CREATION!!!

Finally, here is my big long Creation Post!!
For those who don't know, Creation Festival is a HUGE Christian music festival that takes place usually sometime in June every year. A lot of big Christian rock artists are there (Skillet, Newsboys, Red, Thousand Foot Krutch, Switchfoot, David Crowder Band, Chris Tomlin, Casting Crowns, etc.) and big Christian speakers are there, as well (Reggie Dabbs, Justin Lookadoo, Duffy Robbins, Greg Stier, etc.) Its really an awesome and fun time with about 70,000 other Christian rockers XD.

We have gone in previous years, just as a family, but this time it was a youth group event (and Kat-chan was able to come, as well X3). There were 21 of us - 5 chaperons and 16 kids. It was SO much fun! I talked with kids in the youth group that I had never talked to before and I think we all got a lot closer (we "bonded" XP).

So, anyway, a run-down of each day:
Wednesday:
 Set-up day. We all met at the church office and loaded our stuff into 3 vans, a pickup truck, and a rented trailer. We drove for several hours all the way to Mt. Union, PA (pretty much the middle of nowhere). The car ride was fun (as you can see in the video, it included much dancing, singing, and lols XD -- "Yes, we're going to bite you and infect you with RELIGION!!!" -- only Kat-chan will understand that ^^)
Then, there was the set-up of camp, which was interesting. We got quite a large site and we easily fit in all our tents -- though we had to abandon a canopy for the simple reason that we had NO IDEA how to put it up...
Finally - CONCERT TIME!! The schedule:
--Welcome and announcements
--Downhere
--Carlos Whittaker (worship)
--Reggie Dabbs (speaker -- "Embrace your chocolate side", "I can-You can-We can-I got yo' back!" -- He was a cool guy X3)
--David Crowder Band (I don't really hate them, but something about their music just rubs me the wrong way and I don't overly like it...T.T)
--Switchfoot (normally, they're not my favorite band either - for no real reason - but this night they were AWESOME!!!)
Anyway, here is a video/slideshow thingie with all the pictures and videos I took of this night :)



Thursday:
So, 2nd day of Creation. We wake up groggily and slowly and eat breakfast and head to the showers. They take about an hour and a half because we had a bunch of people in line in front of us and even though the time limit is supposed to be 5 minutes for a shower -- most girls cannot finish a shower in 5 minutes T.T So that took a while and we ended up missing the first half of the first speaker - Bob Lenz - and then we couldn't focus on the 2nd half because we COULD NOT find the tarp with my dad and other chaperons on it! We ended up having to go back to camp and have the chaperon there walkie-talkie the chaperons on the tarp asking where they are! Eventually we found them and the rest of the day was pretty fun after that!
Schedule:
--Bob Lenz (speaker)
--Carlos Whittaker (worship)
--Chris and Conrad (I had never heard of them before, but they were quite good and we went up to the front and got a few pictures of them)
--Mark Gungor (speaker -- interesting dude. He was very passionate about his topic, which was "How To Find Your Mate" ...Yeah. He was an odd one. His main point was that it is our job to find our own spouse, God is not just going to hand them to us. He also said we should get married young (as in 17-25) so that you're able-bodied when you become a grandparent.)
--The Letter Black (we went to the Fringe Stage -- the stage for harder rock and rap bands-- for a bit of their performance, which I also got pictures of and a video of X3)
-- Then we went back to camp for lunch and listened to KJ-52's performance on the radio from camp. He was interesting X3. Then we heard Remedy Drive come on and they sounded epic, so I dragged Kat-chan and Conscience (what I'm going to call the other girl from the high school youth group that hung out with us -- Kat-chan nicknamed her Conscience X3) with me to the Remedy Drive concert and we were able to catch their last song (which I also got on video). The lead singer's dancing is rather spastic -- he's awesome!
-- House of Heroes (we were also able to catch their last few songs. They were quite good!)
-- Justin Lookadoo (speaker on the Fringe Stage -- his talk was probably the best that I saw there. He started off by saying that he is one of those ADD talkers that switches topics all the time and if you don't have ADD, you're probably going to have a headache by the end X3. So then he goes on to mess with the sign language translator and kept making her say "poo-poo" in sign language because it was an amusing gesture. Then, back on topic, he talks about stupid questions to ask people -- "If there's one thing and one thing only that you take away from this today - NEVER, unless you are absolutely 200% SURE - NEVER ask a woman when the baby is due!" Then he went on to talk about a question that Christians ask too much - "Is it okay if..." It should not matter if it is okay. God did not say "Be okay, because I Am okay" He said "Be Holy, because I Am Holy." We should be asking whether something is HOLY, not is something OKAY. Then, he told us about these bracelets that he wears that simply say "IS IT HOLY" That speech really reached me and I got myself 6 bracelets (1 for myself - 5 to give away if anyone asks about them -- he said that if anyone asked about what the bracelet is, tell them "It is about the difference between good and holy" And when they say, "Oh. That's cool." Say, "Here, you can have it" and give them the bracelet -- I thought that it was a really simple and effective way to shine out Jesus' light wherever you are -- Of course, I only have 3 bracelets left because kids in the youth group lost theirs and I had to give one to my little sister. But that's okay, I can at least reach 2-3 people now.)
Anyway...then we went back for dinner and discussed the seminar. After Dinner:
--RED (they were freaking awesome! I love Red. They are just an amazing band. And for some reason, the lead singer always looks angry X3)
--Ron Luce (speaker - his topic was called "God's Hobby." He started talking about fixer-upper cars and all this car-talk, so he totally lost me there. But he brought it back, eventually saying that God is like the mechanic, getting rid of all the rust on us, or something along those lines)
--Newsboys (they put on a REALLY GOOD show! Michael Tait - the new lead singer - is okay. I like Peter better (how could you not love the bald guy with lots of eyeliner singing in an australian accent about Captain Crunch -- I'm sorry I'm going to go slightly off topic here and put in a bizarre, but very Newsboys video:

