-MBY Fal Retreat-

-MBY Fall Retreat Thoughts-

My home church’s Fall Retreat was this weekend and me and the band got back to together to lead worship for them. So me and my good ole friend Catherine road tripped it for the second week in a row. (And we’re not done yet! Next week we’re headed to Athens for the game… o yeah, get excited! WAR EAGLE). The retreat was at Shocco Springs, same place where the Encounter retreat was… pretty neat, im just glad that I didn’t get lost! (For those of you that know me, im sure you are laughing and for those of you that don’t know me… im pretty much directionally challenged). As we were unloading all the equipment and I walked into the worship room and saw the stage, I realized that I have played at this camp before (didn’t realize it when I was on the Encounter retreat because we were in a bigger room and it was in a totally different part of the camp). So, Zach smiled as memories came flooding back from one of my first MBY worship gig retreat weekends! So much fun… Pierce, P-Diddy, Ant, and Spearman… love you guys!

The turn out for the retreat was a little on the small side but it was still good to see everyone and they didn’t hold anything back in worship Friday nite. Wade’s friend from Kennesaw came with him to play lead… awesome, so glad you came Nate!

The whole time during worship, the Lord was just reminding me that these gifts and talents the Lord has given me and the band are simply gifts and should be held lightly and with gratification… My prayer was… “Lord, remind me of my smallness so I can reflect your greatness in my life to these kids and may they not only worship because You are worthy of all of our praise but because without you we are nothing, may our smallness and your Glorious GRANDNESS be the reason for our worship!”

Got up at 6 a.m. & ran with Ms. Sarah Christianson… what a stud that girl, she was running circles round me and I’m not afraid to admit it! That could be my new favorite time to run… I don’t think my body really realized what it was doing… still too early for it to register to my brain! O, really random… almost killed the entire A T O pledge class from Alabama while in my car...( i know, your thinking “From the University of Alabama? Why did you stop?” Don’t ask, well you can… it’s a pretty funny story!

-Saturday Nite Worship-

Free time was relaxing and we practice for a bit and such an expectation for Saturday nite was sensed… Dinner, prayer time and then the Lord revealed himself in an awesome way through worship and singing. From our heart of hearts with all we knew God to be to us, we began to cry out for HIM to dwell and invade us, show us something new and reveal himself as the creator of the universe, lover of our souls and divine romancer, giver of life, crucified and risen Savior! He is so faithful, as a band the Lord softened our hearts and gave us a sensitivity to the youth’s cries for Jesus, then “All Who Are Thirsty” resounded across the entire camp it felt like, as we sang, “Come Lord Jesus Come over and over again, honestly words cannot describe worship or even our small encounter… Jesus reveals so specifically and lovingly thru music and worship, I hope and pray again the Lord daily reminds me of how lightly, humbly, and sacrificially I should hold my talents and musically ability… if I lose my talent, or it is taken away I would be no different, love God any less and still rejoice in His sovereignty in my life.

Came home and took a glorious two hour nap... and could have kept on sleeping until my 9:00 a.m. class tomorrow! Highschool guys just don't find sleep a necessary part of a retreat weekend, but come to think about neither did i when i was in highschool. Im just getting old!

-Blessings-