Review

So, I meant to write a "review" post some weeks ago, but life can get crazy. As soon as I got back from Urbana and Passion I returned to Lexington for a week of sorority rush, and then I've spent the last three weeks or so getting myself back on track to make up for THAT week. Such is life.

The nine days that I spent in St. Louis and Atlanta were wonderful, though quite tiring and I was slightly sick by the end of it. The result of this was that I had no voice for rush :) such a perfect time to be voice-less. I had to whisper-shout all week just so the freshmen girls could hear me!

I got to St. Louis without a hitch. In fact, God's grace was so sufficient throughout the entire week in keeping me safe and getting me where I needed to be without any trouble, and in having the right people show up at just the right time so that I would have someone to eat with or to go to another location with. This was especially important at Urbana where I was with a lot of people I didn't know (UCSD IV chapter) for most of the time, but still had Steve (IV staff worker) and Aaron (W&L law student) to meet up with through W&L when I felt like it. This mostly happened at meal times.

The first major possible upset was that Mason, Chrystalain, and Jay missed their flight out of Los Angeles and therefore did not arrive in St. Louis until around 5:30. They were scheduled to arrive at 2:30, and so I had made my flight for 2:00 so that I could transfer to the hotel and conference area with people that I knew (or at least one person). Well, that didn't happen, but the friendly Urbana staff got me from the airport, to the MetroLink, and to my hotel safe and sound. :) When I arrived I was greeted by one of my roommates, Kelly, who was about to go to coffee/dinner with her sister Brenna and her friend Emily. Our other roommate, Jennifer, was just arriving, and then Chrystalain, of course, was probably flying over Oklahoma about that time.

So God made it so I would connect with just the right people while I waited for Mace and friends. :) Nice. Kelly, Brenna, and Emily were very nice and I had fun getting to know them and their friends in the late afternoon/early evening. Mace, Chrystalain, and Jay met us at the conference center around 8. :) By the time the first night was over, I was already getting indoctrinated into the UCSD IV chapter. They had near 100 students there...at that point, I had probably met 20-30 of them.

The next five days were a mix of general sessions, awesome worship, teaching from Ephesians with Ajith Fernando, enlightening annoucement commentary from Greg Jao (hilarious guy), small group Bible study in the mornings, prayer groups at night, great seminars, and very cool drama and video productions. Details to follow. What little "free time" I had I spent sleeping or hanging out with aforementioned individuals, though I also got to see Samantha Ward briefly, which was cool. :)

I think my boyfriend Brian summed up the Urbana experience very well when he said that my description reminded him of boot camp, but for God. Every minute was planned out and everything was done for a purpose. I was so tired by the end of those five days that I could hardly believe our sanity when we decided that we were going to go to two conferences back to back. But we did.

The last night of Urbana was New Years Eve. We celebrated with extended worship and communion, and then it ended at 12:30. Mason, Chrystalain, Jay, and I had checked out of the hotel that morning and Mace had gone in the afternoon to rent a car that would take us all the way to Atlanta. We got in around 1 AM and we were off.

Again, God's grace is sufficient. It's a miracle that we got to Atlanta without Mace or Chrystalain falling asleep at the wheel. I slept most of the way there, and so did Jay. We got to Atlanta around 10 AM (1 hour time difference from St. Louis). Sadly, the hotel would not let us check in until 3 PM, and we, of course, had just driven eight hours through the night, we hadn't been able to shower since the previous morning, and we were in pajamas. They showed us to a ballroom where we could rest, let us refresh ourselves in the restrooms, and let us check our bags for the day so we could explore Atlanta a little.

We took the rental car back to the airport and then went to check in with Passion -- we managed to convince them to let us in the same general session group (blue) and the same community group (striped neon green). These were also the colors of the wristbands we had to wear, to complement our gold Urbana ones. After that we grabbed some lunch at the CNN Center Jock and Jills restaurant, and by then it was time to go back to the hotel, check in, and sleep before general session started at 7.

Passion was a lot more laid back than Urbana. Yes, the days were relatively planned out, but there was scheduled "free time" and the breakout sessions weren't as intense, nor were the main sessions. The speakers were all excellent, and the worship, of course, was incredible. The four of us had some good times together, and also with our small group (oh, we managed to end up together there, too :) we have skill).

So that's a basic overview of what happened. I'm planning on going through my notes for each session and writing a review of each to help consolidate what I learned when I was there and to remind myself of it. It's hard to say that I learned a single thing because I heard and experienced so much that to sum it up in one sentence would be a major mistake.

I'll try to do this with all the expedience I can muster. :) But I am taking thirteen credit hours, I am involved in a huge number of school activities, and I do have other responsibilities. However, I will do my best. Until next time, thanks for reading. :)