Little sleep + Smelly teenagers + Loud music + GOOD TIMES =YC 2007

For those of you who don't know what it is, YC stands for "Youth Conference". It's the biggest one of its kind in North America, and it held in Rexall Place...a big venue that seats over 16 000 people here in Edmo. It is crazy, and LONG. It went from Friday night until Sunday night, and involves early mornings too. People come from all over North America, including Leah and her youth group. Leah it was SOOOOO GREAT to see you. AHHH I wish we would have had more time to hang out. :) :) This year we took 200 youth and leaders from our church, so it was a busy weekend. To say things were crazy is almost an understatement!!! There were TONS of Christian bands that showed up: from United (all the way from Hillsong church in Aussie), to Skillet, to Toby Mac, Amanda Falk, Parachute Band, David Crowder band, and a handful more. Let's just say our group danced it up when the music was pumping, hardcore. So much fun.

Kyla and I were assigned 3 girls...and here they are, dancing in all their glory- Lauren, Reinette, and Nadene. We also adopted their friend too, but she's not in this picture.

And yes, with YC comes a beautiful, peaceful, lovely bus ride. Hardly. More like the party continues on the bus. No matter what time of day it is. Sing alongs from the wanna-be backstreet boys at the back of the bus...singing classics like "I want it that way", "It's Not Unusual" (by Tom Jones) and "Stacey's Mom" (ha) Poor Robbie. He leads their small group. I don't know how he does it. I think he can tolerate loud noises much better than I can.

Here I am at one of the concerts in mid-dance. Let's just say, I often lost my age depending on what song came on.

Something really cool happened this weekend though. YC flew down a pastor from Malawi, Africa to talk to us. YC is going to Malawi in August 2008, and we took an offering to raise money for this event. Malawi is at the present time one of the poorest countries in the world with over one million orphans. We were able to pray for the pastor and his country. And this past weekend YC raised over $90, 000 for this event. It was unreal!! I am so excited for the potential of this event in Malawi. They are looking for volunteers if any of you are interested.

Me and my co-pilot for the weekend.

Overall it was a beautiful weekend. The weather was perfect. The speakers were more or less good, and the music was so much fun. Ahhh...the joys of being involved in youth...it means you never have to grow up, or stop playing!