CLICK HERE for pictures of the youth conference.

This annual nationwide youth conference held at the First Baptist Church in Hammond, Indiana took place from Wednesday, July 21 through Friday, July 23, 2010. Mr. and Mrs. Graves along with Mr. and Mrs. Von Wald and Mr. Nate Otterdahl, who helped us with the transportation were able to take 41 teenagers to the conference. Mrs. Clear came along as well and was able to visit her son and daughter-in-law as well as her sister, Mrs. Denise Fletcher.

The theme for the youth conference was, “A Spiritual Revolution.” Our young people were challenged with the preaching. Many of the speakers included the following: Dr. Jack Schaap, Dr. Eddie Lapina, Brother Christ Tefft, Pastor Freddy De Anda, Brother Scott Gray, and Dr. Ray Young. Dr. Schaap opened the conference with his sermon, “Fresh Oil.” He closed the conference with his sermon, “America, America.” The young people really enjoyed Dr. Schaap’s preaching as I asked many who their favorite preacher for the conference was.

There was also a special guest speaker who was interviewed by Dr. Schaap. His name was Mosab Hassan Yousef. This man withstood torture in prison. He embraced the Christian faith and sought political asylum in America.

We left for the conference at 6:45 a.m. on Wednesday, July 21. We stowed the luggage in Mr. and Mrs. Graves’ white van and Mrs. Graves drove. We stayed at the Hampton Inn in Merrillville, Indiana. We checked in, freshened up, and changed for the evening service. The Wednesday evening service started at 5:00 p.m. After the Wednesday evening service, they served pizza for the thousands of teenagers that were in attendance including the workers also.

Thursday was a full morning of preaching, singing, etc. We went back to the hotel after to change in our casual clothes. At 3 p.m. we took the young people over to Illiana Speedway on Highway 30 in Merrillville. All of the delegates from the conference enjoyed the monster truck, Holy Roller, as well as bus races and various other races. Following the races we went to Hyles-Anderson College. The college provided various competitions in paintball, basketball, dodgeball, piano playing, and singing groups. We entered Jaclyn, Vikki, Bethany, Heather, and Ashley in a singing group competition which took place on Thursday evening. Mrs. Clear played for the ladies and although they did not receive first place, they did a wonderful job singing. It was a great experience for them. Michael, Nakwon, Daved, and Jeffrey entered the basketball competition. They were not able to continue winning, but they had a great time of competition.

At 7:30 p.m. the young people had an opportunity to see Bob Holmes, the one-man volleyball team compete against a few teams. After a couple of high school teams played, Bob Holmes asked for youth pastors and youth directors to come out and play. I had the opportunity to play alongside Bro. Scott Gray, Bro. Ken Schaap, Bro. John Vapersan, and others. We led by just a little most of the game, and actually were able to beat Brother Holmes 25-23. The gymnasium was extremely warm as the weather was very humid.

Friday was a great day as well. Dr. Schaap closed out the conference by preaching, “America, America.” The young people made many decisions for Christ. On Sunday, July 25, 2010, in the Sunday evening service many of the teenagers came forward during the invitation and made their decision public. Parents, thank you for allowing your young people to attend. Praise the Lord for 1020 miles of safety on the bus. We pulled into the church parking lot at 3:30 a.m. on Saturday, July 24, 2010. We left Hammond at 5:05 p.m. and ran into a bunch of traffic in Chicago. Surely everyone slept in and tried to catch up on their sleep, but, praise the Lord, for some teenagers who were in their place during our Saturday church program!

Thank you to Mr. Otterdahl for driving. Thank you to Mr. and Mrs. Von Wald for being such great youth workers and working it out with both of their full time jobs to be able to attend and serve our teenagers. Thank you Mrs. Clear for your time helping the ladies’ singing group. Thank you, Mrs. Graves, for driving the van there and back with our luggage. A thank you to Mr. Nibbe who put time into making sure the bus was taken care of mechanically. It is a blessing to serve alongside a wonderful youth ministry team.

Please continue to pray for our teenagers. God is using them, and He is working in lives.