Montreat – Days 4 & 5

Meghan Blackwood (rising freshman)

OH MY GOODNESS! Brand new energizer, variety show, a birthday, Jacob Hoyle, what else could make this day better????  They did the new waving flag energizer today and this is the first conference to learn it!  The variety show was great!  Kelli Letner played ukulele and sang great! She got a standing ovation.  Montreat is the best camp I have ever been to!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESSICA PHILIPS!!!!

I can’t wait for the eighth graders to come next year! You will love it!  Small groups are really fun because you feel like you have been friends with them forever!  They are all so nice and fun to have group discussions with.  The pastor and keynoters are getting deep, and I think they are helping us all get close to God.

—meghan blackwood—

Erin Welty (rising freshman!)

AAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!! Montreat. Is. Awesome. I can’t believe we only have one full day left. The small groups are great and the keynotes are great and everybody is having such a good time. Today was really fun; we learned a brand spankin new energizer and it’s basically the best energizer ever made. I LOVE IT. Also, we had the talent show tonight! Kelli sang with her ukulele and it was fantastic (of course). Earlier today some of us went hiking and climbed to the top of Lookout, which was really fun and the view was gorgeous. AND yesterday we went rockhopping which was so much fun!!! However, a girl in my small group told me afterwards that their group had seen a rattlesnake…ehh. And Allister (Jay’s precious 4 year old nephew) is here with his parents so that provides a lot of entertainment! He likes to play a game where he gives a new name to everyone…my name is Silverwear! So yeah, I’ve had an absolutely amazing time at Montreat so far! I definitely will not want to leave Saturday morning. There’s nowhere else in the world that’s anything like Montreat!!!!!!

OOOOH AND ALSO HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO JESSICA!!!!! J

Jessica Phillips (freshman)

What’s up, what’s up? Montreat is like the greatest place on Earth. It’s so amazing! People here are so nice. It is great to take a step back from everything in Clemmons and come here. This week has been priceless. ‘Silly’ Sam Cooper gave me and Erin a killer tour of Montreat Campus(: Today was my 14^th birthday, and what better way to spend it then here at Montreat? I got sang to about 5 times. The new energizer that they showed us how to do was the best thing in the world. It’s my favorite. This trip has brought everybody closer I think. We went rock hopping yesterday with our free afternoon. That was probably the highlight of my week. I think this trip has been a life changing experience for me. It has opened my eyes a lot, and brought me closer to God. Jay’s little nephew Allister is the cutest thing EVER. He gave everybody new names which is so adorable. Haha. Tomorrow is our last day, and I’m really sad we have to leave. I’m actually getting kind of tired now so i am going to go to bed. Goodnight everybody.

-Love & Rockets;

–Jessica (:

Stephen McCoy, Rising Sophomore

Hey CPC members, Stephen here on the last day of Montreat L. Today, so far, we’ve been in small groups twice, our two last meetings until next year. We wrote on each other’s “Facebook” page, which was a piece of paper with the Facebook homepage on it. This morning in small group 26, we were assigned a passage from our group leader to read and then we made bumper stickers/ slogans from what we read. This afternoon, we talked about all of the “ebenezers” in our church and lives that help us remember that we have God with us. I was so surprised to see how many of them we could name in just a five minute period. After we took care of the faith-y stuff that we had planned, it was all about pictures. If you want to see them, Mom, just go to Facebook and look up “Montreat 2010 week five group 26” or something like that, but I would advise to do it after we come back because they’d be conferee pictures. Oh, I forgot one thing, I HAVE A NEW FAVORITE ENERGIZER, as do many other GOOTH members. It’s called “Waving Flag” and it uses the song by the same name that was used for the World Cup this year. If you want to see it, you can go to Youtube and type in “Wavin’ Flag Energizer.” But, the best part about it is that we were/are the first people to learn the energizer. Well, that’s all that I have to tell for now, so…

-PEACE!

-Stephen

Montreat – Day 2

Sarah Hoyle – rising Junior

Hey hey heyyyy! Sarah Hoyle here- ready to blog and pour out my soul to you about the amazing powers of Montreaty-ness, but I just realized that Ian and Sam covered EVERYTHING I wanted to talk about! They did a wonderfully accurate job. The Jeremiah Project has been a completely amazing experience. I’ve made fantastic new friends and felt incredibly close to God. As our pastor Byron Wade has said, Montreat really is a “thin place”. A place where it’s hard to tell where heaven ends and earth begins. Ok, so I know that sounds totally cheesy but it’s true! If you’ve been here before, you know what I mean J. Soooo yea! Keynote ROCKS, Gooth ROCKS,  recreation ROCKS, worship ROCKS, Montreat ROCKS. Nuff said.

