Wednesday was another great day. Wednesday’s theme was Crossing (taken from the account of the Israelites and the Red Sea), and dealt mainly with what God is calling us to. My favorite aspect of the theme, however, was the fact that MOVE tried to emphasize that a calling isn’t easy. When we respond to what we believe God is asking us to do it may not be all rainbows and puppy dogs, in fact God maybe stretching us in ways that are altogether uncomfortable. Listen to what one of our students, Jordan, said about today:
“Thus far this week of CIY has been the most powerful I’ve experienced. I’ve never felt truly called, but this week has shown me whatever my calling is I can’t do it without God. Even being called by God and working with God hard times will happen and it may not live up to what you expect. God has been telling me something. Whether it is a reassurance or a discouragement I’m not sure, but I have felt something. Hopefully I’ll be sure of what God is telling me.”
Beyond the theme, one of the main reasons I love MOVE is the way it brings a group together. The people who go on a trip like this leave changed, and they leave with a special bond that is hard to understand if you’ve never been. Here are some pictures of us just having fun:
At the end of the night you typically get two hours to talk about the day and just have some fun as a youth group. On this night we choose to play mafia with Billy Babbino’s group from Panama City. Good times. (Dee’s a stone-cold killer.)
The cafeteria was always crowded, so on this night Jordan decided to eat everything with a knife. His decision was amusing to most, but for some reason it sent Victoria into hysterics.
Thug Life.
For most of the first several days we played Dee’s favorite card game, boot and shoot. Dee, Jordan, and Luke named themselves Team Domination, which was ironic because Victoria, Eric, and myself (The Combat Wombats) wiped the floor with them everytime we played. After Wednesday we had to stop playing because I was afraid Dee was going to lose her Christianity.
Here is a picture of me with one of my old friends youth group Jeff Stalnaker. Jeff and I grew up together, in fact we spent many years at this week of CIY when we were in high school. Now Jeff is the youth minister at Post Road in Indianapolis. It’s cool to see the way people come together at a week like this, and over a decade later the friendships I formed here are still strong. Who knows maybe a couple of our students will run into each other at a MOVE conference in 10 or 15 years.
More cool pictures like this one are available at our Facebook page: Crossbridge Students.
PS. These updates are coming in a little later due to some Internet issues while at the site, but I hope you enjoy them nonetheless.
