Today was the first day of the real stuff, the workshops!!!
A lot of things hit me today in an awesome way and I'm very happy about all the has happened so far. After having to wake up early it was a very slow start for me today but the workshops woke me right up.
Starting with a lecture/presentation called "Eracism" which basically is aimed at getting rid of prejudices and finding the face of Christ in all you see. We learned a lot about people who give their lives and devote themselves to a certain cause and we were challenged to be "Champions of Diversity". It was a very informative seminar but in reality there wasn't a lot of intensely moving moments of the talk. However, the one thing that hit me really hard and the thing that I will keep with me is that race is an invented thing. We were reminded that race, technically, is an invented thing that isn't DNA or anything like that (I know some of you are saying, well skin color is in DNA, well thats not what race is! haha) . It's something that, as humans, we made up and its something that if we try hard enough, we can move past.
Next we went to XLT with Matt Maher which was just amazing...really nothing more to say.
The last thing that really stood out to me was from the abstinence talk from Jason Evert. I've heard him speak before and i knew what to expect but I really tried paying attention. All of his stories were great and funny but one thing really hit a note with me. He said "Love can't wait to give...lust can't wait to get." In high school, what we all think is love is most likely nothing more than lust. I know through personal experience that lust is a very dangerous thing...mom i know your reading stop cringing its ok!...Staying away from that temptation is huge. Instead of thinking about what i want now or who i want now, i need to think about what will help me in the long run. I'm someone, probably one of the very few guys in high school, who thinks a lot about getting married, and there's nothing I want more than to have kids (again, mom don't worry at the right time!). I need to know that before i do anything i might regret i need to think about my future wife. I need to be the person i want to see in others. Love is an amazing gift, and agape (god's love) is an even greater gift. I continually pray for the day that i will find that rue love, but even more than that i continually pray that i learn more and more each an every day how much God loves me. I pray that each and every day my heart will open up just a little bit more for God, because no greater love than the love a parent has for their kids, and i am God's son.
All these people here show me the amazing love bestowed upon us by God. We are all blessed, in all our troubles, pains, joys, and in our laughter we are truly blessed. We all need to take that time to love and appreciate all that we have. In that, I want to thank God for all of my amazing blessings...mom, dad, mike, kenz, you guys are my rocks, and kate, i wouldn't be where i am without you and i would be half the person i am today, range kevin joe and chels(my other lil sis) thank you guys for sharing this experience with me and we're not done yet there's still a whole other day! All my friends back home, even if some of you don't understand why i do some things with the church or spend lots of time with the church when i could be hanging out with you, you guys are all awesome and support me in my adventures. Everyone in the church who made this possible, and all the volunteers parents and friends who have helped me be the person i am today. I cant thank you all enough, this trip isn't just for me, its for you guys who made me want to come to this because for a while you saw something in me that i didn't see in myself, and now i see that God in myself. I can't believe all this and i still have one more day! These few words are nothing compared to how much i should be thanking all of you, especially my mom dad and kate.
Thank you so much for reading and God bless...
Love,
Connor Wilkins
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Friday, November 20, 2009
striking
Once again, another long day here in Kansas City.. but totally worth it of course :)
Instead of telling you a general overview of the whole day I'm gunna stick to one specific event and talk about that.. :)
So for our second (out of three) workshops/concurrents all 6 of us (kate included) went to XLT which was a lot like lift but with a much shorter adoration period. It was an event of firsts for me because I've never been to lift so I didn't really know what to expect and also it was my first time hearing Matt Maher and his band. It was truely an amazing experience listening to him and finally getting to hear the guy who I've heard a lot about from the others. This was the most moving part of the day for me and was one place where I saw God present. Using Matt as his utencil, God relayed a powerful message and really made the experience hit home. I can't remember exactly what Matt talked about but I will never forget the feeling I felt.. I can't describe it exactly but I can tell you it was amazing. At one point I almost started crying I was so touched (yes yes, I'm the typical girl who crys a lot :) ) But it was an amazing experience that I wish you all could have experienced with me.
If anything I learned that when you're open to God and the Holy Spirit amazing things can happen. So i encourage you all to stay open and learn as much as you can about your faith and relationship with God.
Hopefully I'll have a chance to blog later about the other AWESOME things that happened today, but I'm gunna let the boys make their posts now :)
I'll be praying for you!!
