posted on July 27, 2009 in Alex Luyckx, Blogs
Canada Youth ended a couple days ago now, and I’m still missing it.
It was a truly awesome experience, visiting with the Lord, and with fellow Presbyterians across Canada, and the world even! New friends were made, old friends reconnected, networks and relationships formed. Everyone left the conference with something. I left equipped, but in a way I wasn’t thinking. Rather than learning how to run a Bible Study, how to bring youth to the church…I was equipped with how to pray about myself (something we often forget to do), how to take Sabbath, and how to form relationships with the youth I will be ministering to.
Because there’s no such thing as ‘youth ministry’ but rather ministry to youth, same as if you would be ministering to an older person.
I also left with 2000 photos. Most of which are edited now! You can view them here: www.flickr.com/photos/axle81401/collections/72157621857323330/.
So thank you to all of those who followed these blogs, photos, and twitter updates! And now, I’m looking forward to CY2012.
posted on July 25, 2009 in Alex Luyckx, Blogs
Friday, CY can’t be over, not yet!
It may be over, but I feel ready, equipped, knowing that I have the support of all the people in the Youth Ministry branch.
At least it ended with a bang! Massive high energy worship service, with presentations from all our international partners set the mood for the night. The commissioning of all of us as we left (well to be honest myself and a friend skipped out early, to line up photographs of the group walking back from the gym.) The evening ended off with a massive dance party, wandering around feeling the beat and moving with friends, brothers and sisters in Christ. Grandmothers keeping up with the teenagers and getting right into the mood.
I got to thinking, the last time I was at CY, was in 2003, six years ago. Six years ago I was shooting with film and went through three rolls of 24 exposures (72 photos), laptops weren’t very prevalent (I didn’t have one), blogs weren’t used that much, twitter, facebook, and Internet on your cellphone were still in R&D. And today, you, our faithful readers, can follow us every step of the way, see photos from the day’s activities.
It was good, it was fun…I will be back at CY2012. (oh yeah, the power just went out in the Cafe…)
posted on July 23, 2009 in Alex Luyckx, Blogs
Thursday morning was our day of rest, a chance to sleep in, relax, reflect and recharge for the rest of CY. I took advantage of that to be able to sleep in and visit Spirit Grove. The trick to finding Spirit Grove is to not look too hard for it. It’s tucked away in an isolated section of the campus. A quiet space to reflect, meditate, and listen to God’s voice.
The rain didn’t dampen our spirits, just changed the schedule, and some locations.
There are two places at CY that are loud; just loud in general. The first is the cafeteria, at meals, just a happy roar of all different conversations going on at the same time, friends laughing, talking. Of course this is mostly at lunch and dinner. People haven’t quiet woken up yet (or had their morning coffee(s)) at breakfast time. The second is worship. During the sharing of the peace of Christ, there’s nothing like hugging random strangers or friends as you move around the entire gym it seems. Just joy all around.
It seems like the week has gone by so fast. Tomorrow will be the last day. But enough of that, still one full day left to celebrate!
Explorations lead to the unexpected.
posted on July 23, 2009 in Alex Luyckx, Blogs
The morning started off with a thick fog covering the campus. It was fun to wander around that morning before everyone else was up, the campus silent and muffled, with only myself and my friend James walking around taking photos.
At the youth ministry branch we got to listen to Andy Root again. He is an amazing speaker, knows what he’s talking about and just makes sense! If you ever have a chance to hear him speak do it. It’s well worth it.
But the thing yesterday that stuck out for me was during the afternoon session with Mark Yaconelli. He lead us as a group in an interesting form of prayer where we allowed our minds to reach back and think about a time where we experienced a sacred moment, then prayed into that moment. Almost as if we were re-living that moment, allowing God to speak to us anew from that point in time.
The space in which my small group meets is the library at the Concordia Lutheran Seminary, which is attached to Brock University and are graciously allowing us to use that space during Canada Youth. As a room, it’s nothing very interesting overall. However, it’s the contents of the library that draws me in (and the wonderful musty smell of old books). I was able to wander the stacks today, and my attention was drawn to several locked glass cabinets. These were old books, lots of volumes. Then I looked at the label on the doors … these were some of the writings of Martin Luther (not the original writ of Luther, but others who copied his work). The earliest date was 1729.
I never realized how many people at CY are from my own synod until we gathered in the evening to talk amongst ourselves. I got to thinking about the numbers in the room we were all gathered in, and realized that only a small amount of those actually attend Presbyterian Young People’s Society events. Hopefully after CY this will change. (Remember: PYPS Fall Convention: Electric Jesus, Oct 16-18, 2009!)!
It’s fun to sing, dance, and clap loudly to “Guide Me O Thou Great Redeemer.”
posted on July 22, 2009 in Alex Luyckx, Blogs
It was like going back to school, but in a good way. Of course first was group building activities, thankfully it wasn’t like what Fox Mulder expected, stacking furniture; instead we built trees, from newsprint. I was a little wary of a two hour plenary session, I’m not afraid to admit that. But I was wonderfully surprised by Andy Root, who easily blew through the two hours.
It was good (and I mean that in the biblical sense of the word). It really made me think, both about my own thinking process and also how to tackle youth ministry. But probably the most interesting was the small group sessions afterward and seeing everyone’s different thought process working on the case study. It seemed that each group took a whole different approach on where to start (if everyone had been the same, it would’ve been boring). In the end the whole process helped me, I even learned something that not only could be applied to Youth Ministry but my actual job as computer technician! (It’s funny how that works).
And finally, worship again … but more so what happened before worship. Just as the doors were supposed to happen, one of the leaders popped their head out into the crowd that of course had gathered at that point. And said it would be another fifteen minutes, disappointed the crowd. It was getting really hot in that area by this point. But then, through the dull roar of various conversations came the sounds of a familiar song. Someone had started singing a praise song. Soon other voices started joining in, then almost everyone close to the doors was joining in with song. Impromptu worship, is often the best kind, unplanned, spirit lead, good.
posted on July 21, 2009 in Alex Luyckx, Blogs
I really thought that by leaving at 1:30 I’d be one of the first participants here. In fact I had the set the cruise control on the car just to keep myself from speeding; I was that excited to get to Canada Youth. Getting to CY early would be good; getting a speeding ticket in the process wouldn’t.
I was wrong. I was not one of the first ones here. I did easily beat the folks from the east coast of Canada, however.
It’s been six years since I last was at a Canada Youth event, so I arrived with some preconceived notions about the event and what was going to happen. It’s nice when the event blows people away on the first day. Of course there was a flurry of hugs and greetings from friends and people we hadn’t seen since the last CY event. So the rest of the event is looking up!
But what I really want to talk about is worship. Only at two other non-Canada Youth events (Creation Fest 2003 and Triennium 2001) have I seen so many people so fired up for the worship of our God. It was literally a stampede to get into the gym where flashing lights, LCD projectors and smoke machines greeted us. Glen and the band boldly leading worship, the drama team sharing the word, and Derek Macleod bringing a message of God the artist and God the mathematician, bringing the righteousness of Creation.
Things are looking up.
