Washed CLEAN* By God

I'm finally getting to write my post about PowerHouse '05. As some of you have seen on other blogs, this event basically rocked everyone's face off. This is true...we're all walking around with no faces and singing This Is How We Overcome over and over in our heads...or at least I am.

I was sitting in the back of the auditorium on Saturday afternoon during Jeff Walling's last session as he was praying and giving the invitation. I was watching teens leave their seats and walk to the front knowing that God was the One for them and that they were ready to show Him. PowerHouse takes place on a fall Saturday every other year. Most of my fall Saturdays are spent watching Alabama football. On this day, I was at the church and at some point I thought I wonder what the score is. Then, the first person walked into the baptistry and I didn't care what the score was any more. Of course, I'll always love Alabama football and I'll always wonder what the score is if I'm not watching it, but at that very moment God said, don't concern yourself with the things of this world, we've got more important things to celebrate. I would have been happy with 1 baptism, but when you offer me, 22 I'm not gonna turn you down. I cried as I always do at every single one. It doesn't matter if it's a youth rally or right after church, I cry every time I see a new brother or sister in Christ give up their life for an everlasting One. The best part was seeing a few of the girls that were in the very first Children's Worship class I helped teach when I got here 4 years ago. That was so amazing. My heart was overflowing. Sunday morning, I looked at the babies in the nursery class I teach and thought I can't wait to see them get baptized. Something to look forward to. Until then, to the 22, welcome to the family. May God bless you and may your faith continue to grow daily. You can see pictures here.

Kudos to
1. God for BRINGING IT!!!!
2. Chris Bedard for an amazing worship session on Saturday night. God really did some amazing things through you all weekend, but especially on Saturday night.
3. Jessica Mosley for...well...everything. You beyond earned your year's salary in just one weekend. You truly demonstrated how much you care about the teens and how much you care about winning them for the Kingdom.
4. Connie Teague for keeping a smile on your face when I knew what you were thinking. :) Your organization of the event is humbling. Every bit of it's worth it when we see 1 person baptized (much less 22)!
5. Anita Vajentic (and Tom, too) for sticking with me through our 2nd PowerHouse together. We have one of the dirtiest jobs, but I wouldn't want to tackle it with anyone else.
6. The entire set-up/clean-up crew that worked tirelessly cleaning and re-stocking bathrooms, taking out trash, taking down and putting up walls, stopping overflowing toilets, etc. You make me proud to attend FXCC and I couldn't have survived the weekend without y'all.

I can't wait to do this again in 2 years!!!