TEC 69

"Oh my goodness gracious!" Those were the first words I texted Hannah on Thursday when I woke up and realized the TEC weekend was just hours away. It wasn't until I was ready to type this blog tonight that I realized those were also the first words in my prayer of thanks last night after I got home from TEC.

This TEC weekend was more than I ever could've imagined. I'm going to attempt a Top 10 list, but it won't even come close to doing justice to the weekend.

10 - Music
Our music team was so incredible! I thoroughly enjoyed being in the Conference Room with all of them. Greg is always a blast to work with, Amy and I grew closer as friends, Dan's jokes are great, Paul is just plain fun, Sara is a big bundle of joy, and Emmalee is simply amazing. Having the last two members of the team stand at Closing made me chuckle. On another musical note (no pun intended, but it is a good one), the songs used for talks were great!

9 - New friends
It was so fun working with all these people I had never met before. I made a lot of new friends on team, and I can't even explain how much expanding my Christian community means to me. The most random ways I made friends during the weekend all involved the Candidates. I first talked to Jasmine while sitting at the pool, Calven has the same name as my dad with the exception of one letter, Lindsay sat across from me at Agape and we shared food, Julianna and I met Friday after knowing who each other was for a long time, and there were so many other random things.

8 - Old friends
There were also quite a few friends working this team who I had already known quite well. They're some of my favorite people in the world, and I can't find any words to describe how incredible it is to work with them time and time again. I became even closer with Amy (as I mentioned), and I feel like our friendship isn't nearly as sufficiently awkward as it used to be. The experiences that we all shared, whether first-hand or through talking about them, were absolutely fascinating.

7 - Conference Room
Wow (insert W-mouth-W here)! These Candidates, ATL's, and YTL's were so amazing! It was great being able to observe more than having to teach. So many of them already had faith background and just needed a good revival. It seemed like a lot of those had that revival, and I'm just praying they continue to burn for Christ!

6 - Talent Show
It was so awesome to see the variety of talent at this weekend. The talent show is always a big highlight for me, and this one didn't change that fact at all. The range of acts from the old school (ATL's with "Sister Act", Milk and Cereal, Dueling Banjos) to the new ("Taylor the Latte Boy", Frolicking 101, Brandon's song) was just awesome. Plus, how cute was it that Jennie and Greg shared a pair of pen lights that they put up their noses. Bob only made it awkward by saying her lights were used ones from Greg. I want to give a special thanks to Joey again for his dance that he said was inspired by John 1:4-5; I honestly could see the flame coming and going during the dance, and it was just awesome.

5 - Tim's Wheat
The most anticipated Wheat of the weekend turned out to be the first thing I pulled out of the bag and the last thing I looked at. It was a book of bedtime stories that he went all out on putting together. It's bound and everything. It starts with a couple of familiar stories (Tim mistaken as a girl, the Valleyscare story) and moves on to some of his letters, stories, and essays from without his school years. I'm so impressed by it. I keep reading it over and over.

4 - God's mysterious works
God really worked two amazing wonders on Saturday. One of them involved fully speaking through Ben to help a fellow team member just completely let go of everything they were struggling with at the time. Another was all about Joey and Erika, two of the greatest leaders I have ever known. God just gave them a total revival of strength on Saturday morning, and their team became so much stronger because of it (quick side note: Wheat team was so prayerful! The pray-up for Talk 9 was so incredible!). There were other times God worked in mysterious ways, but those were the two most prominent ones that I felt I had to mention. Praise God for his amazing ways of working in us and through us.

3 - My mom
Cody went through TEC 50 in January 2003, and I don't think it took long after that before he asked my mom to work the first time. After I went through TEC 59 in April 2005, the topic of her working still occasionally came up. I think the past year has just been hard for my mom ever since she was diagnosed with breast cancer last June. Maybe it was the experience of fighting this cancer that made her decide it was time to work a TEC, but no matter what her inspiration was I'm so glad she finally did. I was happy to have her in the Conference Room, and I hope she works again not only during one of my final 3 weekends, but also after I've graduated.

2 - Hannah
Oh my goodness gracious! Hannah Bartell is so amazing! When I found out she had accepted, I was absolutely thrilled. She was the only person bowling with us one night in Mankato who didn't know who the Rector would be, so she earned the nickname Captain Oblivious. I still think she's somewhat oblivious to how much it meant to me to lead this weekend with her. I won't talk about that too muh since I still have to write her Wheat (oops), but I will say that I don't think I could've worked this well with any other person in the world. Council really did pick an amazing Rectora who was totally on fire for Christ from the start.

1 - Catch a Fire
John 1:4-5 "In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it." I feel like this theme was perfect for this weekend. No matter how big of a fire the Candidates (and even team) caught this weekend, I still think everyone caught at least a little spark. What they do with it is totally up to them, but like Hannah said in Talk 9, that light can't be hidden. There's no way to completely shut off that light. I just want to thank God once again for giving us (in Joey's words) "a fire that no water can extinguish."


And now, the National Day of Silence for Pro-Life. It'll be tough, but it's totally a day dedicated to God's undying love for every soul, whether they're born yet or not.