passion

This past weekend, we packed our bags and hightailed it out of town with some college kids. As youth kids graduate and move on to college, we want to continue ministering to them when they come back from school. We have a little college ministry in the works and we thought nothing would bless them more than attending the Passion conference in Atlanta, GA.

I love hanging out with college kids because they pretty much take care of themselves. Plus they're really, really cool. I eyeballed every girl's outfit at the conference and hoped that by being in their presence, a little bit of their coolness would rub off on me. Unfortunatley, my scarf never came close to all the other pointy scarves there. Even after Megs and I You Tubed a how-to video as we waited for a session to start, I still couldn't get it right. At least we watched the video on an iPhone. (Her) iPhone.

Cute college girl.

Cute college girl.

The boys and me.

The conference line-up was un-stinking-believable. John Piper, Andy Stanley, Louie Giglio, Beth Moore, Francis Chan. I loved each and every one of them. Inspiring, practical, authentic, honest. My hands couldn't move fast enough as I took notes. Hopefully the theology will become reality as I walk this stuff out and I'll share more with you as I continue to work through all I learned..

The worship leaders were also good. This is the order of my preference (my personal, biased, subjective, opinion.)

(They were all very talented, and I worshiped in each of their sessions.)

(Please don't hate me, I know it's not a contest, just want to remember.)

(Here goes.)
1. Hillsong
2. Christy Nockels
3. Matt Redman
4. David Crowder Band
5. Charlie Hall
6. Kristian Stanfill
7. Chris Tomlin
8. Fee

On the last night, four of these chandeliers were hanging from the ceiling of the Philips Arena. They were rigged to the lighting system, so they changed colors throughout the evening. This picture doesn't do justice to their beauty.


By far the coolest part of the entire weekend was the "Do Something Now" Center. Passion partnered with 12 mission organizations from all over the world. Each organization built a display explaining its ministry. The images were stunning.

Did you buy perfume this past year? Me too.

This is what a typical family of six eats in a week in Chad, Africa.

Compare that to what a typical American family of four eats in a week.

Confronted with such a stark contrast of abundance and poverty, I couldn't hold it together any longer. For $35 (Thirty-five dollars. Do you know what I waste thirty-five dollars on all the time??) Danny and I donated six months worth of food to a child in Africa. Maybe someone Reesie's age.

I have much more to share with you about this incredible organization. It's worthy of its very own post.

The combined need of all the organizations was $500,000. Would you know that in the course of four days, 22,000 college students (and their leaders) gave $668,000?

But it doesn't stop there. On the last morning of the conference a random, anonymous family unassociated with Passion heard of all that was going on for world missions and wrote a check to match all that had been donated. I nearly passed out when they told us. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if no one ever heard from the unknown family again. Maybe they were heavenly beings sent to lavish a small storehouse of wealth onto a people poised to see God move. Seriously. Do you know anyone who can flat out write a check for six hundred thousand dollars? To see a list of the organizations, you can check them out here.

Well, that's a pretty thorough recap. And I was thoroughly ruined. Humbled beyond words. I hope we're never the same.

P.S.
Another highlight-visiting the original Chick-Fil-A. It was totally a freak occurrence we ended up there as none of us knew it was even in Atlanta! Not much of a Chick-Fil-A girl myself, but everyone else loved it. :)