Well later this afternoon I am off to the New Mexico conference winter CCYM event. We're taking 7 youth from our group, which is awesome. They have camp down at Sacramento Methodist Assembly which I've been hoping to get a chance to go to. We've got a really great group of kids going so I'm excited.

In high school, I was really involved in CCYM in the IGRC (Illinois Great Rivers Conference). I ran for a position my sophomore year, but lost in the race. My district had made a mistake though and the people that got elected were all from one church. That was a big no-no. I got placed on the council and it was all over from there. I would venture to say that a lot of my spiritual formation came out of those CCYM planning events and the opportunity to get to know some great pastors in the IGRC. My junior year I was assistant to the VP of the Northeast region during YAR (Youth annual retreat) and got to do all of the dirty work as far as putting YAR together. My senior year I got elected to lead YAR. Being the introverted kid I was, that was my first time in front of a large group, and suddenly I felt at home and realized I had some public speaking skills. My band, Spazms of Faith, played at YAR a couple of years. I can remember countless hours counting pennies for penny wars, time spent on the disciplinary council catching kids for smoking, roaming the halls when everyone else was supposed to be asleep, making pizza orders for hundreds of pizzas, it all brings back some great memories for me.

There are supposed to be about 300 kids at this thing this weekend which doesn't compare to the 800-1000 kids that come to the IGRC Sr. High YAR event, but we're going to have a spectacular time. Speaking of which, I should probably get ready to go. I'll have pictures when I get back for sure.

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