Winter Jam

I had an awesome time last Friday, when we took our youth group over to Tulsa for Winter Jam 09′. I was kind of worried about picking all of my students up from school, because I thought I would have some trouble from school administration for having to leave so early. I did have some opposition from some secretaries, but as soon as I told them that I had spoken with their Vice-Principal I had no problems. It is good to network with your local school officials.

We were right on schedule by hitting the road shortly after 1:00pm, and the trip was a blast. You know the usual, kids laughing, screaming, and farting, and so on. We arrived around 3:00pm, and the lines were already backed up around the facility. The doors didn’t open until six so we had to wait for over three hours in the freezing cold. It was all worth it when we found out that we were actually at the front of a line to the side entrance, and we were some of the first to get in and get good seats. We got settled in, and The Access kicked the event off. All youth pastors were called to a Pastor Prayer Meeting where I had the privilege to meet Toby Mac, Brandon Heath, the guys from Hawk Nelson, Shon Lock, Stephanie Smith, Tony Nolan, and more. I only wish I would have had a pen or a camera. What was I thinking? I have to say that Hawk Nelson was pretty awesome, until Toby Mac came out. You can’t even compare the two. Toby Mac blew the roof off that building. That was one of the best performances I have ever seen.

We finally were able to get out of the building around 11:00pm, and we were back on the road only to take a short dinner break. I was thinking it is going to be awful finding a place to eat this late at night with over 50,000 teenagers in the area. We were extremely lucky to catch a McDonalds on the out skirts of town just about to close down for the night. I felt bad afterwards, because as soon as we left 3 other buses pulled into the parking lot. Someone got some overtime. We eventually arrived home shortly before 2:00am. It was a very long day, but it was so worth it.