Audacious!

From the 30th of July till the 3rd of August, a conference called Audacious was held in Ice Sheffield. It's more than a conference, it's a revolution. And I was part of it, not only as a delegate but also as a volunteer.

For as long as I can remember, my church has been hyping up Audacious. Everyone who talks about it says it's really good and not to be missed. Kinda makes you wonder whether it can live up to the hype, doesn't it? Plus, it cost me 90 pounds and I heard that not many people from my church signed up for it.

Well, now that I've experience it for myself, I can definitely tell you that it's not only lives up to the hype, but exceeds it. The experience and the knowledge that I gain from it is priceless. Now, I'll probably be one of those who will hype up next year's Audacious which will be held in 2 cities, one after another! Woohoo!!

Let me just say this, the entire conference just got better, and better. It started on Saturday night and Glyn was speaking. I forgot my notepad so I couldn't take notes but his preach was powerful. The next day was awesome as well. Mark Ritchie spoke during the night session and he was so funny! Anyone who wasn't laughing at some point during his preach couldn't have been listening to him.

Monday morning, Clive Urquhart shared a powerful message and then we broke into groups for seminars. The night speaker was Andy Elmes who shared a powerful and funny message on Gideon. He shared another, equally powerful message the next morning. That night's speaker was Russ Evans. He preached a very good message in the morning already but the message he had for the night session just blows my mind. It was so great, I thought that that was the climax of Audacious and that tomorrow would be a sort of winding down session.

Boy, was I wrong. Russ Evans and Dave Gilpin preached in the morning and both messages were equally awesome. And then came the final session with Russ Evans. His message that night was incredibly moving and definitely made Audacious end on a high.

Throughout the entire 5 days, the sessions just got better and better, the worship also went from better to better and the entertainment also went from strength to strength. The whole experience was so excellent in so many ways, I can't name highlight. Audacious is basically the highlight for me. For once, I can't think of a single time during Audacious that was bad. I really can't, no joke.

It was awesome participating in the sessions. Equally awesome was helping out in the accomodation team. It was a little boring and tiring standing along the route marked out for the delegates but it's so good helping out. A small girl even gave me a candy on the 3rd night! How much cooler can it get?

I also tried reverse bungee. For those who have no idea on what it is (which included me until I saw the monster contraption!), they basically strap you in a small cage and then launch you into the sky like a catapult. Only thing is, the ropes will hold you and instead of flying off into the sky, you get pulled back down to the ground. The ride was cool, the view from up there was great but the 'best' view is when the ball rotates you so you're looking at the ground, you're off the chair so you have a weightless feeling (plus feeling like there's nothing holding on to you!) and you start dropping like a stone. Heh.

Audacious stands out for me in another way as well. In my case, I never knew what was coming up next in Audacious until moments before it was to happen. I only found out about what I was doing on the accomodation team the night before the event. I didn't plan my afternoon free time but still end up doing something good. I did the reverse bungee without even knowing how it is like. And last of all, some of the speakers were changed at the last minute as well. What's so mind-blowing is that the best time of my life was done almost completely ad hoc.

In many ways, I feel Audacious is my 'graduation' into what God has in store for me next. He has closed a chapter of my life and has open the next one. The first 3 days of Audacious, He pointed me in the right direction, the last 2, He changed and equipped me to take the next step. From this moment, I can go forth and claim the future that God has promised for me with confidence.

P.S. Though I did say in my Round Up I had some posts left to post, it's highly likely that it's never going to be posted. Everything I wanted to say in those posts have been summed up by this one.