Ok so last weekend (actually that's a false statement more like last thursday till monday morning) I decided to go home to Rochester. It had been a month since I saw all my wonderful family, and friends, so at the spur of the moment I bought a train ticket and headed home. My journey started at 3 in the morning with my best friend Erin Joy Broderick. We drove to the train station, and made it to there with 30 minutes to spare. Unfortunately we both have a habit of never knowing where we are, and even though we found the train station, we could not find the train. Yes I know its pathetic, but we are both just directionally challenged. Anyways I got on the train thankfully, and for four and a half hours I felt super independent, in addition to really really cool. At 9:50 in the morning I landed in Rochester, and the surprises began. If you don't know me, then you should know that I thoroughly enjoy surprises. I have thrown countless surprise parties, because they are just that great. Funny story the person I was the most excited to surprise was my little sister, and her reaction was "what are you doing here." I know I was really disappointed, but in the end I got to spend a lot of quality time with her. Elisabeth has wisdom beyond her years, and she's one of the few 16 year olds I know who are truly trying to be more like Christ. (side note she also has twitter now, you should follow her.)
Now as much as I know you would love to know every little detail about my freaking awesome adventure back home, I will just settle for my favorite
1. Friday night was the youth group lock-in. I love these kids so much, and I really dislike being far away from them. I want to disciple all of them, and to simply be there for them, but for some odd reason I am here in Ohio. Why, I don't know, and the more I think about it, the more I become confused why I and so many others strongly believe this is where I am supposed to be. Anyways there was 100 kids, and I had the privilege of sitting down and talking to several one on one, and I was amazed at how much they had grown in their faith in the last couple months. I'm pretty sure God is about to do great things at Hope Sr. High Youth group! Well the theme was persecuted church and we played a game where the kids had to find the hidden church, but if they were caught they were put into jail, and then they were interrogated. My initial thought was this was going to be a successful way of driving 100 kids away from the church, but in the end each youth learned the importance of making their faith real, and living it out. Cool story: After I was interrogated I decided to go back to jail, because a couple of kids were singing God is so good. It sounded beautiful, and at one point a guard came out and told the kids to shut up, however they only sang louder. Actually the more the guard yelled the louder they sang. I began to shake as I realized the Holy Spirit's presence in our "jail room", and cry, because of how my youth were living out their faith. It's funny, because often those who have had the greatest impact on my life have been younger then me. 1 Timothy 4:12 is so right.
Alright enough typing for me. I feel like I just wrote an essay. Not cool.
WEll now it's tuesday night and I finally need some rest. Goodnight.
Where's your second favorite story? I mean...that's it? As amazing as that story is (and its amazing) where's the second? And the third? I could've sworn you were gonna add another story because of the numbered list. But it only goes up to one...
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