The Stand is a youth conference that we host every year at our church. This was our sixth year hosting this event. If you have been following my blog, then you probably read about last years event as well!!

We had a great time again this year. We brought in Pastor Jayme Montera as our guest speaker. He spoke in our Friday night & Saturday night service as well as in the Sunday Morning main service.   We met him last year when we were in Orlando for our AIM mission trip and general council. He was one of the leaders that helped organize that week and the convoy of hope outreach. He is someone that our students talked about throughout our time serving. His enthusiasm, passion and high energy are very memorable!! Otis reached out and contacted him about The Stand not long after that trip.

We once again had a couple of other youth groups join us- one for the very first time. Friday Night we had a taco dinner, followed by service with glow worship and Pastor Jayme. We had free time after that where they could hang out, play basketball, buy snacks, eat dinner leftovers, or play video games.

Saturday Morning started off with showers and breakfast. Showers always take a small chunk of time since you have so many students sharing 4-8 showers. We also always seem to underestimate how long they will take! 🙂 We served a pancake variety for breakfast, including regular, chocolate chip, and blueberry. We had a short morning devotion  and  then we went to a nearby field for some activities.

We attempted to play dodgeball, but honestly the majority of students did not want to play since it was so hot! They stood around and tried to get in some shade while waiting for the main event. That’s right, everyone was waiting for the color war to begin. This was our second year including a color war in our weekend. If you read my post from last year, you remember that we worked every single night the week before the event to get all of the color finished. Yes, we make it ourselves! This year since we knew exactly what the process entailed, we started months before. We worked one or two times a week for a couple of months to get all of the color made. It was great!

After the color war, we headed back to the church and served a simple lunch of sandwiches. Then started the long process of everyone getting cleaned up for service that night. We had another powerful service with Pastor Jayme that ended with some intense altar time. God is faithful. Lives were touched and changed by His presence.  We always try and end Saturday by giving away a prize- this year we have away two pairs of shoes- and honoring all of our volunteers. We have such an amazing team around us week after week, but a large event like this always calls for some extra help. We have extra help in the band, sound department, kitchen, and security.  I am a big fan of giving honor where honor is due and you don’t have to do much to show some appreciation! (thank you  pinterest)

We also had a great  Sunday Morning in our main sanctuary and many of the adults in our congregation were impacted! We are already planning for next years weekend- for real, you might be surprised if you knew how much we had already done! We take this calling very seriously and consider it an honor and privilege to have any type of impact on the lives of these students.

On a side note, after weeks of preparation and a wonderful (& exhausting) weekend….we packed up and headed to Kentucky the very next morning for National Fine Arts and National Youth Convention! We really are crazy and committed! haha! There will be a post on that week coming very soon!