One of the hardest part about writing down the events of my trip is choosing the most memorable moments. They were all so monumental! From the many testimonies we shared, to the bumpiest unplanned moments; I could see God in all of them.
As you well know that we started the trip off with a beach party. What most of you didn't know was that we went through a not so fun process of getting from LAX to our rental car company. After a very long wait at the rental bus depot, and a few phone calls we finally see our bus. We pile on to a extremely full bus and then make a few more stops for even more people. We finally get to our rental place and rent the two vans. Now each driver has a GPS with the addresses to the hotel and we drive the 40 miles to our hotel. The hotel graciously lets us check in early and then we decide on a place to eat. It takes us a while to decide where to eat with 12 different opinions. We settle on Del Taco for it is almost 1:00. After a quick meal we decide that some of us want to go to the hotel and rest and some want to go to walmart for supplies. In the hustle, we end up leaving one poor lady there at Del taco. We didn't find out until we got back to the hotel. So the driver goes back and gets her. After a nice siesta we all get on our swimsuits and head to the beach. With Van 1 leading and Van 2 trying to keep up, we kind of got lost in the shuffle. We ended up in the Newport Beach area, which was so full of tourists that it took ten dollars and 25 minutes to park. But once at the beach it was a dream. Hot sand that burnt your toes, freezing water with crashing waves, sand crabs, seashells, and of coarse corn dogs!!!
It was a dream come true. And of course it couldn't last long. We walked across the street to a pasta place that was out of this world! Much love to the Old Spaghetti Factory!
When we returned to our hotel we were extremely full and exhausted. But that didn't keep me and my wonderful roomies from gabbing for awhile. I ended up with the most wonderful of women in my room. My poor bedmate was a nurse and every time I got up to go to the bathroom she woke up and asked if I was okay. I think she was terrified I was going to go into labor. The next morning we had to get up extra early and get to Saddleback Church. Saddleback Church is legendary, for their pastor Rick Warren. He wrote The Purpose Driven Life and many many more books. We got there and stood in line to register and to enter the sanctuary. There were over 3000 people there and so the overflow had to sit in different buildings and watch the whole thing on a tv screen. So we made sure that we had someone in line to get us seats every time. Every morning the Saddleback team set out wonderful pastries and bagels and juice and water for breakfast. Then during snack time they had cookies and soda and at lunch they had boxed lunches for us. We never ran short of food to munch on or drinks. When we got in the huge Sanctuary we were treated with amazing music and worship. They started us off right with Joyful Joyful sung the same way it was done on Sister Act 2! Probably 60 different choir robes were enclosing the sanctuary and clapping and jumping up and down. There were 2 young men rapping in the song and an amazing soloist! You should have heard that joyful music. I felt like I had been transported to a Full Gospel church. I was amazing to watch and the energy was like lightening!
I know heaven is going to be like this. People from all over the World singing God's praises! Completely awesome!
We heard a quick sermon from pastor Rick Warren himself and then from different members of the Celebrate Recovery Team. Each day we had guest speakers and testimonies that knocked our socks off. I cried so much from hearing the stories that echoed hurt, betrayal, abuse, drugs, alcohol, and so much more. Each story always ended up with praises and blessings and hearts and souls changed. God worked through each one of these people, to bring their struggles and character defects into His Story. And once they were in His story the past was history and the future is legendary. All for His glory! We got to hear many skits from the also famous
Skit Guys! Each skit left us rolling in the aisles and some of them touched our hearts so much. They are proof that there can be really funny comedy without vulgar content and bad language. If you haven't seen the Adam and Eve skit I advise you check it out!
After large group time and a quick lunch we split to our different workshops where the real deep meat of the information was given. This was where we could learn about the different aspects of CR and ask questions. Some of the classes I took were How to be a sponsor, The Landing(the teen version of CR), Leading Worship, Helping offenders once they are out of prision, and many more. I got so much info my head was swimming. We all went to different classes to gather as much info as possible and combine later. It's designed to enhance our CR and fix any issues we might have. Once our class was over it was dinner time and we decided to eat at the famous IN N OUT!
