IndyCC 2009

So I am back from Christmas Conference! Awesome week! I have started this blog a week ago. Talk about your serious procrastination. However, I was just not feeling extremely motivated to do it this week. I think I just needed a break from life, and blogging is all about life. My life, but life nonetheless. I am so incredibly glad that I went to Christmas Conference. It helped me find focus in alot of things in my life. I have always tried to solve my problems by myself, without God, and it's just not working. I think I need to start turning things over to him more. It is alot easier said than done. But it is something that I think will be better for me.
Christmas Conference had kind of a rocky beginning. I got a voicemail from my mother telling me that she filed a police report against me for trespassing because I went to come pick up my winter coat. Now, for some reason, everyone laughs when I tell them this. They swear they are laughing at her, and not me, but anyway, I digress.
So, back to Christmas Conference. The first night was pretty amazing. The worship band was more than I expected. I was completely blown away at how easy it was to worship with them. I was completely at ease with them. I enjoyed James McDonald's talk. He spoke several times over the course of the week, and they were all amazing talks. Probably one of the best parts of conference for me was getting to see my dear dear friend Ben Swanson. He moved to Cincinnati this past fall to work down there, and I did not realize how much I missed him until I saw him standing there with his arms open to hug me. I felt as though conference went really fast in the sense of I didn't get to spend enough time with Ben.
When I finally did have a chance to sit and talk to Ben, it was an amazing conversation. We just spent time catching up and sharing what had gone on in our lives over the last 5 months or so. I was greatly blessed to have such an amazing friend and brother in Christ.
The New Years Eve celebration was both renewing and sad at the same time. I felt incredibly renewed in God and in my faith as I stood and worshiped in the new year with the people that love me the most in my life. It was an incredibly bittersweet experience. My heart longed for and missed my family, but it was great to realize that my family is whoever I make them. My family has become the people that love me unconditionally, and in spite of my sin and brokenness. The love that they have for me is so overwhelming that most of the time I have no idea what to do with it.
The most amazing and touching moment of Indy had nothing to do with any of the talks or worship or anything like that. It was Monday night-the first night of conference-and we were all in a room of the hotel having campus time. It was something that all the universities did so that we spent time with our own respective universities. Steve put the baby on the floor to crawl around and he(who is trying desperately to learn how to walk) does a bear crawl into the middle of the floor and kinda looked around for a minute, and then the next thing I knew he had crawled over to me, tugged on my pants leg for me to pick him up, and that's where he stayed for most of the rest of the meeting. I am not going to lie, I cried. When he came over to me, when he chose me, picked me, it was a very emotional thing for me. It was the first time that I had the real and true feeling that I belonged. It sounds so silly, but it was truly an emotional moment for me. The unconditional love of a baby, or people like Steve and Sandy, or really any of the people in my life.
Christmas Conference was worth everything that it cost me, and I in no way mean that financially speaking. I grew so much in my relationship with God during my time in Indy. I have begun healing some of the anger that I have had towards God these last past few months. If you are interested, there are pictures from Indy posted on my Facebook. I hope that they are enjoyable!