Inspiration

Inspiring?

Our last summer event lead us to San Antonio, Texas, Home of the Alamo!! No, we didn’t go see the Alamo, I’ll leave that to school field trips. We were off to Six Flags Fiesta Texas for the day!! Inspiration Tour is an event put on by LifeTeen across the country.  An event that happens in the middle of an amusement park none the less. The teens come for the rides, but know that they may only get in 5 or so rides. They ultimately come for Mass, wonderful testimonies, and to be with our Lord intimately during Adoration.  I don’t know many teens who would be willing to do something like that…go to an amusement park, but not for rides. Those are some legit (or for you JHDC summer staffers…awkward) teens! But praise the Lord for them! They are the future of our Church, and they are drawing themselves closer to Him, to know and love Him in a way that one can only long to do.

They loaded up on the bus for the 3ish hour drive…from there it was off to have fun until Mass. The Bishop of the Diocese of San Antonio presided over Mass.  He gave a wonderful Homily about being ready to go out and serve/live for God right now. Are you willing and ready? How will you do it?

Then it was time for a little more fun in the sun! I spent some time walking around the park with friends I had known for awhile…some just graduating, and some in college as well. I hadn’t been to Inspiration Tour with them since I was a Senior in high school. Good times & memories.

The evening was filled with a couple of speakers, two of whom were LifeTeen Missionaries present & past. They were wonderful! Haylee a missionary from Covecrest really focused in on LifeTeen’s theme…Veni Sancte Spiritus…Come Holy Spirit. Her message was about how will you let the Holy Spirit come in and work in your life. Are you going to be open to the breathe of life you can be given? Will you be ready and willing to follow His will? Something that really hit home with them, especially those getting ready to leave for college.

Maria then talked about listening and following God’s call. Sometimes it’s not our will, but we must do what we are called to do.  We are not meant to be comfortable in our lives or in our faith life. When we become uncomfortable, we have to the opportunity to learn and grow in our faith.

After a message from our host, we went into a time of Adoration. It was wonderful to see the teens enter into praise like they do. After, they all talked about one song that brought them one step deeper.

All the poor and powerless

And all the lost and lonely

All the thieves will come confess

And know that You are holy

Will know that You are holy

All will sing out, Hallelujah

We will cry out, Hallelujah

All the hearts who are content

And all who feel unworthy

All the hurt with nothing left

Will know that You are holy

All will sing out, Hallelujah

We will cry out, Hallelujah

Shout it, go on and scream it from the mountains

Go on and tell it to the masses

That He is God

We will sing out, Hallelujah

We will cry out, Hallelujah

We will sing out, Hallelujah

God

Shout it, go on and scream it from the mountains

Go on and tell it to the masses

That He is God

                                                The Poor & The Powerless By: Sons & Daughters

After Adoration, there were some ending praise and worship songs, and we were off to Houston!! The ride seemed to last forever, as if you know you are going home and can’t get there fast enough.

Fun tidbits from the day: Playing movie charades with Clare…and we got them all right!! We rocked that IceBreaker.

We had to do one good deed for the day…my group in the afternoon did many, but out one we all remembered was riding Goliath with a girl whose dad couldn’t ride with her. We talked to her while they were checking seats, said a prayer as we were going up, and screamed with her the whole way! Needless to say, when we got back in line, she was right there with us!

Side note: Many things happened this day that were not planned/on my list of remember to do in the future or present/just plain day downers (stressors), but I'm going to focus on what went well for our day! If I listed those, I would be here a while. I was just thankful at the end of the day…2am, to be in bed…finally.  

With all that said, it was my last event of the summer to plan and carry out. It was bittersweet…more to come about summer coming to an end.

Lesson Learned: I’m not sure what to put here. So many things happened throughout the day that were made note of, or had to be remedied…I didn’t learn just one thing, but I did gain a better understanding of leading/bringing myself to where the teens are, and encouraging them to come to where you are in your faith. Bringing them closer one baby step at time.