Peace and Love,

Sarah Hoyle!

Sara Morris-rising sophomore

Hello everyone! Wow, what a great second day at Montreat! We’ve had such a great time so far. From worship services, to small groups, to just sitting and relaxing on the porch it’s all been a great experience. However, the highlight of my day today was talking to David, a Boy Scout selling lemonade to fund a trip to a big boy scout conference in Japan in 2015. David was adorable and as Julia said, looked a lot like Russell the Boy Scout from the movie Up. David’s specialty though, was getting your 50 Cent lemonade out to you as fast as possible. He was able to get out a cup, fill it with ice, and pour the lemonade in five seconds flat! He explained to us that he wanted people to just be able to walk by and get their lemonade without having to stop and take time. This is only my second year here at Montreat, but I already recognize that it is a unique place. Everywhere you go here there is a special feeling that can only be explained by the presence of God all around smiling down on us.

Love,

SARA MORRIS

Montreat – Day 1

i finally crashed last night…after all the traveling the past two weeks, i crashed and burned and went to bed at 8:15 last night…slept til 8:45 this morning. the youth wondered where i went, cause i just disappeared. but i’m rested, now!

jay

Ian McElwee Graduated senior and Sam Cooper Rising Sophomore

What’s up CPC??!!!!  Ian and Sam here in Happy Hearth at Montreat!   It’s only been one day here and already we are having the time of our lives.  For those who don’t know Sam and I along with Sarah Hoyle are taking part in a special program called The Jeremiah Project.  Instead of going to a normal small group we go to a smaller group of 14. In this group we help plan worship and keynote and are a part of them all while helping us explore more of our calling to ministry. So far we have met four times for two hour sessions and it’s been amazing. We have become a small little family and we’ve only known each other for a day. The work has been new and tiring, but our creative brains get to be exercised!  Ok..so part two of this little blog session we had to go to bed last night because the Jeremiah project people had to be up and in the auditorium by 7:15, in Montreat time and sleep schedule that is like waking up at 3 in the morning at home.  We made our way into the auditorium and we did our final run through for our skit we presented in key note. After waiting around for a while as final key note preparations were made and after we watched the auditorium fill with youth and adults and go through the usual energizers and music…it was finally time. Our light cue was given and all 14 of us walked onstage to perform our liturgical dance to the Pink song “Sober.” The song was powerful, the message was powerful, and the signs we used as part of the presentation left powerful images with us and with the rest of the conferees. The whole performance as a whole was wonderful for us, and from what we heard afterwards it was wonderful to other people as well. After the key note in our small group we did some deep, group loving and family growing discussions followed by more planning for future key note presentations. Now (after the Tuesday afternoon small group) we have both Wednesday morning and Thursday morning key notes planned, and I can tell that the rest of this week is going to be one of the just as fun, if not more fun and more inspirational, than these first two days. The worship participation, the smallness (we put the small in small group), and the faith is sure making this one of the best groups at Montreat that we have ever been in. JP! JP! JP! GO TEAM!  Peace and love !!!!

Montreat – Arrival Day

We’re here and it’s hot and humid!!!! We had one quick post from our arrival day. Check back Tuesday morning for a post of our first full day!

Katie Morris and Julia Badorrek, graduated Seniors

As we arrived at Montreat this afternoon, the excitement was building. Seniors are excited for their final year as full-time Montreat-ers, and freshmen are anticipating an awesome first time experience. We had wonderful pork barbecue for our first dinner, and waited out a refreshing rainstorm.

OH SNAP!!!!!! The kitchen looks naked without its walls; our house is under a strict diet (aka new ownership) and has lost weight. There’s one awkward column left and it’s weird. It’s cool that we have an Asian music leader again, because it reminds us of America’s favorite ex-couple, Jon and Kate.

Along the dam of Lake Susan, we yelled out our small group numbers in a frantic search to find other members as shameless graduated seniors.

