in christ alone: urbana09 - take 1

i suppose i should post about urbana, i refrained from doing so not only because its been so long but also cause i honestly don't know if i'm capable of articulating ALL my thoughts about it and give it justice. but i'll just start here:

Urbana 09 was.. freaking awesome. indescribable is a good word, but that would mean this post would end here. I don't know if it was "life changing" (it probably is in all its little ways) but it was definitely challenging and inspiring. I can say for certain that it was a milestone in my spiritual journey. It brought about a lot of questions to worldly conventions- to social norms, social stigma- the world's view vs. Jesus' take. The theme of the Urbana09 was: "He dwelled among us" and the speakers talked about Jesus' incarnation and what it may look like, for us, today. Sometimes it annoys me that we always leave with more questions and no answers, but I'm glad that I have people to struggle through these questions with together.

If you want a thorough run-down of Urbana I can give it to you in person. But basically, it was a lot of broken expectations and God teaching us about.. a lot of things. We came to Urbana, the first night, complaining about worship, making judgments about song choices, and being utterly disappointed due to our personal expectations. The last night we left.. feeling completely the opposite: amazed, inspired and feeling like God definitely met us there. The thing is, we realized that nothing had really changed. The songs were all the same, the mix was still a little choppy and they closed with the exact same play they opened with. The only thing that differed were our hearts that's definitely God meeting us through our prayers.

There's definitely more than this that I learned (there was a lot...and i learned a lot) and again I rather just tell you in person.

Stories to ask about:

1. Flight woes. ATL baby!
2. Lunch woes. White Castle.. Hooters? o_O

3. Mike's addiction to the arch. (not a real story, we just went to see the arch)

It's the little things that make it

the 'best' things about urbana09:

1. The people. I don't mean the 17,000+ people but our little groupy of sometimes 9, sometimes 10. I think the people you go with can really make or break the experience. and I honestly didn't know if it was gonna work. it was three groups of friends coming together and in my experiences, two was already hard enough to merge. We each only knew maybe half the people going but it worked and I enjoyed it a lot. We all connected surprisingly well and had a lot of fun together. especially rooming together (guys) and worshiping together (all)--doing things that were slightly embarrassing, shameful and unspeakable. :x

(no judging. i <3 you guys!)

2. Family time. Family time really made everything THAT much better. =] no joke. amazing sharing/discussions. digest what you learn. I really appreciated everyone's honestly and vulnerability.

3a. worship. there's something about singing with 17,000+ people. There's also something about singing with in christ alone with those people and really meaning the words you sing. (There's also something to be said about worshiping with the people next to you but that falls into another category...)

3b. shamelessness. con poder. hakuna mungu. magdan lik. enuff said. =]

4. hotel proximity. we literally lived across the street from the center. all the speakers and guests stayed at our hotel.

5. it has to be .. CON CON CON PODER!