Elevate 2011 Part 5

Thursday night during free time we played Apples to Apples with most of our group.  It was a lot of fun!  The main point of the game is matching nouns with adjectives.  The cards that you win are the adjectives and are supposed to describe you.  I won quite a few cards, but they weren't the best cards.  I believe I got exploding, demanding, filthy, etc.
Friday morning we got up bright and early for our white water rafting trip.  Our group was too big to fit on one boat, so Madison and I went with some people from another church, including our friend Sophie.  We had an awesome guide that didn't get us into any trouble. No one fell out on accident and everyone had a lot of fun.  However, at one point we looked back and the boat that held the rest of our group was stuck on a rock and was almost completely vertical! They were stuck for a few minutes too, but luckily no one was hurt.
We hung out in the afternoon, had dinner and then went to chapel.  That night's worship was the best yet.  Thinking about how messed up I am and how much I sin when I don't even realize it brought me to tears.  The amazing thing, it doesn't matter how much I mess up, God will love me all the same.  He sent Jesus to die for our sins.  All of my sin was cast upon Him and now I am spotless in God's eyes. His mercy and grace astound me.  At the church huddle time I realized that other people in our group were moved as much as I was that night.  It was amazing to see the Holy Spirit working in our group that week.
We were planning on playing Apples to Apples, but someone else already had it, so instead we played Signs.  This was another new game to me and I LOVE it! I can't wait to teach more people and play it again.
Saturday morning we had breakfast and then morning chapel.  That day we went to an interactive called Silence.  We watched an interesting video that showed a man getting ready, going to work, coming home, and then just sitting and staring out the window.  It was just silent as we watched him sit.  It felt like forever and you could hear people in the room start to make some noises.  After the video was over we found it was only about 3-4 minutes of silence.  The awkwardness of the movie helped us to realize that we rarely sit in silence with God.  We try to fill every moment with noise (some even when we sleep!).  We then sat in silence for 8-9 minutes.  It was a bit hard, but still a neat experience.  Our next interactive was about Missions and how we as Christians should have a desire to help those in need near us and around the world.
After lunch, we went to Downtown Chatanooga.
To be Continued....