"I will not die but live, and proclaim what the Lord has done."

I don't even know where to start! Such an amazing weekend - God used our little retreat to do some pretty cool stuff, and I'm so honoured to have been a part of that. I took the title of this post from a Psalm - I can't remember which right now, but it was another verse that meant a lot to me back in the days when I was going through the darkest times in my life. I knew that God would use my struggles for good, eventually, and to see that all come together this weekend just blew me away. It's amazing to see the Spirit working in my life, and bringing all the crap to work out for good. I had some good feedback, and that was really encouraging to hear.

Survivor has been my baby for the last six years, and I put all I can give into getting the weekend off the ground. This year it was even more personal, because of sharing my story, and by the time the last session and prayer time was over on Saturday night, I felt like that verse in Isaiah that says "I am poured out like a drink offering" - not only did I feel like I had nothing left to give, I couldn't stop crying for more then a few minutes at a time! Then Scott, Sam, Trevor and I ended up doing a worship set for the coffee house, and it was amazing. You know those moments where everything just comes together in perfect alignment, and you can feel the hand of God putting it that way? That was one of those moments - if I could just freeze that time and live in it forever, I totally would!

That's what I hope heaven will be like and is my favourite thing about retreats - the two gatherings I've been to, Crew training, the Crew alumni retreat, Survivor every year, TEC - just worshiping with people I love, who also love to worship Jesus. That, blog-readers, is what it's all about! The new Chris Tomlin CD has this song that goes "you and I were made to worship, you and I are called to love" - for me, that's the purpose of life on this earth right there. I love all those kids who were there this weekend, and a bunch of my dearest friends were there, as well as some of my youth, and it was phenomenal. It's been such a privilege to work with the group of people we have planning Survivor - not only are we coworkers in youth ministry, we're all friends, and we all have different gifts that complement each other - God sure knew what he was doing when he put us together! :)

You can check out some pics of us using our gifts here, and stay tuned for updates as more pics come in over the next couple of weeks. http://picasaweb.google.com/michelleheumann/SurvivorVII