Equip '06

Today was a good day.

Woke up at 6, left at 7 to go up to Marlboro, MA for Equip 2006, a leadership training conference for church leaders put on by Vision New England. Since I'm a junior youth leader, I got to go with the other JYL, plus the 5 adult youth leaders.

So we get there (It's at an elementary school, which I thought was kinda cool. Brought back memories, hehe), after a long ride that was full of yawning, and I get my nametag and packet of info, then proceed downstairs to the gym, which on one side was filled with chairs, a stage, and at the back, a table with enough food to feed a lot of people. Which was handy, cause there was a lot of people there...
On the other side were a ton of booths set up, everything from SoulFest to Monadnock Bible Conference to The Nativity Story.

Once the initial meet & greet and the opening ceremony, for lack of a better word, was done, the day started in earnest.

The first session I went to was "Is That You, God?" which, basically, was about recognizing when God is speaking to us, and how He does that, so we can discern whether it truly is Him, or if we're just trying to convince ourselves it's Him.

After that, it was time for lunch, which was done by Panera Bread. It was delicious (It came with a cookie too!). We went to the "Youth Workers Eat & Meet" where we sat and ate, and met some people from a church in Manchester. Chatted with them for a little while, then had to go to the second session.

That one was "Unlocking the Scriptures" and talked about how historical context and word studies are crucial to fully understanding the Bible. Knowing the circumstances, be it cultural, historical, etc, that a passage was written in can make all the difference. Word studies examine a particular word, and break it down into it's original, fundamental meaning, so that we can know how it was intended to be used and what it means.

After that, it was back to the gym again for a "Free Gourmet Cookie Break." Yum! Then we had to leave again to head to the third and final session.

Which was by far the best one.It was called "Creative Juices" and examined ways to be creative and come up wiht creative ideas. It was all stuff I'd done before, in my Principles of Problem-Solving class a year or so ago, but this was soo much better. The guy was energetic, and so much more interesting and engaging. He talked about different idea-generating methods, like Braimstorming, Mind-mapping, etc. And it was FUN! =D

Finally, to wrap up the conference, they had a comedian, Michael Junior, talk for a while, then we left and went to dinner at O'Connor's, a pretty cool Irish restaurant. I got a steak w/ mashed potatoes, which was delicious. I took half of it home, so I know what I'm having for lunch tomorrow...

Last but not least, I think I'm gonna start a bible study on love and relationships. I've been thinking about it for a while; I'm not sure how I'm gonna do it though. A big part of me wants to do it with the kids in the youth group, but I'm not sure how well it would work. It's in the pre-planning stages right now, so the logistics can be worked out later. I asked somebody if they'd be interested, and they said yeah, so I think I'm gonna go ahead with it. Should be interesting. :)