Where: San Jose, California
When: November 6-8, 2009
Pre-Friday (November 4-5): On Tuesday, the team drove to the San Jose, CA airport to pick up our event director Joe! It was quite a bit of fun seeing him and his beard (trimmed up and wolverine-ized for Halloween). And at this point, the entire team was excited, energized, and ready for the upcoming weekend! We drove back down to Kings City, CA! The next two days (Wednesday and Thursday) consisted of event training! To summarize, the team gathered and went over how the weekend was going to run, reviewed how to set up lights (yes, meaning huge colored flashing lights!), and worked out how to set up our huge projector screen!
Thursday night was our final "regular," albeit wild, concert before the first Quake Zone of the year. We changed up the set list a little bit, and the kids loved it! We added one of my all time favorite songs, Mighty To Save to our set list, and everyone was singing along. Our contact David who also housed us for two nights (thank you for the steak and burritos!), was super cooperative and welcoming, and the entire team enjoyed ourselves. The concert went swimmingly and after a nights stay at a swell host home, the weekend approached.
Friday (November 6): The day had come! And at this point, there were several emotions and thoughts running through my mind. Confidence and trust both played a big part in making a well-planned event run even more smoothly. I was confident in our musical ability as a team, and we, as a team, placed an incredible amount of trust in God, and how he planned to work through us this weekend. We spent as much time as possible in prayer, asking for continued good health, strengthened unity as a team, and the maintaining of energy throughout the weekend.
Speaking of energy, I made a vow to myself to make myself look like a complete crazy person on the stage in an effort to spur the kids to a high level of energy.
It worked, and for the opening celebration, our set of songs went exactly as planned. After headbanging, dancing, hopping around stage, and ultimately jumping off the drum riser on our final song, I was both sweaty and exhausted, but extremely happy, because the young and energetic audience was able to feed off our energy, and dance and jump as well! It was an incredible night, to say the least. And after facilitating a Trek (bible study) with Kevin, listening through an awesome set list by the guest musician Daniel's Window, and enjoying a hilarious message by our speaker Bill Yonker, I hit the proverbial hay and slept for five hours.
Saturday (November 7): The alarm blared at 6:22, and I got a chance to run through our detailed schedule before diving in with the activities of the day.
After an opening celebration of a few high energy songs by Daniel's Window, we took the stage for a few minutes (I broke a pick AND a guitar string on one song!). The great and mighty Bill Yonker spoke for a few minutes, and then kicked off the Treks for the day. Kevin and I had the privilege of running the Junior Guide Leader Treks. "What are Junior Guide Leaders?" you may ask. Well, to break it down for you, every youth group appoints one, two, three or more Junior Guide Leaders (usually high school age) to help the youth leaders run the youth group for the weekend. And these three different bible studies, or Treks, were specifically designed to discuss and enforce biblical leadership characteristics in these high schoolers.
Myself and Kevin were able to hang out with this same group of about twenty high school guys and girls for three different Treks over the course of the weekend. And we had an absolute blast doing it. My prayer is that they were blessed through the weekend and the bible studies, as we discussed ways in which they could better serve God through serving their younger youth.
One of the most special events of the weekend, was the Variety Show, which I was honored to be able to host! On Friday afternoon and Saturday morning, youth from each youth group had the chance to register to perform some sort of an act or talent at the variety show which was planned for Saturday afternoon. After many air bands, songs, piano solos, juggling acts, a.. peanut butter.. skit (?), and a Taylor Swift Boy Band performance (which I was privileged to partake in!), everyone walked away with a newfound appreciation for weird talents, I can assure you!
Following the variety show and dinner with a group of teenage guys from an amazing youth group in Sunnyvale, CA, I was able to enjoy listening to Daniel's Window perform as they opened up the night with a 45 minute concert, followed up by another intense, hysterical, and meaningful message by our humble speaker, Bill Yonker. Saturday evening was also tagged as "Crazy Dress Night," so we took the stage with swimsuits on our heads and capes on our backs for the final few songs, then crashed for the night.
Sunday (November 8): The last hurrah.
Following breakfast with a hilarious group of kids from Lodi, CA (they pelted me with ping pong balls!) and a few more songs from Daniel's Window, Bill Yonker sent the kids away with one final message on the theme verse of the weekend. Micah 6:8, "He has show you what is good. For what does the Lord require of you? But to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God."
After a few more songs, another jump off the drum riser, and autographs all around, the San Jose, CA Quake Zone and Captive Free West Coast 09-10's first event of the event season came to a close.
What. A. Weekend.
- Michael Stephen
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