was to the point that if she couldn’t get someone else to drive, she would have to tell people they couldn’t go, and that just wasn’t cool. I still wrestled with the idea of going, but finally consented to drive. (Like a week and a half before). It was one of the best decisions I have made in a long time. I am beyond thankful that I was able to go.
We left early Thursday, August, 2nd and drove 8 hours to Boise. We listened to music, snacked on healthy stuff, and had the windows down the entire time. We forgot about the hour time change, and made it to the church just in time to check in, get signed up and find seats for the first session.
Throughout the weekend, we had AMAZING worship, by some of the Vineyards up and coming artists from the Vancouver, Salem and Boise Vineyards, The Neverclaim and Jeremy Riddle. And listened to some equally awesome and inspiring speakers including, Jeremiah Carlson, Andy Hendley, Dianne Leman, and Jenna Stepp. Each speaker in one way or another confirmed that I was right in putting my deposit down on my World Race. The theme of taking risks stood out to me in nearly all of the sessions, which describes what the World Race is for me in many ways. But “faith is spelt R-I-
S-K” right?
I was so blessed by everything that was happened at the conference, even the small things that could have been a downer, like spending most of Saturday driving back and forth across Boise to get on of our vehicles fixed, was a good thing. I was able to spend time with someone one-on-one that I had never really spend time with and realized how much of a blessing she is. (K-DIZZLE, you ROCK!)
One of my favorite things from the trip was the worship, God showed up in BIG, GIGANTIC, HUMONGOUS, ways!
- I saw people in our youth who are generally reserved and quite in the front, with hands raised, not caring about anything but Jesus.
- I saw our youth get hit with the Holy Spirit in new ways!
- I saw our youth praying for each other and people they didn’t know.
- I saw our youth speak in tongues for the first time.
- I saw our youth doing prophetic art.
- I saw our youth be real with Jesus.
It was such a blessing, but God wasn’t satisfied with blessing me by what I experienced, learned and saw. He had BIGGER plans for me that weekend. It was Saturday night, when Jeremy Riddle was doing his worship set, while our youth were on fire, that God spoke to me through the words of a song. Jeremy started singing the song, “He Reigns” and never before has the song had so much meaning, I was singing along and worshiping, and when the song got to
And I realized just a glimpse of what God has planned for me life, I just started crying, because I would be in all of those places spreading the love of Jesus! I was happy with what I had experienced over the weekend, but God wasn’t He wanted more for me! He had more in mind for me, He made the conference just what I needed, both as confirmation for my upcoming mission and for His love for me!
Here is the video of Jeremy Riddle playing “He Reigns” at #CGBOISE, every time I watch it I am overwhelmed by God’s awesomeness.
And the video from the Neverclaim and their set from Saturday night before Jeremy Riddle. The church opened up the last night as a free worship night/concert.
Both of the videos of are fun for me to watch not only do they bring back awesome memories, but I can spot our youth in them and I can feel the presence of the Holy Spirit.
