Elevate 2011 Part 3

We see a young man walking toward us. This is my thought process: "Wait, he looks like my brother! It can't be him! Oh, it's not him, but man he looks so much like my brother that it's freaking me out."  So as I'm freaking out he asks how to get to the gym.  So we explain that you go down the hill and around and you should find it.  Well, we keep walking up the hill and turn and see that he is on the other side of the courtyard also walking up the hill.  Worried that he couldn't find the gym, but not knowing his real name I start screaming, "Eric!" (my real brother's name).  Of course, he doesn't hear me so we give up.  From here on out this boy is referred to as "My Brother"  (not to be confused with my real brother).
After another trip down and up the large hill looking for Courtney (who was at the top of the hill the whole time) it was time for bed.
Thursday morning we woke up excited for a fun day of spending time with God and finding a swimming hole.  If we only knew what was to come.....
The day started out normal with breakfast, and a morning chapel session.  Two things that really spoke to me in Matt Casada's message were 1) What we hope for shapes how we live now.  and 2) Disappointment is the soil in which hope grows.
We went to 2 more interactive sessions that day.  The girls went to a "Girls Only" session about finding our worth in God instead of other people's opinions of us (particularly boys).  It was very good!
Then we went to the interactive that Monty was in charge of.  It was a prayer experience.  There were different stations that you could explore where you do certain things while you pray.  For example, you take play-dough and create something.  This made me realize just how amazing it is that God created the entire world so perfectly.  Another station was where you held an ice cube in your hand to remind you of how your hearts start out hard, but God softens them and melts them.  Something that I realized as I held the ice cube out in the sun was that when I held the ice cube tight and put pressure on it, that it melted faster.  I think this is what God does with us!  He puts pressure on us to help our hearts melt faster for Him!
After lunch, we piled onto a charter bus with another church and some of the band members to find the swimming hole.  We're about to pull into the parking lot, when the bus driver says that he can't make it in there.  This is where the day took a turn for the worst.
To be continued....