{Day 7}

Worship by Gabriel Wilson this morning. Really, really good. I like the way he does his songs. For anyone who knows the style, they could totally rock "New Song." And his passion is awesome. He lived up to his teaching yesterday.

Kim the Awesome & Adorable

Kim Walker-Smith spoke during Main Session. Highlights:

• "Worship is a constant pouring in and a constant pouring out." - Kim Walker-Smith
• "We are created to respond to Him, and to respond to His love." - Kim Walker-Smith
• This generation of teenagers is "fed up with fake! They are fed up with production! ... One glimpse of God's love, one glimpse of passion, and they are hooked!" - Kim Walker-Smith
• "If you can find a way to find that passion and put it on display, people will come running." Kim Walker-Smith
• Biggest things that come against worship teams:
• Perfectionism
• Criticism
• Judgment
• Jealousy
• If you want more creativity, start eliminating judgment and criticism.
• When you honor, you are inviting favor.
• "One day I will live in the fruit of this moment."
• "God, I desire Your presence more than I desire the answers."

I'm stopping there. There's more. :) Next I went to Judy Franklin's {Bill Johnson's assistant} heavenly realms talk. It was pretty cool. I found out that I'm not weird in my previous experiences with Jesus, experiences that I was pretty sure weren't just my imagination...but not quite. This was an affirmation of that. She called Close Encounters of the Third Kind one of the most prophetic movies ever made. Dad - keep your ringtone. :) {This is a hard class to detail on a blog. If you want more on it, talk to me on the phone or when I get back. It was good, though.}

Then we took Jerry Aaronson's testimony of how he is a Native American evangelist - both to the Native Americans, and from the Native American culture. So good. It resonates with me, even though I feel a bit weird being 1/4 "Indian" and 3/4 European. I'm going to ask him about that. He mostly had inspiring stories, not as many one-liners. He's part of a Christian Indian group that goes around the world. They got to go to a New Age festival in Israel - located where the tribe of Manasseh did something stupid and were told they would always be serving other gods - to honor the First People of First Peoples, and to spread Jesus' love. New Agers would come up to their hill and tell them that it felt so much better there than the other places. There were such cool stories, and I would love to detail them...but not now. That's a lot of words. Another thing to talk to me about in person/phone. :)

the ceiling

the center of the ceiling

Then Amber, my Alabama roomie, and I went to the Alabaster House. We told each other we would be in there an hour, tops. We were in there an hour, but it didn't feel that long at all. Just to sit there and soak, it was great. There's quiet music going, and a fountain in the middle, and windows on every side. I'll try to get some real pictures later. For now, all I have are pictures of the ceiling.

Tonight we sat out and talked way longer than I was anticipating, but it was good.

Oh, and I finished my journal today! {Or, the front of it. I've decided now why not put stuff on the back, eh?}

my journal cover. metallic pink water bottle not part of cover. words say "HIGHER," "State of Grace," "Every child is treated like royalty," "Nowhere is life richer," and "It's a different culture, a different world."

{Oh, and Kim Walker-Smith took off her shoe and smashed a spider on the podium. That was a pretty epic moment. She "doesn't like bugs."}

Also, I got ahold of this MUCH BETTER video from yesterday's worship and the new "My Dear" song. Still not sure if it's a Bethel song or not, but it's good. Listen and enjoy. The quality here is pretty sweet.

{Day 5} Fire Tunnel {Day 6}

I forgot to mention yesterday (post 1, post 2) that we had a fire tunnel. It was a ton of fun {though in terms of intense and...crazy stuff...Leif Hetlund's is still #1}, and my AL roomie and I went through twice. :) Lauren, my host, was even allowed to be on the fire line, since she's a BSSM2 grad, and I think it's super cool that I'm living with her. {Jenna is also allowed to do stuff like that. She did ministry team stuff Friday night.}

Today I was able to work on my journal some more. Still not quite done - should finish tomorrow - so no picture yet! :) Then worship, led by Brian, Jenn, and Hunter. There's this epic new song that kinda rocked my song world, and I'm excited about it. I'm not 100% sure that it's a Bethel original, but it feels like it.


{I apologize now for the terrible audio quality. I was mainly trying to get a guideline for doing the song in the future.}

But the worship wasn't over:



This was pretty awesome. Again, sorry for the audio quality. And yeah, there's not much to look at because I was aiming for sound. {I should have set it to record just audio, but, yeah...}

Gabriel Wilson, Bethel School of Worship 2010 grad and worship leader at a church south of Redding, spoke. Best. Main. Session. Ever. So far. Which is kinda what I've said about all of them, but this one was insanely good. If you were waiting for a recommendation of what to download off of iBethel, this is it. Highlights:

• "Cool is only cool for as long as cool as cool." - Gabriel Wilson
• "Because cool changes." - Gabriel Wilson
• What does it mean to move the heart of God? What does it take for our generation to be a generation that moves His heart?
• "You being who you are in the wake of who He is is everything." - Gabriel Wilson
• "Let the Lord validate you." - Gabriel Wilson

I realize that these notes, compared to the other one-liners I've posted, seem pretty lame. It's the sort of talk you have to listen to the whole thing for. The topic of discussion was all about ministering to God's heart. And it was just incredible.

Then lunch. I ate with two girls from Norway, a girl from London, and a guy from South Africa. I actually had a short conversation with the South African guy: I was speaking Spanish, and he was speaking Italian. And we understood each other. {He did speak English quite well, though with a crazy thick accent. We were just trying out our highschool languages.} Anyway, I thought that was funny, the American girl having a Spanish conversation with a South African guy speaking Italian.

And then I arrived at the room designated for Kim Walker's first talk...and they were turning people away. They're hoping to have a night class for it later, but I was sad. I glanced over someone's list and decided to go to Gabriel's workshop on visual media in worship. It was quite good, and I'm glad I went, though later I discovered that a class of Ian's that I'd wanted had been going on, also: the role of a keyboardist in a worship band. It was the one of Ian's that I most wanted to go to, and I'd been going to miss it because of Kim Walker.

So now I'm a bit confused and asking God why it was so important that I attend the visual media class. I mean, it was good and everything, but it wasn't epically life-changing or anything like that. But I was a hair late for Kim's class, and I totally blanked on Ian's, both of which are weird, and so I'm trying to figure out why I was there.

But I did get to go to Kim's second class, all about women in worship ministry. It was really, really good. She's so awesome and adorable, and has such wisdom. And she gave us chocolate.

you can kinda see my hair

Chris Quilala & William Matthews

Came home and got ready for the rollerskating party hosted by Chris Quilala and William Matthews. Special guest DJs: Kim Walker-Smith, Banning Liebscher, and Jenn Johnson. I got some video, but, I mean, once you've seen one roller rink, you've seen 'em all. But I bet you haven't seen that. -->

Now I'm ridiculously sweaty, or salty, rather, and am sosososososo sore. Tomorrow's hills are already laughing at me.

got that lovely thing from a fall against the carpet-covered wall, yep, yep

{P.S. If you're reading this via email, you aren't seeing the videos I'm posting. Just FYI. Also...um, yes, well, there was something else, but I can't remember it. Must not have been too important.}