NYC

My son is at NYC (Nazarene Youth Conference) in Louisville, KY this week.  He's there with 6500 other kids participating in service projects, f.u.n., workshops and service times.  He's having a great time!

I'm so excited for him...I remember my NYC...it was in Oaxtepec, Mexico.  Waaayyy back in 1983.  I hadn't really taken time to think about NYC in awhile, even though I was helping Landry get ready for much of last week.  I was prompted to think about it today though on facebook as NYC alums began posting "which-NYC-did-you-go-to" questions.

My NYC was an international event, so there were kids from all over the world there.  I made friends with some kids from Mexico, and one of the guys gave me this bookmark.  I hadn't thought about it in a very long time, but went to my bookshelf where I have an old Bible..and found this memento of NYC.  The students from Mexico were giving these away.  I've kept it all these years.  I'm not a pack rat, so I'm surprised!

The boy who gave it to me was trying to learn English, I was trying to learn Spanish, so for years afterwards, we wrote letters back and forth and would translate them.  Somewhere along the way, we lost touch.

I have fun memories of NYC like...
...we met a cab driver who would drive us into Mexico City a couple of times to shop. (where were our youth sponsors?)
...you had to time your curling iron time because there were electricity difficulties at the resort where we were staying, so you didn't want it to go out before you were done.
...making friends from all over the world.
...everyone had to bring a transister radio and you could tune to different frequencies to hear the services in different languages.
...it rained a lot, so during a service one night a girl went to sleep while leaning her elbows on her knees and fell forward into the mud under our feet.  (a ps to this story is that my freshman year of college, we were in the dorm telling funny stories, and I told the story of this girl...and she was one of the girls in the room! bwhahahahah)
...the last service where they called us out of the tent by district (like Houston district...SEO district, etc) and they'd say, "Southeast Oklahoma-go and make disciples", etc.  It was very powerful for me.
...we found the only restaurant on the resort that would serve ice in colas! We hit the jackpot!

I've been praying for my son that his NYC would be life changing like mine was.  So thankful that from the tweets and texts...God is working in his life.