One weekend, over fourty changed lives.

There are no words I can use to describe the feeling I achieved when I saw the change... The metamorphosis of the new candidates at this past weekend's retreat. God, with all his love, and all his grace, came down into that building in Marysville, right in the middle of the boondocks, and reached into the hearts and souls of each and every candidate, for the first time. I saw their tears, and I saw their sincerity, and their joy, and I suddenly realized the unrelenting might and influence of God. And from that realization, from that epiphany, from that enlightenment, I was shocked into a state of awe at Him, and by Sunday's worship, the same tears of joy were rolling down my own face, even though I had already experienced a retreat, even though I already knew God's love, I felt it there, more than ever, except this time, instead of that fleeting excitement that I felt for God, instead of the need to exclaim my experience to the world like before, I feel calm. A sense of blissful peace. I know now what worship is.

Before, I would scream my lungs out to God with every song, and let my physical body go wild in order to achieve the sense of passion that I'm supposed to have, but now, all I have to do is raise my hands and say a few words of prayer, and I feel God touching my soul, I feel Him consuming me, and it is such an amazing experience. It's like nothing else.

I do admit, I felt doubt for myself, and I questioned my own ability to provide service for God, but that was before I realized that it wasn't about ME, it wasn't MY ability, it was God, it was Jesus Christ doing everything there in that camp, doing all those things and showing the candidates His light. Not us, not the service team. We were USED as catalysts to ignite the flame in the candidates' hearts, but we were not igniting it ourselves, that was the work of God, and I saw Him in each and every single one of those candidates, I felt their joy, I felt God's love radiating through them, and it was at that moment that I realized: my service, my purpose, my life... was complete.

This is why God lead me to this youth group, why He lead me to CFC-Youth. It's why He lead me to this girl who would later on become my sister, who introduced me to the cluster head, who invited me to the retreat, and God also stuck in a certain girl who I'd have a crush on, and though it's not my reason for serving through YFC anymore, I'll admit that for that very first camp, it was my motivation for going, and maybe a stupid crush was what it took to get me hooked onto God's love. And He was so subtle, I didn't notice until now. I didn't realize the whole series of events that occurred, the line of catalysts that would eventually lead me to camp, and it felt so natural. I had only known these people, these veteran YFC members, for TWO MONTHS, and they were already my brothers and sisters, I already loved them. It only took TWO MONTHS to get that, to incorporate myself into their ranks. And now I realize, it was God. It was God who told me to be comfortable around them, it was God, who made them accept me. It was all apart of His plan. And now, I'm here, in my new life, helping God show the people what He showed me.

All the candidates who attended this past CFC-Youth retreat are now my brothers and sisters in Christ. I just pray, with all my heart and soul, that they find their inner peace as I have. That they find God's plan for them, and that they follow it as He wills it to be. And I pray that the next camp will be as successful, if not more successful than this one. And with that, I'll end this post.

Just remember this:
We don't need to be at a retreat to go full potential, so give praise and worship without any restraint.

- Bam.