NYC Day Three

Toby Mac.  I am a headbanger by trait but man, TM put on a powerful show.  He opened up the evening session but more about that in a sec.  We started the day by enjoying an amazing breakfast bar down in the lobby.  Now you may think, "lobby", but you are not thinking of this lobby.  It is something that a fine restaurant would be proud of.  The food was great as well.  That got us off to a good start and we needed it for the day was full.  We walked over interstate 55 to the Arch and piled five apiece into the tiny pods that would take us to the top of the 630 foot Arch.  The view was awesome but the pods freaked out the students pretty good.  All I could hear on the way up and back were the girls screaming my name from a pod two pods away.  Quite flattering but still a little unnerving I must say.  Anyway, we then walked into downtown and ate at TGI Fridays, returned to the hotel and then headed off to the stadium for the first time.  Our first task was registering which took quite awhile.  Then we had to haul our food for the homeless through the entire stadium, and out onto the football field where we opened the bags and boxes and sorted out the food.  The teens were then unleashed into the exhibition hall and got the cool backpacks they will be using the rest of the week, while the sponsors attended another meeting, though this one was very informative.   After we finished, we went back to the hotel which is ten blocks away from the stadium and had Imo's Pizza which most of the teens found humorous if you catch the pronunciation.  We then treked back to the stadium in a freak but heavy thunderstorm.  Arriving soaked and hot we awaited entrance into the stadium.  Once inside the DJ started pumping the jams and as the place filled up the energy level rose, as you can imagine.  Finally, the lights dimmed and the large screens at the front began getting static as an news anchor woman spoke of a huge storm brewing in St. Louis and then lightning begins to flash and the thunder crashing and then sparks began raining from the ceiling and all the sponsors stood up with multiple bottles of water that were handed out during our afternoon meeting and they showered the entire crowd of 9,000+ teens with the "rain".  Then Toby Mac explodes onto the stage....and thus began NYC2007. I am not going to go into the details of the service, find a teen that attended and have them describe it to you, but I will say that the Gospel was presented powerfully and lives were changed from the start.  That was very good to see.  I was relieved.  We arrived back a the hotel at 10:18pm, had another meeting and hit the rooms.  We are ready for things to kick into full gear tomorrow.  I will get to play some football (real football, not American football) and the day should hold many interesting things for all of us.  I am excited to here the stories when I get back with our teens at day's end.  Until tomorrow night I bid you good night!!

NYC Day Two

Wow, what a drive!  Wow, what a BUS!, Wow, what an amazing group of teens!  We met at the Nazarene Church at 8am this morning and boarded our HUGE charter bus.  49 Teens and about 4 sponsors on the bus and a van and trailer behind with the rest of the sponsors.  We left South Dakota about 10:45.  We had dvd screens throughout the bus so many a movie was veiwed.  I attempted to listen to a book that my guitarist requested I listen to, despite the many distractions.  Its a great book, actually.  But the trip was even better.  We had smooth sailing, and then a faulty air conditioner began blasting heat rather than cool air.  That was as we entered KC.  Which was hot and humid.  Our Dakota teens were not used to the humidity and were quite concerned that they would be able to handle it.  I just chuckled, remembering my 17 years in KC.  It turned out that the many pillows laying on the vents by the windows caused the air conditioner to freeze up.  Hmmm.  So we remedied that and the rest of the time was grand.  We drove through some very heavy rain, Olathe getting more than 3 inches in less than an hour!  We saw Royals stadium and Arrowhead.  Then we arrived in St. Louis.  We ended up at a hotel directly across the street from the Arch...I am actually looking at it form my window as I type.  I am also in the building right next to the KMOV TV and Radio station where my Father in Law worked for many years.  So that is cool.  Tomorrow we head early to the Arch and then on to registration.  That should be interesting.  The teens have been amazing the whole trip and I know will continue to be.  Please keep them in your prayers for safety in this new enviroment that can be overwhelming if you are not used to it, and forthe Holy Spirit to cut through it all and make a serious change in their lives.  I want a different 49 teens coming home than I came with.  They will look the same ont he outside but my hope is that the inside will resemble Jesus Christ a little bit more.  Talk at you tomorrow night!

NYC Day One

Well, we left Mandan this afternoon about 1pm to start our trek to NYC in St. Louis.  By us I mean, 10 teens, Suandra Boehm and  myself.  We began by discovering a pretty significant oil leak in the Dodge van.  We poured some leak stopping solution which has failed to work at this point.  About 30 miles out from our first day's destination the front tire of the Ford van blew out at about 75 miles an hour.  I was able to keep it under control and Ben Boehm and Titus Gietzen were able to change the tire in under 11 minutes.  I was happy for that.  We continued on our way and arrived in Souix Falls, SD a little late but no worse for the wear.  Although we are cramming 6 people into each room.  We will see how it goes.  We are enjoying the air conditioning, however, since the Ford has no air in the back of the van and the Dodge had to run the heat the entire trip to keep from over heating.  Aaaah, but tomorrow we meet up with the other 50 people from North and South Dakota and board a tour bus for the remainder ofthe trip.  Air Conditioning, DVD players and bathrooms....should be nice.  Check in tomorrow night for the next exciting installment of NYC 2007....keep us in your prayers!!