One of the Learning Experiences that was offered on Friday was contra-dancing. I went into it ready for a fun time, but I got much more. Throughout the time, we had moments during the learning of the dance that, after we got it down, we had time to talk with many other people. It surprised me how easy it was to strike up meaningful conversations with complete strangers. I partnered up with a youth named Alex for one dance, and then continued to get to know him in other dances, and hanging out after the seminar. I saw God working through conversation and interactions with people of multiple age groups. The dancing was also a great way to connect with God through exercise and music. It was a really meaningful experience.
~Kayla Leaman

Friday night worship was the best one I went to this entire week. Glen as a speaker was phenomenal. He talked about how we need to stop reading and talking about Jesus and to go out, get our hands a little dirty and be a good servant to those in need. He made an excellent point that people don't come to Jesus when being talked at about him, they come to Jesus when they see the work his disciples do. It was so meaningful to hear him speak. He did an amazing job and I agreed 100% with what he was saying. People find God by seeing Him work in us, not by being told about Him.
~Alyssa Shenk

Like Kayla, I went contra-dancing Friday afternoon for my learning experience. Even though we weren't intentionally talking about God, I was able to see God just as much through the people I danced with. Most everyone had no idea how to do the dances, so we had to laugh, smile, and talk and meet new people in order to figure it out. I was also able to meet up with one girl I hadn't seen in almost 10 years from Indiana. While dancing, a girl suddenly said, "Asha?", and we soon figured out our connection based on the fact that our names were both very unique and we both had only known each other to have those names. It was definitely a great experience and was very fun to dance with new people, see the joy in peoples' faces (or confusion from the new dance), and to see God.

Also, later that night, I had a panic attack at worship. I walked out of worship to calm down with Becca (sponsor), and happened to meet up with Kayla, who happened to be walking in at exactly that time. They both skipped worship to just sit and talk with me, waiting the panic attack out, and that meant a lot to me.  You might not think that a panic attack can have a meaningful outcome, but, though it was definitely not pleasant, I was able to get to know Kayla and Becca better and form closer relationships. It was incredible for them to just be with me when I was not at my best, and it's connections like these that are so meaningful and I am able to see God working through others.
~Asha

Having asked the youth to do some blogging about their experiences here at the youth convention of MCUSA, it seemed only reasonable that I also record some of my thoughts.

Worship this year at youth convention has been complicated for me. I have been encouraged to see diversity in our worship. I couldn’t miss the fact that there were more people of color on stage than there were white people. In fact, people of color were probably over-represented. I heard some people questioning that, but I think that perhaps we need a season where this over-representation occurs because people of color have been under-represented for so long. Perhaps we can welcome the racial diversity of our church and our events will adequately represent that diversity.

There was diversity of worship style as well. There was a worship band, loud music and hymns, congregational singing and performance, conga lines and beach balls and screams for Jesus. There was theological diversity, with calls for a lived out faith, a recognition of pain and questioning where God is in the midst of that pain. There were also messages that God has a plan for everything; that all things work together for good for those who love the Lord; that God will not give us more than we can handle.

This year there have been numerous points where I have been deeply moved by the music and by the message in worship. But there have also been times where I have been disturbed and disappointed by what I have experienced in worship. I have been angry when the worship band could not leave us to sit in the discomfort of pain and unanswered questions but had to pump us back to a frenzy. I have been concerned by glimpses of a prosperity gospel, giving a false sense of security to our youth. I have wished for a more robust sense of expectation for our youth, calling them to costly discipleship and not just “Jesus is our friend” excitement.

So am I leaving Kansas City upset about worship? NO! Our church is diverse, our theology is diverse, our worship style preferences are diverse. I celebrate that! Those things that concerned me provided opportunity to talk with our youth to explore how we might understand differently. We were able to engage with what was happening in worship and we developed a deeper faith. I saw our youth be excited about their growing faith, knwing that how Park View worships is not how the whole church worships. How we interpret scripture is not how everyone else does. But we all worship God and we all follow Jesus.  As John Valenzuela, our speaker on Saturday night said, our “why” is bigger than our “what”. We are more powerful in our witness, not because we all believe exactly the same or worship exactly the same, but because we all gather around Jesus.
Thanks be to God!

Thursday might’ve been the most laid-back, but most fulfilling day of convention. We started the day off by having our first group session of the trip. We talked about the frustrations we had with the worship service the night before. Many were disappointed about how it went from a very serious note to everybody jumping up and down to Christian Rock. Instead of leaving us to ponder the main service they got everyone all hyped and they forgot the message that was trying to be sent. After that, we went to our service project. We helped the Rosedale Neighborhood Association cut honeysuckle so the path would be clear as well as helped build a map-post. We all felt satisfied with the work that had been done. We then went back, took the quickest showers of all-time and then got on the bus to go to the Kansas City Royals baseball game. The game was quite boring but we all had a good time. The Twins won 2-0. We all went back to the hotel and got some rest.

--Jack Anderson and Lukas Petersheim

Wednesday was our first full day of convention (more or less, even though we skipped the morning seminars out of exhaustion from the previous day), and convention was off to a great start. I have to admit, at first I wasn’t too sure about the worship sessions, but I can say they’re definitely growing on me. I really enjoy listening to and singing the songs and hymns, and I really liked the evening speaker, Michelle Hershberger. She presented her topic as a parody of the Tonight Show and called it the Mennonite Show. She started out by lightening the mood by writing thank you notes to stereotypical convention and Mennonite objects, like our green lanyards, which she thanked for making us feel awkward on the streets. I enjoyed listening to those, but I felt like it was a pretty abrupt transition to her next topic, which was three people sharing their stories of rape, loss of friends and family, and loss of a friend who committed suicide. She talked about how Jesus is always present and walking with us in our suffering. I can’t say I really liked the ending, when they had a few more Christian rock songs. It felt like they were almost afraid to let us dwell on those sad topics. I can say for sure that the highlight of most of our days was the improv show after worship, put on by a group called the panic squad; it was hilarious, and I’m sure most of us will tell you it was our highlight of the trip so far.

--Lucas Wenger

Day 1: 21,093 steps (10.37 miles).  Our hotel is a loooong way away!
--Lisa Mast

Eighteen hours. Eighteen hours more like five years to get to Kansas City. After some stops, we finally arrived to our destination.  Breathing in the fresh city air, many people were grumpy and salty including Ross. After getting used to this city and walking over thirty minutes to the convention center, the youth group joined in a scavenger hunt around the city with over a hundred objects and places to take pictures of with Stella (our mascot for the week). The teams were split into boys versus girls, and we must say the girls totally kicked the guys behind by a landslide. Unfortunately after having fun at the scavenger hunt, we were THIRSTY, but nothing seemed to be opened after five. After forty-five minutes of walking around and trying to find places, we finally found a supermarket that fulfilled our thirsty wishes.  Meeting back at the worship hall, we were overwhelmed by the amount of people in the room. The worship service that the band and our guest preacher for the day made our first worship service for convention 2015 memorable. We will be journeying through the book of Luke throughout this week. Overall, our first day of convention was filled with laughter, pictures, and memories for the years to come.

KFC and M&M out.
a.k.a Felicia Tran and Emma Nouri

An eighteen-hour overnight bus trip with a group of energetic high-schoolers! Any more takers? Pray for our youth, and their adult sponsors, and their drivers, as several bus loads of Harrisonburg-area youth hit the road for Kansas City this evening.