Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Passion 2012

Well....I am back home in Topeka, KS. It is good to be back! I have been super busy since being back, but today has been a restful/productive day! I slept in until I woke up (9:30am) so I am feeling very well rested! My goal was to have my room cleaned and organized before classes start...and I will be gone tomorrow night after work-Sunday so today was my last chance. I am happy to report that my room is done and clean and well organized. We'll see how long it stays that way! :) So now that that is out of the way....I can finally blog!

Ohhh I have so much to tell all of you and pictures to show! :)

Passion was absolutely incredible. I feel so blessed to have been a part of it! I feel like no words I say will express my time there. But I will try. For those who don't know anything about Passion, it is an event where a bunch of people who love Jesus gather together and a bunch of awesome things happen! And when I say "a bunch" I mean 45,000 people. Passion keeps growing and growing and this year it was at the Georgia Dome. Here is a picture to give you an idea of what 45,000 people looks like! :) If you can imagine, it took so long to get everywhere! If anyone had a personal bubble before Passion, by the end of 4 days it was popped! And if you need to to learn patience...go to Passion! :)



We left Sunday night at 9:00pm (Jan 1st) about 4 hours after I got home from SALT! We arrived in Atlanta around 2:00pm....it was a very long ride but it was well worth it! :) We started each day at 9:00am with community groups. When we arrived at Passion we each got a packet and in that packet was a wristband. Whatever color your wristband was, determined which community group you would be in. I was glitter gold!! Within your community group (about 4 or 5 thousand in each), we broke down into family groups! They were the people you started and ended the day with. It is where we processed and talked about things that happened during the sessions, prayed together, and read the word together.  

My family group!
There were 3 main sessions each day....10:45am, 2:00pm, and 7:00pm. Tuesday and Wednesday they fed us all lunch! In between the last two sessions we had some free time to rest and take in everything that was happening. During sessions, there was praise and worship and then a speaker. And at the end of the night there was "late night options" at 11:30pm.

Some of the bands that were there: Chris Tomlin (he led most of the praise and worship), Kristian Stanfill, Lecrae, Matt Redman, Charlie Hall, and David Crowder Band (it was their LAST concert ever so I was pretty excited I finally got to see them!) Speakers were: John Piper, Beth Moore, Louie Giglio, and Francis Chan. I enjoyed all the speakers but I love Francis Chan!!!! Last semester, some Chi Alpha girls and I read through the book Crazy Love together. I had read it once and loved reading it again. If you have never read that book.....read it!!!!

So what did I get from Passion??

Actually....I think I should rephrase that question. What did I get from OneThing, SALT and Passion?? Basically a new life! I was a Christian before, but I was dead. I needed to be brought back to life. I was having a hard time reading my Bible every day and when I did read it, I didn't get a whole lot from it. I wasn't spending enough time with God. I was praying as much as I needed to be. I was living my life for this world and just kind of going through the motions. I wasn't giving Jesus my all. My eyes were also opened to how selfish I am with my time and my things, but the thing that kept sticking out more at all the conferences was time. 

I want to give Jesus more of my time. I want to spend more time praying. I want to spend more time in the Word, not just reading it but really studying it, memorizing it, and living it. Francis Chan talked about taking the bible literally and doing what it says. Something I love about Francis Chan is how excited he gets when we talks about Jesus....it is very obvious he loves Jesus. He is obsessed with Jesus. That was the theme at OneThing....magnificent obsession. I want to be completely obsessed with Jesus. I want to fall more and more in love with Him every single day.


At OneThing a lady gave her testimony. Long story short....she was challenged to give Jesus 1/10 of her time for one week. She did the math and that is 2 hours and 24 minutes per day. It basically changed her life, and she wanted more and more. So...I felt that God gave me that same challenge. So...starting today, I am giving Jesus 1/10 of my time and I will go from there. It will be a time of no distractions. I will turn my phone off. My computer off. I will have nothing but my Bible, pen and paper. Pray for me! I am really excited to see what God is going to do. 


I could go on and on about stuff....but to sum it up, I want more time with Jesus. And when that happens, everything else will fall into place! The past couple of weeks have been eye opening, and a time of renewing. I feel refreshed and like a brand new person! :)



I will be making another blog post very soon. It took place at Passion but it is kind of a big deal and worthy of it's own blog post! ;)

Also....I am giving up Facebook!!! This relates back to the "time" thing I was talking about earlier. God wants me to get rid of it. I was hesitant at first, but I NEED to do it. I've needed to for a while I just haven't. I had all these excuses as to why I needed to keep my facebook, but another thing that God has been showing me is how good of an excuse maker I am. Sooo I am stopping with the excuses and just getting rid of it! :) 

I will however keep blogging and posting pictures sooo if you want to follow my blog you should "follow" it, bookmark it, or I think I have a link thing on the side that will allow you to get emails whenever I make a new post. And....since I am getting rid of Facebook I will have more time to blog so I will do a better job of posting regularly! 

:) Stay tuned for the other post about something really awesome that happened at Passion!

Here are some pics from the trip.

The sunset behind the dome. Beautiful. 
View of Atlanta from our room.

I got to spend 4 days with these wonderful ladies. Mira and Ariona.

The lights were awesome!


I love this picture! :)

The three of us waiting for the session to start!


Yes, we got matching shirts. We are that awesome....and we
both love tie-dye!! :)

Our last day there. It was a beautiful day! We got to enjoy it before
getting on the bus for the long ride home.

My seat buddy for the ride home! :)









1 comment:

  1. I also saw Kristan Stanfill before you!! : ) Love you to pieces! I am waiting patiently for the next blog and what we are staying tuned for?? Do I want to know???!!???

    ReplyDelete