It's Not Safe

"It's not safe for you guys out here", the nice man

from The Univ of Tenn said. This is what we heard as we were beginning our Base Camp time yesterday. Apparently thunderstorms around here are pretty serious...and this was no exception. Our Base Camp was evacuated from our meeting spot to a parking garage that offered more shelter from lighting and rain. None of this seemed to bother anybody though, in fact they had a lot of fun with it....probably because our Base Camp leader instructed them to wrap me up in masking tape (for some reason they were excited to concentrate the tape on my legs - I was wearing shorts). No worries though because once the tape job was done...I had the chance to display my hulk like power and break free.

"Base Camp" is a group of 2 to 5 other youth groups from all different parts of the country who get together and start each morning off by focusing on the theme of the day. It's been a lot of fun to watch our students get to know the other students in our Base Camp from states such as Minnesota, Connecticut, North Carolina, and Oregon.

It was also amazing to be able to watch our students absorb all that happened during the first Mainstage of CHIC. It was incredible! As everybody in the arena counted down to the start of Mainstage there was an indescribable energy...and then the rain started falling inside! Not real rain but water from part of the rigging above the stage (it was supposed to happen).

As the music started, two guys carrying huge drums came out to the front of the stage and began to beat on the drums while standing under the falling water. It was awesome and from there the CHIC worship band lead us in an incredible time of pouring out our hearts to God in song and prayer. Without hesitation all of our students rushed to the very front of the crowd and joined in worship. Did I mention that we got to sit in the 3rd row? Yes, thanks to Tres, Emily, Jeff, and Alissa who saved us seats, we had a great view of all that happened.

Last night's speaker was Erwin McManus. McManus is a pastor at a church in SoCal and challenged us to live out the dream that God has placed inside each of us before we were even born. He encouraged us with thought that none of us are ordinary but instead that we are "dream incubators". Erwin's words gave us plenty to discuss later in our dorms before we went to bed. It was an awesome first day here at CHIC and I know that there are many more memorable moments to come. As in my last post, here are a few pictures from all that happened yesterday.

After our Base Camp group was told to relocate...meeting in a parking garage
A little human foos-ball action at the CHIC Welcome Party

Ok, so this is actually a box with supplies for the human foos-ball game...

but I couldn't resist the interesting angle on the box :-)

Lots-o-H20

The CHIC band

The first speaker of the week - Erwin McManus