FCA LockIn and Stuff

So April has flown by, mostly due to all the busyness which has kept me occupied for the past however many months. This weekend comes close to first for the most hectic, awesome weekend of my life, but let me start at the beginning.
On April Fool's Day, instead of playing pranks, I lay in bed sick with a bad cold. It helped me to get some well needed rest before all the things I needed to get done. God certainly blessed my body by keeping me home to spend a day with my mom before a period of days when we wouldn't see eachother for more than a few minutes. (This is because God has blessed my mother with a job that keeps her active for 12 hours in a day. We prayed heartily for this job, and she loves it....most of the time. :] ) That day, my Uncle David and Aunt Joanne came and visited us to spend Easter time with my mom and my grandma. My brother Dan and his wife came over, and we all spent quality time eating pizza and talking about many different things.
The next day, Aunt Joanne and Uncle David left, and my family welcomed my Aunt Nancy and Uncle Bob into our house. Our quality time was spent discussing politics which is something that has started interesting me more and more (though I can only listen to so much at one point in time). I had a half day of school which was awesome! I always enjoy half days because there is so much more potential to do something in the afternoon. I think I spent most of my time cleaning the house and reading Anne of Green Gables (a newly found favorite of mine).
On April 3rd, I enjoyed the company of my dear friend Leah, who was back from college for Easter weekend. We shopped around at Half Price Books and West Music. Later we perused around in David's Bridal talking of weddings that are not happening and gaining funny glances from the bridal consultants. It was so much fun and really enjoy being in stores with soo many beautiful things to look at and critique. I went home to a wonderful dinner of ham and potatoes and biscuits, and it was delicious. That night I went on a (not-so)secret mission to buy my mom Easter candy at Target.
The next day was Easter--the glorious day when Jesus arose from the dead defeating sin and death and proving that He truly is God's Son. I woke up to an Easter basket full of Twix bars (another favorite) and a heart full of joy. Our church held a cantata service, which I always enjoy, and it was beautiful. I truly hope God spoke to the hearts of all the nonbelievers in the congregation that day through the singing of the cantata. It was awesome.
The next two weeks were spent planning and organizing the FCA LockIn that happened this past weekend. I was responsible for the musical worship and the message of the night. We invited Thad Joyce (the youth pastor at Maranatha Bible Church) to come and present the gospel. It's an amazing story because he had been waiting for this opportunity to come back to Kennedy and spread the Good News (being a former nonChristian Kennedy student). Isn't that awesome?! Nick and I gathered a couple five songs for musical worship. The songs were "Meet With Me" by Ten Shekel Shirt, "Beautiful One" by Jeremy Camp, "Every Move I Make", "Lord I Lift Your Name On Hight", and "Light the Fire".
The LockIn went really well, I hope that the message there impacted all the people who came. There were three testimonies given, and a lot of Good News shared to people. I stayed up all night, but there was a lot to occupy me with. I played guitar for a good chunk of it. There was a lot of activity that happened all night long. Only about 10 people out of 50 slept which is crazy! We played kickball at 3am! So good! The rest of the night was spent surrounded by a group of people listening to me play guitar and sing softly as they went to sleep. Clean up wasn't too bad either. But when I got home, I crashed. I slept from 8am to 2pm and then again from 6pm to 8:30 am the next day. It was great.
Now there's this event going on at my church called Spring Bible Conference where a speaker from outside of our church comes in and does a series of sermons on one topic for three days. This time a man named Dr. Ronald Allen is speaking on worship, which is such a gift from God. In my life, I've only ever really understood worship to be singing and playing instruments for God, so I hope I can learn other means of worshipping God with my body.
Yesterday, Dr. Allen talked about worshipping in Spirit and in Truth which comes from the heart. He told us that worshipping is "not about the state of the art, but about the state of the heart" which really stuck out to me. A lot of times while I am playing guitar for youth group, I am sadly just trying to sound good and not mess up, but God sees this as ugly, because my mind is not on Him.
Last night, I truly tried to play from my heart as worship team played three songs for the beginning of the sermon. It is soo much more wonderful when I am glorifying God, than when I am trying to sound good.
And with that, I will end because the passing bell is about to ring. Have a great day and God bless you!