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Sea World Orlando

When we had left for Orlando, we had decided to not do Sea World because of the cost. However, when we got down to the Assembly, the convention center sold tickets for $50 each and they were good for two days. So Jourdyn purchased her ticket with her spending money and I bought mine. It was great that we were able to go do this. We spent Wednesday evening at Sea World and then went back on Saturday with Nicholas after the quiz competition.

Sea World is fantastic! I had never been before and was thoroughly impressed with it.

World Quiz

Ahh! The World Quiz! This is what took us to Orlando in the first place! On Saturday, Jourdyn and I awoke and prepared for her day of quizzing. Parents are not allowed in the quiz area. They can only sit in the back and spectate! The only parents allowed up by the kids were parents who volunteered to be scorekeepers. So I volunteered to scorekeep! I got a wonderful purple shirt and front row seating to see Jourdyn and our kids quiz!

The kids had two 20 question rounds. They had to answer each question to the best of their ability. Jourdyn missed six out of 40, earning the Silver Award! Katie and Nicholas, Hope's other Blue level quizzers earned Gold. We also had two Red level younger quizzers at the World quiz - Wesley, who took home a Silver and Devon who earned a Gold!

There were over 2000 kids there quizzing. After the quiz was over and while they were tabulating the scores, they had a praise band come up and teach the kids all the dances: like the "Carlton", the Sprinkler, the shopping cart, etc. They also did some praise and worship songs with all the motions! It was a great day! And Jourdyn did fantastic!

All of the kids were relieved that it was over! We are looking into Teen Quizzing for Jourdyn for the fall. We found a church right around the corner from Hope that does it and is willing to help us get it started.

Worship

Have you ever worship with 19,000 other people? I've made it close to that at Women of Faith. But not until this week had I ever experienced the diversity that corporate worship was meant to be. Worship this week, I imagine, was much like it will be in heaven - a body of believer's singing and praising God without cultural, ethnic, racial, economic or social boundaries. There were no boundaries this week in the community that gathered in Orlando.

Worship was a unique experience. Tears couldn't help but stream down my face in pure joy and amazement at what God had brought together. No matter the language being spoken during prayer or sang during beautiful songs of praise, the Holy Spirit was still there moving among us. There was a point at which a line of pastors came to the stage to prayer individually for the assembly, each in their own language. Not only their own verbal language but their own prayer language which expressed itself in physical attributes. Either the tone and enthusiasm in their voice, or the reverence of the posture, which I found to be just as powerful in the humble, quiet Frenchman with his hand folded, as it was in the boistrous, exuberant African, who couldn't help but throw his hands up to the Lord.

I was in awe. The music was fantastic and the preachers were phenomenal! The theme for the Assembly was "Making Christ-like Disciples in the nations." Every seminar, workshop and worship service came back to this common theme. We must be about making disciples, who can make disciples, who can make disciples. It is the commission that Jesus, himself, left us with!