RADIATE2011

Previous to Christmas, my team and I were hitting the last minute details as we were approaching Christmas and our annual Cru college new years conference called Radiate.  For Christmas, I was so blessed to have the opportunity to go home for a few days and spend time with my family in VA.  That is something that means so much more to me now that it is such a rare occurrence.  Two days after Christmas I was off to Baltimore, MD to get ready for about 1,000 college students from our region, which is as far southeast as VA Beach, as far southwest as VA Tech, as far northwest as Pittsburg, and as far northeast as Philly!  When I was in college, I used to go to Radiate and it is actually the conference where I found out about the opportunity to work with Student Venture.  The whole conference was held in the Baltimore Waterfront Marriott, which is very large, very nice, and right on the Inner Harbor area which has lots of cool attractions.  Honestly there is soooo much about this conference that I could write about in this blog, from amazing speakers and worship artists, to meeting new people, recruiting opportunities and a 10ft banana split, singing praise and worship music to bring in the new year, and one of my favorites was going out into Baltimore and handing out PB&J sandwiches to homeless people and telling them about Jesus.  However, I want to focus on the part of Radiate that I was most involved in planning, which was the Prayer Journey.  But first, here are a few pictures from the conference!

Phil Wickham!

Jackson Crum, our main Bible teacher

More Jackson Crum

 The Cross on decision night...

 Basically on decision night, students follow Gods call for salvation, summer missions projects, or even choosing to do internships like I am currently doing.  They filled out cards and laid them at the foot of the cross.  

 This kinda gives an idea of how big it was, plus its just a cool pic!  We had about 1,000 students at the conference.

Shelby and Andy our Emcees

Some of my friends from Concord University, my Alma Mater! This was at the New Years party which was a masquerade ball, I'm wearing my last minute homemade mask!

These are some of the students we took to the conference.  Katie in the front left works with me, and then from left to right we have Davia, Nick, and Krisann from Philadelphia Biblical University, and Mike from the Marines.  

The Prayer Journey is an extra thing that the conference offers to really get the students to take time away from the corporate feel of the conference and just escape to have one on one time with God.  When I went to Houston, TX a few months ago, they did a similar thing at their conference, which is why I was asked to head it up for Radiate.  Basically, I took ideas from the Houston conference and altered them to fit our conference.  We had seven stations that helped students focus on prayer in different ways and a booklet that was designed to lead them through the stations.  Our prayer journey theme this year was "Beyond the Veil," which symbolizes the veil that was split in two when Christ died on the cross and made a direct path for us to connect with God - Luke 23:44-46.  Because of Christ, we no longer have to go to a priest of the temple to offer sacrifices for our sins.  Jesus was the sacrifice for our sins and He has provided a way for us to connect with God through His death and resurrection on the cross.  As a non-manditory part of the conference, we had at least 118 students who indicated attendance.  It was open 24hrs a day throughout the conference.  Some of the comments we got really moved my heart as I knew God was using our work to set His children free!  It was awesome, here are some pictures.... with the soft praise and worship music in the background and the wonderful creativity of my team, you would hardly know it was a hotel conference room!

The Veil and the table with guide booklets

Station One: Rejoice in His Name

Students wrote out praises on a graffiti board

Station Two: Thank Him

Students made a thank you card to God

Station Three:  Lay Down Your Cares

Students wrote down a fear or worry on a rock and surrendered it on the alter.  They then wrote a characteristic of God on another stone that will help them with the worry and took it with them.  

Station Four: In God's Image

Students looked in a mirror and wrote how they saw themselves on an index card... then after reading verses on how God sees us, they then wrote how God sees them on the back of the same index card.
(I know this was a tough station for a lot of young women, and it was a blessing to hear some of the feedback from comments left.)

Station Five: Shred Your Idols

Students wrote down Idols in their lives that they needed to get rid of on an index card and ran it through a paper shredder.

Station Six: Worship the God Who Forgives (Part 1)

 Students wrote their sins on an index card, painted it red to signify Christ's blood covering their sins, and laid the cards at the foot of the cross.  

Station Six: Worship the God Who Forgives (Part 2&3)

Students carried weight to represent carrying the weight of holding a grudge... after forgiving people who had done them wrong, they took communion.  

Station Seven:  Around the World

Students placed sticky note prayer requests on maps of the world and our region.  There was also some information on prayer needs for the students to pray for other parts of the world.  

Overall, I was very happy with the way things came together.  It totally exceeded my original visions!  As the central conference theme was "Be Free," I feel like a lot of students came away from the prayer journey feeling free in the love and forgiveness of Christ!