I grew up with that song. I knew it by heart when I was like 7. So I really liked the old Newsboys, but the new Newsboys aren't bad either, just different. They are like a totally different band, which is okay, but I can like the new band while still missing the old days...anyway, enough ranting!)
--Casting Crowns (they were quite awesome! Not much I can add on there. They were just awesome X3)
Side note: On this day, we found two different people there that Kat and I knew! It was creepy! One was Kat's friend through another friend (sorry that's confusing, I'm trying not to use names) and another was in Japan Exchange Club with Kat and who has lived in my neighborhood for years! We ran into him TWICE -- hours apart in different places! We kept expecting him to randomly pop up again throughout the rest of the week!!
And here are the videos for Thursday (I had to use two videos because the video was longer than 10 minutes):





Friday:
This was a more chill day. We realized that it would be much easier to take showers in the afternoon when there's less people, so we just got up and ate breakfast at a more leisurely pace. Then we went to the morning seminars:
--Greg Stier (speaker whose topic was "Don't Connect the Dots." He talked about how (1) It is God's job to save, so leave that part to Him, (2) It is our responsibility to share, so we as Christians need to share God's word and the love of Jesus Christ, (3) It is their responsibility to believe, so we cannot force someone to believe, that's their own job. Each person only has to worry about their own role in the scheme. They are not God, so they cannot know every little detail that gets put together into a big picture that only God understands.)
--John Mark McMillan (worship)
--Sons of Day (I can't say I paid much attention to this band, sadly...I was still kinda half-asleep)
--Justin Lookadoo (speaker, again, this time on the Main Stage -- This time his topic was "When God Leaves You Hanging." It was a much more sad topic - how God lets bad things happen sometimes - and he talked about what to do and not to do in those kinds of situations and how to comfort and how to leave alone people who are going through those kinds of situations. I personally don't think this talk was as good as the other one. He mostly talked about other people's advice to him about what to do and what not to do - he seemed not to know much about it for sure himself. Its one of those things you don't really know how to handle until it hits you.)
Then, we had the afternoon to ourselves and we hung out at camp for a little while, took our showers, had lunch, had dinner a little later. It was a chill afternoon because everyone was tired and trying to recover strength for concerts that night and the next night (Skillet!!)
The evening schedule was:
--Thousand Foot Krutch (AWESOME!! -- I got some awesome videos and pictures and it seemed in several pictures that the lead singer was looking straight at my camera as I was taking the pictures. It was a little weird...)

