First Baptist Asheville Youth

This morning we arrived at the conference at 8:30 in the morning in order to warm up before we sang in the worship service. For the first time we were able to see the banquet hall in which we praise the lord every evening and night completely empty; the usual loud, worshipful, joyous room, was silent. As I looked around I could not believe that every seat in that room would be filled within a matter of thirty minutes with people from all over the world praising the same awesome God. Do you realize how magnificent that is? To worship our God, our Lord and Savior with people who barely speak the language you have spoken your entire life.

We sang three songs in the worship service this morning, "Come Flood This Heart Of Mine", "Praise His Holy Name", and lastly, "Hush! Somebody's Callin My Name", which was the theme of the entire day. We were encouraged throughout the day to open up our hearts and let the message of the lord fill our souls, to be silent and to listen to what God is calling you to do in your life.

After worship we all depart to our family groups where we have Bilbe Study with about twenty other people from various nations. In my family group, group number 234, we have people from Germany, Scotland, Swizterland, India, South Korea, United Kingdom, Alabama, Texas and Jamaica. I can honestly say that within a matter of two days I have became very close to a lot of the people in my group. I automatically formed a deep relationship with Timon from Germany, Chris from the UK, Inwhan from South Korea, Danielle from Jamaica, Paul from Germany, and David from Scotland. There was never an awkward moment between us, even with the language barrier, because right away we knew that something so much deeper than the avergae relationship was bringing us together, the will of God. Today's bible verse was Luke 9: 28-36, for quick reference, it is the bible verse in which Jesus takes Peter, John, and James to the mountain to pray and Moses and Elijah appear before them and then the voice of God booms from above saying to the disciples, "This is my Son, whom I have chosen, listen to him." In order to better analyze the story we broke into small groups and (pictured is Inwhan, Keli, Lauren, and Chris)

in my group was Danielle and Chris. To make a long story shorter, I have never been so inspired by two people I had just met than I was with them. They taught me more about the love of God in fifteen minutes than I could every imagine. I asked the question, "If the main point of Jesus bringing the disciples to the mountain to pray was for God to say what he said, then what was the point of Moses and Elijah appearing at this moment, because I know that in the Old Testament it states that they will appear, but why now?". Chris and Danielle thought a moment and then Chris replied with one of the most eloquently spoken statements I have ever heard, he said, "I think that they were shown to the disciples to illustrate the connection between generations, to bridge the gap between the old and the new, the wise and the learning, the prophets and the disciples. It is somewhat analogous to what God is trying to show us now, to show our generation, that he is not done forming great people to perform his will, that the gap is not done being bridged." WOW! Talk about powerful and this is just one example of how incredible the people in my family group are.

After family group time most people from the group went and toured Leipzig but eleven of us stayed at the conference with Roy. Tyler, Timmie, Brian, Keli, and I played volleyball on the courts surronded by people from all over the world, alongside people playing futbol and ultimate frisbee. I would just like to say, we were undefeated. Timon (the young man from Germany that was in my group) and Corbon (a young man from Tennessee) played volleyball along with us and were major contributors to our team's victory. After that we socialized and ate wonderful German chocolate until worship.

The worship service was fantastic with an interview of Asha Sanchu from Nagaland, India, who has done much work with female sex workers in Thailand and India; helping them find Jesus. The speaker of the night was Denise Vasconcelos from Brazil, and she spoke to us about listening to what Jesus was telling us to do in order to complete his will.

It was a fantastic day in Leipzig! I hope all is well back home and we appreciate your prayers. God Bless!!!!

With lots of love and joy,

Lauren Christian