It might be difficult considering that we are taking the Senior High group to Branson this weekend, but I’ll just get ahead of the game.

OK, so I’m not ahead of the game, per se. BUT, with 3 strong posts coming today, I should be back on track for my 2 weeks of posts. (And let’s be totally honest for a sec…did anyone even miss Saturday and Sunday? Didn’t think so.)

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As Senior High leaders, Alli and I have never been able to go to the annual Young Christians’ Weekend in Branson until this year, our finale as leaders. We left the church on Friday night in a 15-passenger van. It was the way to travel, for sure, but that didn’t make it any easier for the driver - ME.

I missed a turn around Harrisonville and to make up for my mistake, I took a Missouri highway from 71 Highway across to Clinton, Missouri. I figured that a Missouri highway would be OK, considering it was starting to rain, but I should have taken into consideration that Missouri has the 2nd worst roads in America. In addition, the rain started. And by rain, I mean “the equivalent of a scene from the movie Twister.” We were on a backroad, no streetlights, and I couldn’t see the road. I actually had to stop the car and hope that no one came up behind us. Scariest time I’ve ever had in a car. Not only that, but I have the responsibility for 11 other people in the car, 8 of which are teenagers. Yikes.

Now, Branson is typically a 3-1/2 to 4 hour drive from Olathe. It took us just a shade under 6. But we made it.

The weather report had it raining on Saturday, too, but it was beautiful. It wasn’t hot, it wasn’t humid. It was about 70 degrees with a mix of clouds and sun. NO RAIN. A great day to be at:

Silver Dollar City is a really cool theme park in Branson and it hosts the annual Young Christians’ Weekend. A neat thing about it is that all of the crafts and stuff that are sold there are made by REAL PEOPLE. They aren’t processed, they are made in front of you. Alli and I sat and watched a couple guys whittle wood for about 30 minutes.

Our Senior High were awesome. They met us at all the designated times (save one small misstep) and they really represented the Olathe church well.

Saturday closed with a really neat rally, led off by the vocal stylings of Steve Doody. Steve had a pretty good band, but it was really highlighted by his keyboardist who rocked a mean keytar:

A keytar. Awesome. I really thought that might be the highlight of the night, but that was brought next in the challenge, which was put forth by Pete Newman of Kanakuk Camps. The title of his talk was “How to Receive Underwear Dancing Joy”. It was a great message and one that I think the group of 4,000 strong really took to heart. Recording artist Matthew West then closed the evening with a great concert.

We got home on Sunday without incident and I breathed a pretty big sigh of relief. We had a great weekend and I’m really thankful that we were a part of it. I’m glad the keytar was a part of it, too.

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