Winterfest 2011, part 1

I had such a good weekend! Over the next few days, I will write about everything that happened at Winterfest. There's too much to write in one post!

The theme this year was Worthy. We left the church at 3pm and arrived in Arlington, Texas at 8pm. Winterfest is a youth conference held at the convention center in Arlington. I think there are around 6,000 people there.

On Friday night, we started with worship. Six thousand people lifting their voices without instruments is incredible. We then listened to James Waugh talk about how God is worthy of our praise. It was a great lesson! He showed us the stars and how far away they are. He showed us how our galaxy is just one of millions. He showed us how small we really are, and how big our God really is. We saw several videos that showed us again, how big everything is that God created.

We read this verse several times.

"The heavens delare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they reveal knowledge.
They have no speech, they use no words;
no sound is heard from them.
Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world." Psalm 19:1-4a

We talked about our DNA and how mind blowing that really is. We each have our own DNA. No one that has ever lived, or will live, has the same DNA as us. We each were given a thimble. We were then told how many people's DNA would actually fit in that thimble. I don't remember the number because it was such a big number. We were shown how tiny every red blood cell, platelet, and everything in our body is. It's so complex and amazing. We saw how small an embryo is, and the miracle of that.

We read verses about how special we are to God, because He created each of us unique, and knew us before we were even created.

"For you created my inmost being;

you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
How precious to me are your thoughts, God!
How vast is the sum of them!
Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand—
when I awake, I am still with you." Psalm 139:13-18

During the lesson, we heard the story of this man's twin daughters. He and his wife had twin baby girls who were healthy. They took them home from the hospital, and 10 days later, the babies got very sick. They were admitted to the hospital and MRIs and CAT scans showed that both of the babies had brain damage. We were shown their scans of their brains and everywhere was white. White represented brain damage. They were told to cherish the time they had with babies in the hospital because they would never bring them home. Everyone they knew started praying for healing. 

The dad was at Winterfest, and reenacted a conversation that he had with the speaker at the hospital, shortly after they were told the news. They pretended like they were in the waiting room at the hospital. They went back and forth, saying they don't understand. The dad was angry. How could this happen to his innocent daughters? They prayed together. We saw the raw emotion of that time.

Everyone had tears in the eyes. It was so sad. The speaker finished telling the story. The family was told to prepare for the worst. The dad wanted just one more MRI. The doctors finally agreed. On the screen, we saw the MRIs that the dad pushed for. There was no white anywhere, there was no brain damage. The doctors were shocked, this was medically impossible. They got to leave the hospital with their girls shortly after! How does brain damage just disappear? The only way is that our God healed them. We then saw pictures of the girls today, as healthy as can be. It was so incredible! Our God is a God who heals.

So on Friday night, we SAW that God is worthy of our praise!

We got to the hotel at 11pm and had a short devo. We all finally quiteted down, and everyone went to bed around 2am. I of course could not sleep. I slept from 4-5 so that's better than nothing!

Here are a few pictures. These were actually taken at the mall we went to on Saturday afternoon.

Rachel, Alex, me, Natalie

Dustee and I with Rachel and Alex creeping in the back ground! Haha

Alex and I

Rachel and I

To be continued...