Goodnight, Over and out :)
Instead of telling you a general overview of the whole day I'm gunna stick to one specific event and talk about that.. :)
So for our second (out of three) workshops/concurrents all 6 of us (kate included) went to XLT which was a lot like lift but with a much shorter adoration period. It was an event of firsts for me because I've never been to lift so I didn't really know what to expect and also it was my first time hearing Matt Maher and his band. It was truely an amazing experience listening to him and finally getting to hear the guy who I've heard a lot about from the others. This was the most moving part of the day for me and was one place where I saw God present. Using Matt as his utencil, God relayed a powerful message and really made the experience hit home. I can't remember exactly what Matt talked about but I will never forget the feeling I felt.. I can't describe it exactly but I can tell you it was amazing. At one point I almost started crying I was so touched (yes yes, I'm the typical girl who crys a lot :) ) But it was an amazing experience that I wish you all could have experienced with me.
If anything I learned that when you're open to God and the Holy Spirit amazing things can happen. So i encourage you all to stay open and learn as much as you can about your faith and relationship with God.
Hopefully I'll have a chance to blog later about the other AWESOME things that happened today, but I'm gunna let the boys make their posts now :)
I'll be praying for you!!
Goodnight, Over and out :)
Christ Reigns
So I was almost finished writing this post when somehow it all got deleted!! grrr. Anyway, before I get to breakfast I'll quickly make another summary of our fabulous day.
After a good breakfast at the hotel we headed off to our bus. The ride to the Convention Center was awesome.. Although we made a couple of circles it was nice to see some of the city. When we got to the HUGE center we waited for a little with other groups (many of which had crazy hats) before they let us upstairs and into the "Reign Forest".
We walked around the "Reign Forest" all day.. talking to a lot of great people (including Popple!) and getting a lot of free stuff (YAYYY!! :) ). During the day we went to an outdoor area that was AMAZING (it had space heaters on the ceiling! and the seat cushions were also heated) where we watched Popple perform. We ate a quick dinner, went to one of the coolest masses I've ever been to with a deaf priest. Then we finally went to the opening ceremony of NCYC. WOOO.
Even though we were in the extra room ("overflow") it was an amazing experience. With a lot of singing, dancing, cheering, and tons of love NCYC 2009 has finally begun...
As was said many times last night "We are many, but we are one". Over 23,000 people and 1,000 volunteers coming together to celebrate the love of God. So far the experience has been beyond amazing and I hope I'm at least somewhat relaying that to you all.
I've got to go eat breakfast, but I'll post again tonight or tomorrow morning. Hope you keep reading!!
Thanks! Love you and God Bless!!
After a good breakfast at the hotel we headed off to our bus. The ride to the Convention Center was awesome.. Although we made a couple of circles it was nice to see some of the city. When we got to the HUGE center we waited for a little with other groups (many of which had crazy hats) before they let us upstairs and into the "Reign Forest".
We walked around the "Reign Forest" all day.. talking to a lot of great people (including Popple!) and getting a lot of free stuff (YAYYY!! :) ). During the day we went to an outdoor area that was AMAZING (it had space heaters on the ceiling! and the seat cushions were also heated) where we watched Popple perform. We ate a quick dinner, went to one of the coolest masses I've ever been to with a deaf priest. Then we finally went to the opening ceremony of NCYC. WOOO.
Even though we were in the extra room ("overflow") it was an amazing experience. With a lot of singing, dancing, cheering, and tons of love NCYC 2009 has finally begun...
As was said many times last night "We are many, but we are one". Over 23,000 people and 1,000 volunteers coming together to celebrate the love of God. So far the experience has been beyond amazing and I hope I'm at least somewhat relaying that to you all.
I've got to go eat breakfast, but I'll post again tonight or tomorrow morning. Hope you keep reading!!
Thanks! Love you and God Bless!!
First Day!
Currently feeling like a truck driver, by that I mean sitting at a Denny’s at 12:11 in the morning feeling exhausted and a little annoyed waiting for my wings, the one thing that really helps to cheer me up is thinking about today.
Woke up ready to go, ate a good breakfast, finally got a razor to shave with, and we went to the convention center. Our ride over was exciting, seeing the parts of the city (which, disappointingly, included seeing no fountains until about 4 o’clock in a city which has the second most fountains in any city in the world behind Rome) and it slowly started to hit me what we were doing as we went into the ENOURMOUS convention center. In trying to keep this short and sweet I’m going to just say that we walked around the “Reign Forest” and talked to a lot of cool people and saw cool booths, plus lots of free stuff! We saw Popple at an unbelievably cool outdoor stage/restaurant area. Then went to a sweet mass with a deaf priest, a new experience that I was very happy to experience.