I would have taken a picture of the burger, but I devoured it so quickly, it was impossible. Sorry folks I don't share my food. :) Then we headed back to the campus for individual training on the leadership team sessions. After an hour 1/2 class we headed back to the hotel to unwind. Thursday was another beautiful day of testimonies, amazing stories, training, worship, laughter, and so much more. That night they had catering trucks where we could buy dinner in order to save on time because we had about an hour before the movie started. There were so many people in line a few of us decided to run to MCDonalds for food. When we got there I got a horrible shock. My wallet was gone. Immediately, I panicked! Tears streaming down my face! I was immediately concerned about how I was going to get home. One of my friends bought my dinner and tried to calm me down as we went over when I last saw it. Then I remembered that I had it at McDonalds that morning for breakfast. I was even more concerned now. No way was my wallet going to be there. But we looked up the phone number and finally got a manager. She was very nice and said that someone had turned it in. I was overjoyed. We didn't have time to go pick it up until after the movie was finished. So in awe as I still was that someone turned it in instead of taking it, I was still quite concerned on what was left in it. But we got back to the Campus and stood in line for the greatest movie preview I will ever go to.
HOME RUN!!!
This movie comes out in Spring of 2013 and it will revolutionize CR and change so many lives. Think Courageous and Fireproof times two! Many people that will never step into a church would walk into a theater. Can you imagine the people that would be willing to walk into CR after it is spread world wide! So very excited! The movie was awesome and amazing! Afterwards we got to meet the whole cast which included
Vivica A. Fox! Some people stood in line to get the autographs, but I was able to get a very bad photo with a bigger celebrity in my mind.
This is John Baker founder and writer of Celebrate Recovery. His need for a safe place to share his recovery and his boldness to approach Rick Warren was the start of this amazing 21 year old ministry, that has changed thousands of lives. It is now world wide! The problem was I only had my Iphone and the picture was really dark. But believe me, that is John Baker!!!!
After we left we b-lined it to McDonalds where the greatest miracle is that everything was still in my wallet. Praise the Lord!!!! What a testimony! Some of our group was coming down with congestion, so we decided to go to a Walgreens to get some Mucinex before heading back to our hotel. But after seeing 3 closed Walgreens at 10:30, we realized it wasn't going to be that easy. It took us way too long to find a 24 hour Walgreens but we did and we ended up rolling into the hotel at midnight. It was a tiring and emotional day. Friday came too quickly and we were all reeling from the Movie. We had two workshops that day and one of them was in the Refinery.
The Refinery is one of the coolest youth buildings I had ever seen. Movie theater type class rooms, a permanent skate park outside, a waterfall!!! I would never want to leave this sanctuary!
This is me and my bunk mate Angela! We became really close!
This is me and Pastor Peg, the CR pastor of my home church! They went too! I am lucky to have two great churches that do CR and care so much about hurting people. I love them both so much!!!
When the workshops were over we all moved into the Sanctuary for the closing ceremony. What is so different about CR conferences as opposed to others is our willingness to be open. How often have you been in a church where someone can stand up and say they struggle with a pornography addiction and be accepted and loved. No one whispering in the pews about how awful they are for having a bad habit. In God's eyes Pride and boastfulness is just as awful. Yet CR brings down the prideful and elevates "those people" into the same group that says none of us are good enough on our own. But because of the love of Jesus Christ we can be set free and live in the light with self worth. All of us. So the closing ceremonies were about surrendering any last hurt, hang-up or habit to the Lord and having communion. We took those hurts and wrote them down and nailed them to the cross. Nearly everyone in that room nailed something to the cross. And while we did that a painter (I don't know his name) took a blank canvas and turned it into a masterpiece.
It was so moving! After that we took communion and it was over. Many people stayed to be baptized. And some stayed to visit their CR that happens every Friday night without fail. But we went to a nice restaurant and ate dinner. We enjoyed talking over the whole week with each other, the highlights and the funny moments. Some of the team went to Disney afterwards to get souvenirs, but I went back to the hotel and packed and rested. I really missed my family and was so excited to share with them the memories I had made.
As with you my online family! I ma so glad to be able to share this adventure with you too! Thanks for listening! Or as we say in CR thanks for letting me share!
