YEC 2014 in the Cajundome

The weekend prior to Thanksgiving I took our church's youth group to Lafayette, Louisiana for YEC. YEC stands for Youth Evangelism Conference and is an annual conference for Christian Youth to encourage this generation to live out their faith and make a difference in their communities.  We have a small country church and brought 3 young people (and myself).   I guess since the adjective 'young' is relative, I am relatively young, so let's say we had 4 young people from our church.

We partnered with a church in a neighboring community that we've grown close to and we all went together in their church van and left Sunday after church.  In order to help us financially, a church in Lafayette graciously offered that we could sleep on the floor in their fellowship hall.  We were very appreciative for their benevolence and calculated that they saved us six or seven hundred dollars in hotel bills.  To repay their blessing, we're going to help them this next Spring or Summer with some painting & cleaning that they need done.

Sunday evening we grabbed a quick meal and headed to the Cajundome.  There was a traffic jam of church buses from around the State.  I saw a bus from Grand Isle, Louisiana, which is practically sitting in the Gulf of Mexico and another bus from Monroe, which is way up north along with dozens and dozens of buses in between. We got these nifty bracelets which served as out tickets for Sunday night and Monday and went in to find our seats.

Cool ticket bracelet

We found our seats up in the upper deck.  There were 8,000 young people in attendance.  It was loud and rowdy, but in a good way.  The theme of the conference was Live Sent and was based on John 20:21 which says:

Jesus therefore said the them again, "Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you."

The Theme

There was great worship music from a band called "Finding Favour" and then an illusionist named Jared Hall that came out and did some illusions that had everyone in attendance looking at each other asking, "How did he do that?!?"  A speaker named Wes Hamilton gave a talk using the text from Luke 8 where Jesus cast the demons out of the demon possessed guy and they went into a herd of pigs who went into the water and drowned.  He talked about the demon possessed man, saying that he lived in the tombs among the swine, was naked and had gashed himself with stones and had cuts all over his body in various stages of healing, scars from a lifetime of bad decisions.  Yet Jesus felt compassion for him, met him where he was, ministered to him and changed his life.

He said that even though we're not naked and living in a graveyard, we all have scars from bad decisions and yet if we come to Jesus, He can provide healing, forgiveness and everlasting life.  The demon possessed guy wanted to follow Jesus, but Jesus refused his request and instead asked him to return to his home and describe the great things God has done for him.  He complied and went throughout the whole city telling them about Jesus.  And that is what we are to do!  We are to tell the Good News of Jesus Christ to those around us.

Our group clowning around under a huge oak tree by the Cajundome

It was a thought provoking message.  An invitation was given and in Billy Grahamesque fashion, hundreds and hundreds of young people went down for the invitation. Truly a remarkable event!

Later that evening we made our way back to the church where we were staying which kind of sits in an industrial area of Lafayette.  We had snacks to eat, talked about what we had experienced and prepared to bed down for the night to be ready for a full day at YEC on Monday.  Boys slept on the floor in the kitchen area and girls on the floor in some neighboring Sunday School rooms.  The lights went off.

We were nearly asleep when the girls ran into the room.  Apparently there was someone right outside their window saying, "Helloooooo!"  When we went outside, there was a homeless man that was sleeping on the property.  We called the pastor of the church who drove back out.  Their church knows him, ministers to him, helps him and allows him to keep his belongings on the church property during the day. We talked to him and gave him a package of cookies and all agreed to pray for him as the local church continues to help him, so that Richard's life will be changed by Jesus.  God underscored the lesson we had just heard earlier of Jesus' compassion for people with a lifetime of scars by presenting to us a real object lesson that very night.

We met the next morning for more singing, more humor and illusions from the illusionist, and more great talks, encouraging us all to Live Sent - to be bold and courageous, to shine the light of the Gospel to those who we come into contact with, knowing that we're not alone.

Our two churches' youth groups

We were challenged to live different from the culture around us, to be loving, to walk as Jesus walked and to have the heart of a servant to those around us, not shrinking back from testifying about what He's done for us, and lead others to find His perfect Peace and Love.

Listening to 8,000 Youth singing praises was a powerful thing

We had a break in the afternoon from 4 to 7.  The pastor from the church in the neighboring community and I went to a complimentary meal for pastors and youth leaders.  The food was good. I thought it was funny, though, that there were no vegetables.  And everything was brown.  There was a buffet line with sausage jambalaya, fried meat pies, fried catfish, boudin balls, and some rolls.  We feasted. They had a goodie bag with all sorts of things for us, including ear plugs!  At 8 o'clock there was a concert that everyone was excited about.  Hence the ear plugs.

The concert was a group from Australia named For King and Country, made up of the younger brothers of another Christian artist named Rebecca St. James.  Their philosophy of their music (from Wikipedia) is:

"The power of music can impact our mood, emotions, our day. But when you merge the strength of music with the heart, hope and passion of the Gospel... it has the ultimate power not only to change someone's day, but to impact them for eternity. This is why we write music and sing songs - we hope that people will be moved, encouraged and stirred to live a life for Someone greater than themselves."

They had distinctive Australian accents and in one of their songs, "Let my life be the proof of your love," they climbed into the arena with the youth and sang.  The lead singer came within 15 feet of us.  I was impressed with the lyrics of their music and even more impressed by what they told the youth.  The lead singers told the girls. "Young ladies, you are valuable, you are of great worth.  You are a princess, a child of the King.  Never let a young man disrespect you or your body by treating you as a commodity.  Live lives of purity, of virtue, of character."  Then he said, "Young men, you are gentlemen, you are princes, a child of the King.  Chivalry is not dead.  You are to show respect to young ladies and treat them as a gentleman would.  You are to live your lives with moral clarity."

Joel from For King and Country singing high up in the Cajundome

They sang another song of theirs called, "Fix My Eyes" that is a big hit of theirs. Here are a few of the lyrics of that song:

Hit Rewind, Click Delete
Stand face to face with the younger me
All of the mistakes
All of the heartbreak
Here's what I'd do differently:
Chorus:
I'd love like I'm not scared
Give when it's not fair
Live life for another
Take time for a brother
Fight for the weak ones
Speak out for freedom
Find faith in the battle
Stand tall but above it all:
FIX MY EYES ON YOU!

Urging the crowd to sing along with Fix My Eyes on You!

The concert ended late and we arrived back in Jennings at midnight.  Although tired we all agreed that YEC 2014 was an awesome experience.  Our Youth Group sat in the parking lot talking about how we had a mountaintop experience and now we were coming back to normal life in the valley. We talked about things we could do to keep the fire within us alive and to act on what we had learned - to truly Live Sent, to be a witness of what Jesus Christ has done in our lives and impact the world around us for Him.