The David Depositions

Hello everyone! This is David Ong. And this post is about the highlight of the trip for me. No, it was not the street markets of Paris, or the sand dunes of Niger, or even (Gasp!) the wonderful cooking of LaRae Schmidt. As amazing as all those things were, what made my trip memorable was the Youth of the Spiritual Life Conference 2007.

My primary job at the SLC was to help out as a youth leader with the teens and work with the youth speaker, Pastor Nathen and his wife Kelci. And to be honest, I had the best job at the conference. I think I was a little worried at the beginning because this was my first official time being one of the "Youth Leaders" and also because they were all Missionary Kids. That was the most intimidating factor, I think now as I look back. Since I hadn't spent a whole lot of time with kids who actually grew up in the mission field, I wasn't exactly sure what to expect. I would have these subconscious thoughts of "Oh no. What if they ask me what I think about the 27th chapter of Leviticus?? What if they ask me to quote the book of Leviticus?? Or what if I have to give a devotional about the differing views of the Baptist and Methodist church on pre-destination???" Although it was all in my head, I was still relieved when I found out that I had to do none of the above. There were 25 kids from Grade 9-12 and they were all awesome! And even better, they were normal! (Well most of them acted that way at least.☺)

During that week we learned together, played all kinds of games everywhere, made new friends and hung with old friends, had a bonfire on a plateau, sang songs, got into car accidents (only some of us), had good talks, listened to David's awesome iPod, ate delicious food, put together and performed a drime, played more games, listened to really good sessions from Pastor Nathen, had spontaneous line-dances, and we stacked cups. Oh yes, if nothing else, we stacked those cups. In short, it was pretty fantastic.

Quick insert about the stacking cups. If you haven't heard about Stacking Cups, not only are you completely out of the loop and missing out on the fastest growing sport in America, you are also not alone. Basically what stacking cups are, they are special aerodynamic cups that are stacked and arranged in certain formations and patterns. Once you've learned the patterns, you practice until you can do them in as little time as possible. The whole thing may sound a little strange, but it actually does some good. It improves hand-eye coordination, helps build dexterity and it forces you to use both parts of your brain. And if you are the slightest bit competitive or even if you are a lot competitive, it gets very addicting.

We brought over four sets of stacking cups with timing pads to use at the conference and we were going to leave them there. I held a stacking cup session for the youth and by the end of the SLC they were all hooked. Even some of the younger kids were getting into it. There were line-ups to use a set and we had a blackboard where you could write down your time, but we had to set up a qualifying time to get on the board because we had so many people on it. It was pretty intense actually. Special mention for a brother and sister who were incredibly competitive. Kimberly and Brandon. Both had really cool English accents. When I first taught everyone how to stack, they were among the first to catch on to it. One would get a good time and then the other one would rush over, grab a set and work at it until they beat that time, and then the first one would do likewise and they were just like that the whole week. I would always have the best time of course, being the teacher and they would fight over second and third. Towards the end of the week though, all three of us were duking it out for first place. And it was a toss-up, as to which of us was the most competitive. Everyone would always keep up with the board to see who the current leader was because it was constantly changing. But when the conference came to a close and the dust settled on the final times... it was Kimberly, then Brandon, then me... in third place. Sigh....oh well. And that's the end of a quick insert.

Anyways, going back to the fantastic week, I really was blessed and impacted by the youth I got to spend time with. It's a little weird calling them "the youth" or "the kids", I guess that's because they're my friends. I was absolutely unhappy when the end of the week came because I had just gotten to make a whole bunch of new friends and then I had to leave. It's a lot like the end of a summer camp, except that they live on a different continent instead of a different town. And that part made the good-byes just a little bit harder. But knowing that we will get to spend a lot of time together further on down the road also helps.

Closing Statement?

The highlight of my trip was the 25 Godly-Awesome-Crazy-Talented-Mature-Encouraging-Very Hyper-Funny-Artistic-Refreshing-Competitive-Musical-Sensitive-Absurd-Classy-Bossy-Athletic-Impulsive-Profound-Intelligent-Talkative-Ambitious-Outdoorsy-Cheerful-Unforgetable friends that I made at the Spiritual Life Conference 2007.