'Out Of The Valley '07'

Leadership Conference

Friday and saturday this week were spent with Dr.B at a youth conference, 'Out of the Valley', run by Hope Valley Uniting. Two days of speakers and music, in aid of helping youth pastors and others in youth ministry to better understand the best ways of doing things.

Some of the speakers were amazing. Tim Heinz and Bo Boshers (Willow Creek, USA) were great. But the stand out guy? Louie Giglio (Georgia, USA) - now dubbed the 'giggly-guy', just because his last name sounds giggly. He was AMAZING. Witty, passionate, emphatic. He kept my attention the entire time that he spoke, which is pretty good, seeing as i was completely exhausted and it didn't take must to lull me into a doze.

Friday and saturday nights we gathered up the youth that we had lying around and went to the worship services. The music and the bands were great, so enthusiastic. Elmo, of course, decided to use his phone to record me singing and is now using it as collateral to make me do his bidding. The speaker both nights was Louie, so he made quite an impression. It's quite something to see such a large number of people gathered in one place with such a vision and such a shared love. Almost everyone there seemed totally into becoming a better person in the eyes of God and helping kids find their way to church. The fact that so many people there had something that they could put their beliefs in and something to trust was good to see, something that you don't really see in many places.

Saturday night, i got a call from Elmo, begging me to come to the service. I'd been planning on a night in, but had been convinced - apparently, they all really wanted to see me. I felt loved. But i was glad i went, it was really enjoyable. After the service, we all went to Maccas. The boys went nuts with their food. English managed to make DrB ask, in all seriousness, for a Whopper. It wasn't until Peter the manager guy cracked up that he realised that HJ's was where Whoppers lived. Oops. The boys eventually got sundaes. When Elmo found his was hollow in the middle, he went up to the counter and beseeched Peter until he got the hole filled with chocolate. Terrible! We spent an hour or so telling those terrible brain-buster jokes, you know the ones; a brother and a sister were found dead on the floor, surrounded by broken glass and water. How did they die?

When i went to drive LittleM and Elmo home, DrB had a small freak out - now that i'm eighteen, i'm not supposed to drive the little guys on my own :P No offense to them, but they're so not my type. In the end he relented. Guess what? All was well. I dropped them home with no mishaps. It was a good night. Elmo and English are good friends. They really make it their job to look out for me, even when they give me such a hard time. And constantly try to tickle me, or change my phone into Arabic! They drive me nuts and we fight like cats and dogs, but you can tell that we all love each other, we're good friends. In the brotherly-sisterly way, don't get me wrong! You can keep breathing DrB. We just have a good time.

I actually really enjoyed the conference. It was interesting and a great change to network, to hear people's ideas. Plus, they had really good morning and afternoon tea :P The decorations were great too, creating a wicked atmosphere. The people that put the conference on did a great job. I'm looking forward to next year.

Annie