Opening ceremonies, although we were in the “overflow” room was out of this world. (the overflow room, btw still had roughly 3000 people). I found myself getting lost in it all, and I know I felt God pour his love over all of us this night. Since it’s so late, I’m trying to shorten up my post so others can post quicker but I hope that doesn’t take away from you readers understanding the significance of what’s happening here. There are 23,000 kids, my age, all with a love of God. One of my favorite quotes is “never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world, indeed it’s the only thing that ever has”. What we have here isn’t too small, maybe on the large spectrum of things it is, but there’s a lot of us thoughtful committed youth here, all with the same passion and love. God has great things planned for us, I could feel that today…
Stay tuned….
Thanks for reading! Love you all and God Bless
Connor Wilkins
Woke up ready to go, ate a good breakfast, finally got a razor to shave with, and we went to the convention center. Our ride over was exciting, seeing the parts of the city (which, disappointingly, included seeing no fountains until about 4 o’clock in a city which has the second most fountains in any city in the world behind Rome) and it slowly started to hit me what we were doing as we went into the ENOURMOUS convention center. In trying to keep this short and sweet I’m going to just say that we walked around the “Reign Forest” and talked to a lot of cool people and saw cool booths, plus lots of free stuff! We saw Popple at an unbelievably cool outdoor stage/restaurant area. Then went to a sweet mass with a deaf priest, a new experience that I was very happy to experience.
Opening ceremonies, although we were in the “overflow” room was out of this world. (the overflow room, btw still had roughly 3000 people). I found myself getting lost in it all, and I know I felt God pour his love over all of us this night. Since it’s so late, I’m trying to shorten up my post so others can post quicker but I hope that doesn’t take away from you readers understanding the significance of what’s happening here. There are 23,000 kids, my age, all with a love of God. One of my favorite quotes is “never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world, indeed it’s the only thing that ever has”. What we have here isn’t too small, maybe on the large spectrum of things it is, but there’s a lot of us thoughtful committed youth here, all with the same passion and love. God has great things planned for us, I could feel that today…
Stay tuned….
Thanks for reading! Love you all and God Bless
Connor Wilkins
Day 1 of NCYC
So today was the first day of the real conference itself, which was mostly walking around the different booths. Which, by the way, are in a place called “The Reign Forest”, which is a particularly fantastic pun.
We went around to all kinds of different stands, and saw all kinds of examples of faith, from great Catholic music to a nun playing basketball. We got a lot of freebies, but also were exposed to a ton of aspects of faith.
After we saw a lot of the Forest, we got to walk down to “Kansas City Live”, an outdoor (yet heated) courtyard, where we saw Popple (an awesome Catholic band who are friends with Kate) perform a bunch of songs that really got the crowd laughing. And all the Hopkinton people with us that had never seen Popple before (and Chelsea) all thought they were awesome. Then we went to daily Mass.
Daily Mass was incredible. Besides us and the Hopkinton folks, there’s a group of deaf youth here, part of a larger deaf community joining us. Now, you’re probably thinking, “That’s cool, but a bit of a non-sequitur after introducing daily Mass.” Except that the priest was deaf too. It was really incredible to witness a Mass presided in sign language. There was an interpreter with a microphone, but the fact that we could witness that communication was really cool.
After Mass was the Opening Ceremonies. We wound up in the Grand Ballroom, which is technically the “overflow” room (full of about 3,000 people) from the Sprint Center, but it was really great, especially getting to see the Catholic musician Jesse Manibusan (who we had met earlier) on our stage while the majority in the Sprint Center had to watch on a screen. The opening band, Ceili Raine, was really energizing Irish-style Christian music, and a great way to kick off the Convention. The director of the National Federation of Catholic Youth Ministers actually rappelled down out of the rafters to introduce the theme of “Show up, Step up, and Step out”, calling us all to be faithful disciples.
Overall, the first day was great, and I’m really looking forward to the concurrent sessions and workshops tomorrow to get into the meat of the Convention. It should be fun and faith-forming. I’ll blog more about it tomorrow. Thanks for reading!
~ Kevin
We went around to all kinds of different stands, and saw all kinds of examples of faith, from great Catholic music to a nun playing basketball. We got a lot of freebies, but also were exposed to a ton of aspects of faith.
After we saw a lot of the Forest, we got to walk down to “Kansas City Live”, an outdoor (yet heated) courtyard, where we saw Popple (an awesome Catholic band who are friends with Kate) perform a bunch of songs that really got the crowd laughing. And all the Hopkinton people with us that had never seen Popple before (and Chelsea) all thought they were awesome. Then we went to daily Mass.
Daily Mass was incredible. Besides us and the Hopkinton folks, there’s a group of deaf youth here, part of a larger deaf community joining us. Now, you’re probably thinking, “That’s cool, but a bit of a non-sequitur after introducing daily Mass.” Except that the priest was deaf too. It was really incredible to witness a Mass presided in sign language. There was an interpreter with a microphone, but the fact that we could witness that communication was really cool.