We are looking forward to our first keynote and small groups tomorrow morning, and must now hit the sack. J

Katie and Julia

Massanetta Springs Middle School Conf 2010

Erin Welty, rising 9^th grade

Oh my goodness, I love Netta. We just got back from the Stop Hunger Now thing, which was quite possibly even more fun than last year! We packaged over 10,000 meals that consisted of dried vegetables, soy, a lot of rice, and this powder with lots of vitamins in it. My job was to weigh the bags of food after they’d been filled, and it was very fun because I got to sit next to Jay! Another fun thing we did today was workshops with small groups. I personally LOVE my small group…our enabler, Collin, is really awesome and I’ve met so many great people. We went to two workshops today; the first was “Life Out Loud,” were we made skits and then got to film them and the second was “Jam Session” where we talked all about music and God. It’s great to be back at Massanetta; I’ve already had soooo many great experiences and we still have two days left! AAAAHH!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!! Well, I better finish this thing because we’re starting our back-home devotions. Oh and also our keynoter is from Winston-Salem and her daughter goes to Hanes! I thought that was cool. And she’s also a very good keynoter. AND recreation was so much fun today; all of the games we played were crazy fun! Okay, well that’s all I have to say.

Journey of a YAAD Part 7: More Plenary/Final Reflections

Well well well, it is finished. General Assembly is over and all the commissioners and delegates have left Minneapolis and headed home. I’m sorry for not posting for the past few days, plenary sessions on Thursday and Friday were pretty long and then YAAD gatherings afterward kept us up pretty late. But, when it was all said and done, it was completley worth the lack of sleep, confusion and  frustration. I had the opportunity to see the “rivers of living water” Jesus refers to (John 7:37-39) in the faces of fellow Presbyterians, young and old, men and women, conservative and liberal. Not only did I have such a great time interacting with these people, as I looked in each of their faces I saw the thousands of faces that they represented around the country and thinking about how the actions we took are going to enhance and help grow the ministry of our church.

So now that I’ve had a bit of time to think about plenary, its much easier to describe. Plenary are the large business meetings where each committee reported and the large assembly (all 700 some commissioners and then around 200 advisory delegates) debated the issues and either approved or disapproved the overtures. Sounds easy enough right? Well it only took us 2 1/2 days to get through everything, but we did. The vice moderator, Landon Whitsett, told the YAADs after our final plenary that the GA was one of the calmest, most civil he has ever witnessed. Which is really neat, because we were talking about some serious and controversial issues. But everyone kept in mind the reason we were there and that was to discern God’s will, not our own. That doesn’t mean we always agreed, but in the end I am really excited about what is to come. It was an amazing event and I am so thankful I got to experience it. Thank you all for reading and for your support!

Here are some links to stuff from the Assembly…

Pastoral Letter from Moderator etc. This letter also has links to FAQ’s about some of the big issues discussed

YAADS Plenergizer! This video shows the second of 2 energizers led by the YAADS during Plenary (aptly called plenergizers). N0te on the video, the video feed does shut off for minute or so, and you can hear talking, but it does come back.  If you’re really interested, most of the plenary sessions are online, but really we all know that plenergizers are the most exciting part of any assembly.

Journey of a YAAD Part 6: Plenary Begins

Today was the day that I had been waiting for forever, the beginning of plenary. We have been meeting in small committees the past few days to consider a few items of business; today all 800 or so (commissioners and advisory delegates) met in the large plenary hall to start wading through everything. After only one afternoon and evening business meeting I can tell this is going to be an exciting, frustrating, wonderful, nerve-wracking and fun few days.

Tonight we approved of sending a new Form of Government for the PCUSA to the Presbyterys for approval. A task force that was chaired by our new moderator (before she was moderator) have worked hard on this for the past few years and I regret to say that most of that discussion went over my head. I tried doing some reading on church polity etc. before coming here, but it is a very complex subject that I’m sure someone with a seminary education would love to explain to you (cue jay) : ) What I did get from the debate on the nFOG (we Presbyterians do love our acronyms) is that even when we disagree, this church is made up of people that love it passionately and want it to succeed. We might not always see things the same way or go about it the same way, but we are all Presbyterians and I can’t wait to continue to discern the best options for our church in the coming days.

And if you’ve been keeping up with the energizer saga, there was a video taken during our committe-wide energizer. Enjoy : )

Journey of a YAAD Part 5: Finishing committees

Today I honestly beleive that I saw the Holy Spirit at work. Yesterday, I will admit was probably the most frustrating day I’ve ever experienced. Before our break for dinner my committee was so far behind and we were beating a dead horse into a brick wall (it was that bad). I really saw no end in sight for this group. During dinner something must have changed because last night we were able to catch up on our docket and today we finished ahead of schedule. It was incredible. We still debated, but it seemed more like honest debate instead of bickering and “word-smithing”. After committee time I went to a celebratory lunch with the fellow YAAD’s on the committee and then we wandered around the Exhibit Hall, checking out some of the ministries and programs of the PCUSA. Also got some awesome “swag” and some resources that I will gladly give our session.

