HIV/AIDS Youth Summit

I promised I would blog about the day...I was too exhausted until now.
So, here's how it went down: If you just want to read the behind-the-scenes notes, skip to the italicized words.

My morning began at 5:45 when Zack and I moved all of the program pieces from the office to the Worship Center, and then had band rehearsal until 8:15. That's when the madness started. With Jenna Bush coming to speak, there were secret service men everywhere. I was introduced to the head agent and given a pin to signify that I had been cleared (I had to give my social security number) and could be on the same stage as Jenna.

Once that was figured out, the program was ready to begin. 9am, the countdown ended (it fired itself 3 minutes early) and the intro video began. The event was simulcast to 35 states, so in addition to the almost 900 we had in the live audience, there were hundreds more across America. Our hosts, Doug Fields and Josh Griffin gave my number out on stage, so people were texting from all over the country with their attendance at the event. (With the pastor's green room in "lock down" for Jenna Bush, Fields and Griff had to sit side-stage with me...that was so much fun--laughing and joking with the two of those guys really made the slight-chaos laughable)

The program was filled with speakers:

• Rick and Kay Warren (who shared about how their hearts came to be broken for those infected and affected by HIV and AIDS),
• John Thomas (he runs the world's largest government-funded ministry for HIV/AIDS from his church in South Africa and spoke on the importance of abstinence...he used phrases and terms that were a little shocking, but was definitely speaking the truth),
• Francis Chan (whom I was so honored to meet, I can't believe the heart this man has...they lost his daughter on Friday and he was still there to speak on Saturday saying "God has me here for a purpose"...and he was probably the highlight for most students), then (Francis was supposed to follow Jenna, but her plane was late arriving...we flip-flopped the schedule, which turned out to be better any way...but we had no idea when she would arrive, so we were ready with a few schedule options...she walked in less then 5 minutes before Francis walked off stage and she was introduced--the timing couldn't have been more perfect...but wow that was a stressful half-hour.)
  
• Jenna Bush (she read an excerpt from her book Ana's Story and really drove home the importance of educating yourself and others on this pandemic). (I really wish I could have told her how much I liked her skirt and boots--she was darling)
  
• Shaun Blakeney (the High School pastor of Saddleback) spoke on David and Goliath. How it took a teenager to rid the world of the giant that was taunting his world. Then he challenged the students to be like David; to work to be the teenager to rid the world of this giant: HIV/AIDS.
  

He then gave them five "next step" options:

• initiate (a relationship with Christ),
• educate (yourself and others--we provided a list of websites, books and videos),
• participate (here & now, there & then--we gave a list of local and global missions trips),
• donate (your money, resources, time),
• pray (for infected and affected: for their education, health, spiritual development, governments, etc.--we provided a card with a child's picture, on the back was a list of ways to pray)

At each table was a piece of fabric, to staple gun to a fence as a public commitment to one of these next steps. Next to the fabric was a rubber bracelet. This bracelet is meant to be a reminder of the personal commitment made to one of these steps.

Somewhere in the mix was the band. We played "World on Fire" by Sarah McLauchlan, "Cannons" and "True Love" by Phil Wickham, "Tears of the Saints" by Leeland and "Butterflies and Hurricanes" by Muse. (This last song was the most difficult and the one we were all the most excited to play--Dominik played the piano solo perfectly...)

I was an amazing day...I am so glad I was able to be a part of it...I am really proud of the way it came together and was executed. Our team worked really hard to pull it off and I think we did it really well...