In the middle of a miracle.

Hey all, I'm back from my adventures in illness. True to form, my cold turned into bronchitis. It was one of those times when I felt like I had to get better to be dead. I think I am finally over it. Thanks for all the well wishes.

In other news, last weekend was the annual District Youth Conference in Portland, Or. It was an amazing time.

The worship band totally rocked. We were getting down for the Lord with reckless abandon. I even had the chance to crowd surf. I hadn't done that for over 20 years. It is always cool to show the kids that the old guy can rock out.

This year, I got to teach a seminar on getting really real in worship. I was a little nervous that nobody would come to my class, but both sessions were well attended. Everything went well and I got some great feedback and even some compliments. Obviously the Lord was working, because I could never do that well on my own.

Sunday night was awesome. The speaker was talking about Jesus the healer. He said that if we truly believed, Jesus could heal our wounds. Both emotional and physical. I was sitting in the back and could tell that we were about to have a prayer service. I started to get really excited about going up to pray for people. The closer we got, the more juiced I became. I felt like a sprinter in the stating blocks waiting for the gun. I looked at on of my youth and told her that something amazing was about to happen.

When the call came, there was a flood of people in the center of the room. All asking for prayer. The tears were flowing freely as God took away burdens that we had held onto for a long time.

Now, it's a tradition in our group to wear glow necklaces on the last night of the conference. This was cool because I could look around the room and see where my youth were.

I was floored. I never saw just one necklace. Any time one of my youth went to their knees, two more were at their side to pray for them. I thought that my heart would burst with joy. I was standing in the middle of a miracle.

And that's not all. The next day, we took an offering. We were raising money to buy textbooks for students in Africa. We know that one way to break the cycle of poverty and disease is through education. They only asked once for the offering and then passed the buckets. There was no guilt trip. They just asked 800 young people to realize that there is something bigger than them out there.

Now, the most that has been raised at this conference in the past was $3,000. We brought in $5,000. They were putting in jewelry, gift cards, and even two ipods. Once again, not a dry eye in the house.

God is good all the time. All the time God is good.

Thought for the day -

The best tears in the world are those shed on behalf of someone else.