Youth Convention 08'

Convention 08'

Ok, so I now have some time to sit down and say what I want to say about convention this year. It was really really good.

We arrived on Monday about 3:30 pm, got checked in and unloaded. Everybody kind of wondered the halls like they do when they get there, trying to find friends they haven't seen forever and talking to them until 5 minutes before church then rush to their room to get ready. I didn't get to go to the Service on Monday Eve. because I had to finish up a banner for the freeWAY booth. So while everyone else was out enjoying the fun times of talking and laughing, I was in the confines of my room trying to get this thing done. I did however get to go down and talk to some people a little bit later when everybody was wondering the lobby. A pretty uneventful day. We took 15 this year and luckily we had rooms right next to each other on the 5th floor. Of course taking big groups isn't too fun when someone drops an ice tea bottle from our floor and hits the general manager of the hotel on the head (It wasn't us). But still when you have a large group, they always suspect you first because they ask if you have chaperone's for each room. We did.

The next day, we got up about nine-ish and everybody got ready to go to morning classes taught by Nik Schexnayder, Jason West, Nathan Keating, and various other youth officials. Once again, I was stuck trying to finish up the banner so I didn't get to go to the morning services. Instead I went to Kinko's where they discovered a flaw with the design, and me, Brian Allard and Bryce Allard were stuck for over 2 hours there while they tried to get the dumb thing to print. It turned out nice when it was done though (I'll show it in a min). But after that torturous time, we came back to the hotel and headed straight back out for Olive Garden. We got back right on time to get ready go to Service that evening.

I will stop right here and say that this convention had the best music that I have ever heard music-wise at a youth convention and I have been going for over 13 years. Mark Waddle did a fantastic job of putting music together this year. It was comprised of some of the hottest talent I have ever heard. Everything was right on this year. Everybody was just tight.

Service on Tuesday night was outstanding. Did Bro Emory ever preach. He is just real. The crowd this year was crazy. They were all over the platform the whole service. He preached the way that only Bro Emory can preach. Terrific.

freeWAYs Cd's had come in earlier that day and tonight was our debut release night. So after service I hung out at the booth for awhile, and then it was back to the room to try and get the video ready for the next night when the quartet sang. Kind of interesting the way it turned out, but I was up till 3 that night working on it so by the time that morning rolled around, I was still wiped out.

Wednesday proved to be an awesome day. I love Youth Convention. I was pretty sad this year though because it is the last year it will be in that auditorium and it had been there for 38 years and ever since I started to go to youth convention. Sniff.....O well, I hear they are thinking about moving it to either Stockton, Visalia, or Sacramento. It will just be different. Anyway, after the morning sessions, I met with Steve Caballero, the Western District Youth President who had preached that morning, to get the video ok'd and then went to lunch at the hotel restaurant. Got back to the room and got ready for church. Mom and Dad had come in the night before so I went over to the room and chatted with them for awhile. freeWAY was singing in the singspiration that evening so we had to be there about 5:55. A lot of good singers this year. Usually its just thrown together at the last minute.

After the singspiration, Praise and Worship began. I have never been so sweaty in my life!! It is so hot on that stage and when all the cameras are on you, you cant pick your nose!! The microphones all stink too. Who knows who spit in it before you. There were alot of good Praise singers this year and it was a blast singing. Amber, Lana, me, Bryce, Ashley, Nicole, and one other person. Jason West led that night and we went crazy. I was literally soaked by the time offering came around.

It was time for freeWAY. We did our patriotic medley entitled " I Still Believe in America". It was really cool the way it turned out. At the end of the song, a Military Chaplain came out carrying an American Flag. There was an awesome group there this year from San Bernadino and they tore it up. I cant remember their names though. I never can remember names.

Darrin Sargent took the offering and it was time for Bro Emory once again. And once again he tore the roof off. Alter call lasted for about an hour and finally everybody started to drift off out into the lobby. That is one thing I DONT like about convention, is the crowds and trying to get through them where you want to go. I don't know, some people like that kind of stuff, but I am not one of them. Just get me where I want to go.

That's about it for that night. I think I went to Jack in the Box, picked up a Bacon Ultimate Cheeseburger with the youth, came back to the Hotel and crashed.

The next morning, I went shopping. Yes I know, I know, guys don't go shopping-they go get it. Got back to the hotel and went into the breakfast area and sat down to have some grub. Darin Sargent was sitting across from me a little bit and all of a sudden I hear him say "Tyler, look at your Dad". You have go to understand my dad. He walks about 5 miles everyday and it doesn't matter where he is at, he is going to walk. He came into the restaurant with his "Santa Suit" on. It is a red jogging suit which is now baggy on him because he has list about 40 lbs. Everybody makes fun of it because it is just plain redneck. Hiding my face behind the menu and Sargent laughing at me Dad passed the table and went and sat down next to Sargent and they started talking. Funny!

That afternoon, I got to just chill with the youth. I went to lunch with the Allards and Ken Fitzpatrick to an Italian place and came back and went to lunch again at Red Robin with our youth. Needless to say I could hardly move by the time service came around that night. I want doing any cartwheels on the platform or doing to much jumping. I think I shuffled my feet once, but that's about it.

The last nights service is always awesome. They had 4 different song leaders that night kind of taking it from way back in the day and bringing it up to today's style. I think they started with "He's God on the Platform" and ended up with singing "We Declare War". Like I said, this is the last year of the convention with both North and South Districts so they had so many preliminaries to go through thanking everybody and so forth so on. Finally the offering came around and that by itself took over an hour. They raised almost $50,000 that night. Awesome. Finally Bro Emory came up to preach but before he did, he called Bro John Arocovio to the platform and he preached and prophesied for awhile. Then Bro Emory took it back and preached after that. It was an incredible service. Alter call was still going on when we left 4 hours later.

Overall, it was an incredible convention and we all had a great time. It was so cool to see everybody this year. I am not worried about the future of our District and the way its going because we have some of the best young people that you could ever ask for. Those of you who went...did you have a good time?

Some of the Youth

freeWAY

Praise Team

Preaching

Some of the Youth Camelot

My sis and Kevin Daniels