What’s to say about Youth Convention?! Way too much to remember, that’s what! We had the Convention at our local church here in Albuquerque this year and it was a great blessing to our local members—it’s been ages since they’ve seen the church filled up like that and been able to host a good, old fashioned Church of God Convention! It really was wonderful.

Friday night featured (ha! That sounds so… cinematic or something!) messages by Brother Dustin Hays and Brother Tim Cox, both of whom did a really great job. There was a good, good spirit and we were all blessed and encouraged. Brother Tim wasn’t feeling very well, so James left pretty quick after service to bring him back to the house to get some rest. He was feeling sickly anyway and the two hour time change from Virginia didn’t help things much. When I left the church that night I found myself stopped at a red light next to Brother Dustin. What was I to do?! I had to challenge him. :-) Of course, we both drive mini-vans, so it doesn’t make for an extremely thrilling race. Brother Dustin did manage to peel out and fishtale a little bit off the line, so that was pretty cool. I don’t think we actually did anything illegal and we had the good sense (well, one of us did) to call it quits before things got too out of hand. ~sigh~ It was great. As for who won, well, Brother Dustin thinks he did. I, of course, know that I was just letting him feel that he was doing well before I overtook him at the end.

Unfortunately for poor Brother Tim, we only have a two bedroom house—and it was currently filled with my family and Jon’s family, adding up to four adults and eight children, not counting Tim. All I had left to offer him was the couch in the living room. He even found a poodle in his bed (literally IN his sleeping bag) the first night, but he handled it all like a trooper and saved all of his complaining for when he went home to Virginia. I assume that’s what happened anyway because he sure didn’t complain here! Jon & Em and I stayed up and visited for a little while that night, addressing the various character flaws we’re combating in our children right now… particularly my children! Ha! It’s usually very insightful to talk to (or rather listen to) Jon, and it’s always very entertaining. :-)

Saturday morning we threw some frozen cinnamon rolls in the oven and ran around crazily trying to get everybody ready to go. We horked down our breakfast and zoomed into town for the first session of the day. Brother Luis preached an outstanding message, as he always does. He’s becoming one of my most favoritest preachers to listen to. He’s got such a good spirit and is so very sincere. He truly feels what he is preaching. He’s always quite “churchy,” too, which is rare for most young ministers. Jon preached that morning, too, and had some really great points. ALL of the messages were so good throughout the weekend.

We had a pot-luck that day with lots of great food from the locals as well as the Hatch and Alamogordo folks. It was nice to be able to just stay there at the church and fellowship with everybody—and there was tons of food left over. We were actually able to bring home a bag of tamales! That NEVER happens (they’re always the first things to go), but there was so much other good food we actually got to enjoy them during that meal and beyond.

Saturday afternoon we had a Camp Boost by Sister Shuler… in a suit and a goatee. Weird. Brother Dustin seems to be the perfect fill-in guy, so he took over the job in the Shulers’ absence. Brother Sam Kaufman preached that afternoon and that’s always a highlight. For various reasons. ;-) He has become quite an excitable preacher in the past few years and I can’t help but chuckle over his “I’m just a teacher” claims in the beginning. It’s always especially great in our Conventions when everything is being interpreted into Spanish. Brother Sam has this thing about getting all wound up and either leaving his interpreter in the dust or yelling at them while he preaches. Ha! We decided to give poor Tayde a break this time and so Sister Coyazo translated for him. Sometimes she’d just quit trying to keep up with him and start amen-ing him until he took a breath. :-) Seriously, he preached a wonderful message, as always.

Saturday evening was undeniably the highlight of the entire Convention. Brother Chris Clarkson was on program to preach, but nobody knew until the very end if he’d be able to make it after being away from home so long due to his father’s funeral and such. Even if he did come, we didn’t know if he’d feel able to preach. He received a real blessing that morning though and felt led to say “a few words.” WOW. It was such a blessing—I can’t even begin to describe it. All of our hearts were just breaking with him in his pain, but the Word of God that he shared was just so very rich and meaningful—no doubt because he is presently right in the midst of what he was preaching about. He spoke about being an encouragement to one another in this race that we’re running (like the support their family has received during this difficult time), but that in the end, it’s your race to run and nobody can do it for you. The spirit of the Lord took over and several came to the altar and we had a marvelous time of prayer and worship and intercession. ~sigh~ It was glorious. I can’t remember if it was during that time (I think it was) or after it, when we went into our VLB march, when somebody felt led to grab the big church flag and begin waving it. Before it was all over three or four or five (?) different guys had all taken their turn with it as the blessings of God just poured down in the building. It really felt like I was 13 years old again at youth camp—that same freedom to pray and worship that I felt when I first received the Holy Ghost, and the feeling that you love God sooooo much that your heart could just burst. ~sigh~ It was just so wonderful.

We enjoyed a good VLB march that night and another good message by Brother Tim. One of the nights (they run together, you know) he preached about the weights that so easily beset us and he had several balls—a football, a basketball (right???) and a bowling ball—as illustrations of the trials we go through, the burdens we bear, the weights we endure and so on. We want to lay those things down at the altar and walk away with the things God wants us to bear—His yoke that is easy and His burden that is light.

James preached on Sunday morning, and Brother Tim again. My favorite part of the day, however, was Jon’s special song. HA! He’s such a nerd. He strongly dislikes singing specials and he just keeps getting put on program to sing at conventions. He tries to do something a little “worse” each time (he writes all of his own songs) in hopes that it will free him from having to sing next time around. It never works though. I can’t remember much about the song now except the line about being “a runnin’ fool” (our theme was on running the race) and so on. The very best thing though was when Sister Erika got up front afterwards and said, “I didn’t think it was that bad, Brother Jon—maybe you could sing it again!” Ha!

After everything ended on Sunday most of the crowd went to Panda Express for lunch. Filled that little joint up, we did! The most humorous thing that happened came in the form of Brother Dustin illustrating a certain form of “worship” for us. I think Sister Jamey and James and I were the only to witness it and it just wouldn’t come across right in written form (you’d have to SEE it to truly appreciate it!), but it still makes me laugh right out loud when I think of it! Ha! He is such a dork!!!

When we left Panda several folks (the Smiths, Hays, Wantuloks, Kaufmans, Brooks/Cliftons, Brother Tim… I think that’s all!) came up to see our house. :-) James had asked Brother Sam if he’d do a little house dedication ceremony for us. Ha! Ha! Ha! It’s another one of those things that just wouldn’t come out right on paper (or screen)—you just had to have been there. I’ll just say that it was very, very Sam and we all laughed a lot. ;-)

Everybody stayed and visited for a while, which made me so very, very happy. ~sigh~ People. Real, live people. At my very own house!!! And I love my house even more now. We had 12 or 14 adults all seated comfortably in the same room (living room/dining room) with plenty of room for more! Wa-Hoo! A company compatible house!!! Now if we only had more than two bedrooms and could keep more of them here overnight I would be beyond happy. :-)

The troop of kids (12, I think) all took turns (or not!) on the trampoline, but after a while it was time for the big people to take over. Brother Sam was the first on, so I ran and put some pj pants on so I could join him. We shooed all of the kids off and I set to “cracking” Sam. (One person is supposed to sit Indian style and hold onto his feet while the other tries to “crack” him from that position. It wasn’t too hard with Brother Sam!)

Just so you know, you have to click on these pictures to enlarge them if you want to enjoy them in their full glory. -- I love Brother Sam's expressions!!!