Learning to be the Light

Part 22

"Ten minutes." Nash whispers. I'm pretty sure everyone is sick with fear and sleeplessness. The conference officially starts in ten minutes. But we have spent the last three days, here in this church perfecting every last detail. Sleep, ya right. Has not even been heard of. Scratch that. We've slept, in the aisles of the church during our fifteen minute breaks. The church is huge. Found out that they actually are renting rooms in the church for small groups of kids to sleep in for an extra ten per kid per night. Its a great deal. And cheaper then a hotel. The way the church is set up is its three stories. The bottom is a lobby and the sanctuary. The second is multiple rooms, a eating area, and a library. The third is more rooms and a little hang out spot for teens. It has a little foosball table and ping pong and things like that. So each of the rooms are cleared out and kids have set up sleeping bags and air beds in them. theres bathrooms in each room, There is even showers. And each hallway has a fridge. Turns out that the pastor built this church with the vision of it being used for conferences. So maybe its not really a church, but a hotel. Yes. Its resemble that much more. The way its set up.

and I'm so blessed to be apart of it.

"Seven minutes." Maci joins the count down.

"Lets pray." Knox stands and sticks out his hands, we all join in a circle.

"Heavenly father I pray that we reach the hearts of all the teens here at this conference. Rid us of any nerves and lead us in each thing we do. This weekend we are to be your hands and feet Lord. We are doing this. Solely to serve you. Use us to reach these kids god. We thank you for this opportunity Lord. In Jesus name"

"Amen." We chorus.

"Two minutes." Chloe takes a deep breath of anticipation.

At exactly seven the lights go off in the sanctuary, so we start to make our way on stage. I listen as the video plays.

"Freedom. Freedom. Freedom" The into video starts flashing over each of our faces reciting that one single world. The video is kinda vintagey. Which was what we were going for. It jumps from each member of the team of us introducing ourselves. So mines went. "I'm Arlie. I used to be chained by the life that my family left me with. But God used a person to help me through that, and Since then I've been set free." The video ends with all of us saying

"Were worlds Collide, and were bringing you Freedom conference 2012"

As soon as the video clicks off, with the freedom logo that Jade made, we jump into the first song. Full of energy.

"Hey guys were worlds collide and were here to bring you freedom conference 2012!" Ethan screams into the mic as were all jumping around on stage, partly to get the kids moving and partly because we were all nervous. The song is going great but no one gets moving until we start singing

"No more shackles no more chains, no more bondages I am freeeee"

"Do it with us guys!" Jade shouts into the mic, her straight jet black hair whippig around her usually pale face, that now has a pink glow to it.

We play a few more songs that get the crowd on fire, making me feel on fire.

As the last song plays. The group softly plays a few soft keys as Ethan speaks into the mic.

"Hey guys. Me and Nash started this band about five years ago, only playing together at open mic nights and on street corners. When Nash met Jade, she said she sings and would love to join. Well, two singers and a guitarist don't exactly mix. So we begun looking to expand our band. Thats when we came into Pierce. A introvert that stayed a few dorms over from us. So we now had two guitarist and two singers. Imagine how that sounded. Anyway, we convinced our local church to let us play. It was terrible. I'm pretty sure people knew it was bad. Thats how we got, Knox and Maci to join. Giving us a full band. Some time later Chloe begged to join. Her talent on the violin and her incredible voice mad her a shoe in. It didn't help either that Pierce had a massive crush on her. So there we had it. We graduated school, practiceted everyday. Then I just so happened to be in Colorado and reunited with my girlfriend, eventually making her the newest and last member of our band. So here we are, excited to rock youre worlds this weekend. So head on back to youre seats and get ready to hear our first speaker."