I know I wrote about how energizers really lifted the spirit of a few YAAD’s after the long committee time yesterday but I wanted to share another energizer story. After that experience we asked our committee’s moderator if we could lead the group in an energizer during a recess break. I was half joking, but he agreed and so we went for it. Myself and the fellow YAAD’s led our committee in “Share the Well” today. I have never seen God more clearly in the face of others. This energizer fit in perfectly with the theme of this assembly that deals with “rivers of living water,” as this song discussing sharing the world’s water resources. Some of our older colleagues had never done an energizer or it had been a long time but to watch them smile and laugh ad they tried to follow the young people at the front was truly moving.

Thank you all for reading/commenting etc. It is great to hear from everyone, and I encourage you to read up on the news of the GA because this really is an exciting time for our denomination. Can’t wait to tell you all about it when I get back!

Journey of a YAAD Part 4: Committees

Let me just say that I am so thankful that last night was as relaxing and fun as it was because today has been a trying one. I’m still having a great time and deep down really love what we’re doing, but I also now realize the reality of how difficult the task before our church is. We have been told that what makes us Presbyterians is how we discern the will of God together several times, and today I saw this practice attempt to occur for the first time. Friends, its not as easy as it may sounds.

We have been in committee sessions all day. We took a break for lunch, a few short recesses, and now we’re on a dinner break before going back at it until 9. The way General Assembly business works is very similar to the U.S. government in that we refer all items of business (here called overtures) to a committee. The committee looks at them, amends them etc and then sends them to the whole General Assembly with a recommendation either for or against the overture. Then the commissioners make the final vote. I am on the health issues committee, number 19. We have 6 overtures before us (for some comparison my roommate on the board of pensions committee had 12). We passed one yesterday and were scheduled to consider 4 today. We have passed 2, and it’s looking like a long night. If you’re interested in checking out the type of overtures that come to us (or any committee) you can go to pc-biz and look into them. While the debate on nit-picky semantics was frustrating at times, I did get some real insight today into what the legislative process, for our church and I can assume our government is really like. It is hard, tedious, tiring work but when it is done, wow. The feeling of accomplishment is so great, not only because we are doing some real things but because we have all become so invested in this work and in each other.

Well it’s almost time for me to head back into committee. Please continue praying for me, the delegation from Salem Presbytery and all other members involved in the deliberation process right now, we all appreciate your support.

*Note: this following part was added after later, after committee business was finished* SPECIAL NOTE TO ALL GOOTH READERS. I just wanted to share an incredible experience I had this evening involving none other than the crazy fun choreographed dance moves we love. Oh yeah, energizers.  It was a long day in committees and tensions were running high when we adjourned. A few of my fellow young adult friends were outside in the hallway and needed something to lift our spirits and we settled on “I”m gonna be (500 miles)” two of us knew it and taught it to two others. This silly little gesture not only made us feel so much better and helped us laugh, but as our older adult commissioners saw what we were up to, it brought a smile to their face. Just though I”d let you all know that a love of energizers extends throughout our denomination. yay!

Journey of a YAAD Part 3: Opening Worship

Happy Fourth of July everyone! Today has been another great day at General Assembly; I’m writing this before running off to a picnic/fireworks/moderator’s reception on an island on the Mississippi River so its going to be a fun night I’m sure. Today began with opening worship. Everyone talked about how awesome it would be, with around 7,000 Presbyterians coming together in one place and as I walked in this morning I completley understood. Imagine a coliseum full of people singing and praying in almost the same way we do every Sunday at CPC. We even sang All Creatures of our God and King and I was brought to tears because it was like listening to our congregation but amplified which is what General Assembly has been for me so far, an amplification of Clemmons Presbyterian and the work we do. The entire service was beautiful and if you ever get a chance to go I highly recommend it.

This afternoon we met in committees for the first time. I”m sure after a whole day in committees tomorrow I’ll have a whole lot more to say, but today was a good start. I’m excited about committee because YAAD’s have full voice and vote, and today I even made an amendment! I changed the title of an overture (like a bill) to reflect some of the amendments we had made. Not to exciting, but it was empowering in a way and I look forward to the rest of the work our committee and the whole session will do.

Well I’m off to Nicolette Island now, hope everyone reading had a happy and safe 4th!