--John Mark McMillan (worship)
--Louie Giglio (speaker -- he was probably my 2nd favorite speaker. His topic was about God as being the Creator and being BIG. His main point was about these 4 stars: the Sun, Betelgeuse, A-star-whose-name-sounded-like-Mufasa-but-I-don't-remember-what-it-was, and Canis Majoris. He comared the size of those stars when scaled to the Earth being the size of a golf ball. His comparisons were really amazing, but I don't remember all of them. His point was that God created stars out of His mouth. If God created those giants so easily, the earth is tiny and you and your problems are even tinier. God is big enough to handle anything. Then, he wrapped up his talk with a reference to another of his speeches talking about how God made the human body. His big finish in that speech was that the protein that holds all our cells together is called laminin and it looks like this:

And while this doesn't prove Christianity, it confirms the beliefs of the believers. And God is so awesome that he made the giant stars all the way down to the very proteins that hold our bodies together. It was a really powerful speech.)
--Chris Tomlin (he was pretty awesome. It never fails to amaze me to hear the voices of 70,000 people all singing the same song in worship of God.)
--Tobymac (he put on another awesome show and one that was very fun to watch.)
--Candlelighting (It is always one of the most amazing sights of the week. All you see is a bunch of candles shining everywhere around you all over the hillside. I got some pictures, but they hardly capture the power of that scene.)
So, here are the videos from Friday (I got so many pictures, I had to split into 3 videos):




Saturday:
Last day of Creation :(
Another relaxed day after rocking out with Tobymac the night before. My mother, sister, brother, and dad decided to have some family time and went to the kids tent. I stayed with Conscience and Kat-chan and we went to the Fringe Stage for Family Force 5. On the way, I had to pick up the camera from my parents at the kids tent. I walk down the path and see them coming up the path at that exact moment. I get to them and they inform me that they had just, 30 seconds ago, run into John Cooper from Skillet and got their pictures with him! I was freaking MAD! It didn't help that they were just rubbing it in my face that if I had walked even a little faster I could have met him, too! Grrrrr.....

Well,anyway, we keep going to the Fringe Stage and it turns out Family Force 5 missed their plane, so we just stayed around for the band that was playing then - Skyhawk Drive. They were the National Talent Search winners and they were very good. We had some time afterwards, so we waited in line and got their autographs X3.
We got back to camp (my brother still bragging about his handshake with John Cooper), eat lunch, and then my dad, brother, and I went shopping at the stores for t-shirts. My dad apologized a lot for not being able to spend time with us because he had to spend time with the rest of the youth group. I think its fine. It was fun for me to be able to go up to the front for concerts with my friends and jump around and headbang and just be generally crazy X3.
Anyway, in all (not just on Saturday) at Creation, I got:
-itunes gift-card for 25 free songs from artists at Creation this year
-the 6 "Is It Holy" bracelets
-a Creation Festival wristband thing
-a freebie Messiah College livestrong bracelet thing
-a dogtag supporting Project AK-47 (I'll write another post - probably tomorrow - about this organization, focused only on this organization, so it doesn't get lost in all the other Creation stuff)
-Project AK-47 t-shirt
-shiny gold Thousand Foot Krutch t-shirt
-funny Big Bang t-shirt -- "I believe in the 'Big Bang Theory,' God said 'Bang!' and the universe was created!"
-Relient K poster (even though they weren't actually at Creation this year, they are one of my favorite bands and they're poster is awesome and I was sad that I missed them at Creation last year!)
Anyways, on with actual stuff on Saturday. We got back from shopping and Kat, Conscience and I went to the showers. We got back, had dinner, and went out to the evening concerts:
--Family Force 5 (who was actually here this time! They were an...interesting...band X3. They were pretty cool, but pretty different, as well.)
--Unhindered (who looks like a grown up version of the guys from Big Time Rush, plus another person!! Its so creepy! It was my brother who pointed it out!)

