Passion 2011: Fort Worth, TX

(just so you know, this is VERY long)

This weekend. I don't even know where to begin. This weekend way exceeded all expectations I had and completely blew my mind. There were so many moments where I was left completely speechless. Completely.

I spent my weekend in Fort Worth, Texas, at the Passion 2011 conference, which is a conference held every year (usually in Atlanta, Georgia), for high school seniors and college students. The college students from my church went last year, and I was so jealous. I wanted to go so bad, but the dates conflicted with my first week back to school after Christmas break.... we ended up having an entire week out of school due to snow, so I should've gone.

Anyways.. I went this year. I didn't really know what to expect. I knew it was big, but I didn't know just how big.

I was absolutely AMAZED when they told us that over 10,000 students were attending. Ten THOUSAND. It was breathtaking to see so many believers in one place, all worshipping together.

The music was amazing, the speakers were all very awesome, the family groups brought on amazing discussion. I just don't even know what to say about this weekend. Everything was so amazing, and powerful.

Friday, we arrived (after an extremely long, 9 hour bus ride) in Fort Worth. It was so odd leaving Missouri in 30 degree weather and stepping out of the bus to 88 degrees. It was SO hot! When we got registered and all ready for Passion to start, we still had some time to kill, so we walked around and looked for a place to eat dinner. EVERYWHERE was packed (obviously, 10 THOUSAND students all trying to eat dinner at one time. haha), so we got smoothies. I am proud to say that Passion gave me my first Jamba Juice experience ever. :)

Louie Giglio spoke on Friday night, Chris Tomlin, Kristian Stanfill & Christy Nockels led worship, and then we had community groups, where they split us up according to the color of our wristbands. Mine was orange. No one else in my group was orange. I am THE worst person to leave alone! But.. it made me break out of my shell and actually talk to people I didn't know ( a very interesting experience, let me tell you..)

After that, we all met back in the arena for Late Night, which was a David Crowder Band concert. It was awesome!

But it was AFTER David Crowder where the real fun came in...

They kept saying they had a "secret special guest," and I was STOKED to find out that it was Lecrae.

Let me say this first, I do not, and will NEVER understand Christian rap. NEVER EVER. It makes zero sense to me. But, to each his own. He's making music he likes, and doing it for something he believes in. More power to him, right? :) But, I happen to really like Lecrae for some odd reason. So I got really excited when he came out, and started FREAKING OUT. My friend Jordan just stared at me and laughed at me like, "who is this little white girl freaking out over Christian rap?!"

Saturday was a good day. Better than good. Incredible would be a good word for it.

Saturday morning, we had community/family groups, worship,and then Francis Chan spoke! If you don't know who he is, you should. He was such a good speaker. And at one point, he started crying, and of course, when dudes cry, I cry too. So I was like, balling my eyes out.

Later in the afternoon, Louie Giglio spoke again, but this time about the ministry that we were raising money for. Do Something Now had a goal of raising $220,000 to translate the Bible into a language of a people group that had no access to it. In a 3 or 4 hour period, over $227,000 was raised. (An article has been written about it already, too!). Our next goal is to start removing rubble that STILL exists in Haiti, and the goal is to raise over $700,000 in the next 2 months, and over $70,000 has been raised so far! (You can donate, too!)

Later in the evening, John Piper spoke. Incredible, but so confusing. Half the time I had NO idea what he was talking about! SO much knowledge.

I am astounded by what God is doing in the world, and in my own life.

He is so real to me now, more than ever.

-Haley

(image source)

ps.

this is Lecrae. :)