After Mass was the Opening Ceremonies. We wound up in the Grand Ballroom, which is technically the “overflow” room (full of about 3,000 people) from the Sprint Center, but it was really great, especially getting to see the Catholic musician Jesse Manibusan (who we had met earlier) on our stage while the majority in the Sprint Center had to watch on a screen. The opening band, Ceili Raine, was really energizing Irish-style Christian music, and a great way to kick off the Convention. The director of the National Federation of Catholic Youth Ministers actually rappelled down out of the rafters to introduce the theme of “Show up, Step up, and Step out”, calling us all to be faithful disciples.
Overall, the first day was great, and I’m really looking forward to the concurrent sessions and workshops tomorrow to get into the meat of the Convention. It should be fun and faith-forming. I’ll blog more about it tomorrow. Thanks for reading!
~ Kevin
Christ Reigns
for being the start of NCYC it seemed a bit slow but it was still crazy, but in a good way. the only bad thing is that Kate said the next few days are going to go by faster and be more crazier.
today we got our region 1 shirt and drove to the Kansas City Convention Center. there everyone else, the other 23,000 youth and adults, had their own region shirts, and crazy hats. the first escalator ride up into the faith filled, artsy, sporty, bounce house world of NCYC was breath taking. everything at once was just amazing. kind of like biting into a piece of chocolate cake with rich batter, double chocolate frosting, on top of a fudge brownie. all those different types of the same great thing mixing into this one great feeling, that's what that first breath of the booths and displays of everything felt like. a mixture of many great things into one. which is how our faith is. the father, the son, and the holy spirit. the trinity. many things, but one whole.
tonight was just the opening session and we were in the overflow room. the overflow room is an understatement. we the youth of St. John's and Kate were just 6 out of at least 3,000 people in the overflow room. just in there the feeling was and still now WOW. the praise and worship and the dancing in that room was amazing. seeing different kids from all over the country gather together to be there for the same reason I'm there for. to find out more about my faith and understand more about the catholic church, not because my parents made me go, but because i wanted to go.
tomorrow is the start of the workshops. and the learning of Christ Reigns which is the theme for this NCYC. there are so many amazing things to see but sadly so little time.
speaking of little time we just eat Denny's again and now I'm really tired.
-peace and love
today we got our region 1 shirt and drove to the Kansas City Convention Center. there everyone else, the other 23,000 youth and adults, had their own region shirts, and crazy hats. the first escalator ride up into the faith filled, artsy, sporty, bounce house world of NCYC was breath taking. everything at once was just amazing. kind of like biting into a piece of chocolate cake with rich batter, double chocolate frosting, on top of a fudge brownie. all those different types of the same great thing mixing into this one great feeling, that's what that first breath of the booths and displays of everything felt like. a mixture of many great things into one. which is how our faith is. the father, the son, and the holy spirit. the trinity. many things, but one whole.
tonight was just the opening session and we were in the overflow room. the overflow room is an understatement. we the youth of St. John's and Kate were just 6 out of at least 3,000 people in the overflow room. just in there the feeling was and still now WOW. the praise and worship and the dancing in that room was amazing. seeing different kids from all over the country gather together to be there for the same reason I'm there for. to find out more about my faith and understand more about the catholic church, not because my parents made me go, but because i wanted to go.
tomorrow is the start of the workshops. and the learning of Christ Reigns which is the theme for this NCYC. there are so many amazing things to see but sadly so little time.
speaking of little time we just eat Denny's again and now I'm really tired.
-peace and love
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Howdy! Rangeley here...We just landed in Kansas City and, lets get to the point, I'm soooooooo pumped for this weekend! While sitting in the airport the reality that we were in Kansas City hadn't set in yet, but now that we are in the hotel it's finally hitting me. We're here!!! Mostly I'm looking forward to tommorow...the first day of the conference. The image of 25000 youth coming together in one place has been burning in my mind and I can't wait to see it in reality. The energy in that crowd is going to be unstoppable! I am also a little nervous because of the sheer scope of NCYC. I mean, there's so many people and so much faith! Anyway I'll just have to wait and see! I got a great nights rest, and Im energized for the day that lies ahead! My prayer for today: Lord, please bring us all together as we truly start our NCYC experience. Help us be servants to your word and please show your great love through us. Ignite the fire of faith in everyone at this conference. Change us, revive us, inspire us, make us disciples to your name. Amen.
what a great day this is going to be! Peace.
what a great day this is going to be! Peace.
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