--Bob Lenz (speaker for a second time, and this time I actually got to hear a lot of his speech! It was about "What Has Power Over You")
--Tenth Avenue North (they were good as always. They're songs are amazing and just speak directly to the heart!)
--Skillet (WOOT!!! They were epically awesomely amazing!! My dad didn't let us go down into the crazy mosh pit to be crushed by 70,000 people, but eventually, he let us go about halfway down - enough to see well and get good pictures, but far enough back that we weren't being made into sandwiches...They put on an AMAZING show! Lots of fire and explosions. It appealed to my inner pyro X3.)
--Fireworks (Creation usually has fireworks on the first or second night, but this time, since it was close to Independence Day, they did it on the last day - July 3rd, though maybe it was late enough that it was technically the 4th. The fireworks were really cool, and then Skillet came back on and did their song "Savior" along with the fireworks finale going on in the background. It was an EPIC finish for an EPIC week!!)
--Campfire (we got back to our campsite and decided to make a campfire because we were all in the super-excited celebratory mood. It was fun. We made s'mores...Well, everyone else did. I don't particularly like s'mores. I'm weird like that. But I still had fun watching other people attempt to make them, then catch their marshmallows on fire X3)
Here is the video with pictures from Saturday:




So Creation was very fun and 9 of the 16 youth in the group went to Christ or were recommitted to Christ. It was an awesome experience.
And with awesome experiences bringing people to God, the Devil tries to interfere. On Thursday, my little sister woke up with a fever of 102. She went to the doctor they had at the first aid station and they gave her antibiotics, thinking she probably had strep throat, but they had no way of testing for it. The Devil was going after my dad (the youth leader's) weaknesses.
Then, on the same day, I started getting sick. I developed a horrible cough (partly from dust and screaming, but everyone else was doing that and I was even worse off than the people who have asthma, which I don't have). I could only breath very shallow breaths without breaking out in painful coughing fits.
On Saturday, the Devil took another swing at us. Right in the middle of Bob Lenz's speech, my nose starts dripping blood (also from the dryness and dust, but the timing was too inconvenient to be coincidence). I get taken to the first aid station and then go back to camp to change out of my bloody clothing. I get back and I missed the rest of Bob Lenz and some of Tenth Avenue North (which Kat-chan had to go up for with just a few middle schoolers. Sorry about that.) Then, during the Skillet concert, my sister starts crying and we realize that her elbow got popped out of its socket. She had Nurse-maid's elbow when she was younger and we'd been through several ER visits for that reason for her, but she grew out of it. Her elbow hadn't popped out in 4 years! And suddenly, out of nowhere it happens right in the middle of Creation!
All of this "bad luck" cannot be coincidence. It can't be coincidence that in the first year my dad takes the youth group to Creation and brings 9 teens to Christ, he ends up going to first aid more times this year than all other years we have gone combined. And the visits are just for his daughters. None of the other kids or chaperons got sick or injured! (Well, one chaperon got a little scraped up, but that was her own fault for tripping on a wooden stake).
I know some people don't really like to think about the devil and his interference or even believe that it happens, but stuff like this has happened to me and my family too many times to count that it has become undeniable. But, contrary to the devil's intentions, I tend to become stronger in my relationship with God and my faith when things like this happen. The devil wouldn't be trying to stop me from reaching a God who isn't real. So I just notice these things and it further confirms my faith!
Sorry for ranting about this. Its just something I felt that I needed to talk about and to sort out in my own head while writing it.
Overall, through all the bad things (sickness, long waits for showers, dryness, port-a-potties) Creation was still one of the most fun things I have ever taken part in. I wouldn't trade this experience for the world! XD
Squid!


~otaku-chan

PS: If you're watching the videos, or have watched the videos, sorry for the crappy sound quality and shakiness of my videos. They were taken on a digital camera designed mainly for pictures. Plus, I don't have steady hands at all, especially when I'm dancing or being jostled around in the pit at a concert...I definitely know that I can't be a surgeon when I grow up...8)

PPS: There were lots of "Free Hugs" and "Free High Fives" people. It was happy-making :)

PPPS: We met a Naruto sorta-cosplayer!! He was wearing the coat and headband and whisker makeup stuff. My brother got a picture with him. Kat-chan took the picture, so I'll put it on here when she puts her Creation photos on facebook so I can steal it X3

PPPPS: If any of these videos don't work for some reason (like youtube muted them or something) let me know. I've only had to dispute one of them so far *knock on wood* and I'm hoping for no more to get muted. 

PPPPPS: Sorry for the very long length of this post. And my apology is just making it longer...