National Youth Gathering Part 2

"But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that by believing you may have life in His name."  John 20:31  This was our theme verse...our theme "We Believe."  Every day look different to every youth going to that gathering.  Broken into three groups each day a group focused on Looking at what we believe, Listening to what we believe and Living what we believe.  Our Mass gathering united us in the evening bring all three together.

The first full day we were in the Look session.  We began with a Bible study on John 9.  Jesus heals a blind man.  The night before we heard a powerful message from Rev. Gregory Manning about being blind.  And taking what God has given you and using it to praise him.  As our day continues we were going to goto a large group session on World religions but it was filled.  So we explored the large "play ground" filled with blow ups, rock walls, crafts, eating cafe's, karaoke  and an internet cafe for the kids.  We also went to the Commons which was all the exhibits and district booths and a large sports area!  At 4 we went to go see Stellar Kart in Concert.  It was time to find dinner, rest and then head back to the Superdome for an other powerful evening.
The main speaker was Kellie Stocker.  Last year her oldest daughter was killed in an car accident at 18 years old.  Her message was her struggle with her faith and God as she tried to make sense of this tragic accident.  She keep diving deeper into her faith questions and the question everyone has "why do bad things happen?"  She has found how to glorify God through the darkest times of her life.  It was such a powerful message and I believe was the quietest the whole dome was the whole week.