My trip to San Diego Christmas Conference actually started in Wilmington Ca. Ramon and I caught a ride with Jonathan. It took Ramon and Jonathan about 15 minutes to totally bond with each other. We head off to San Diego with GRITS (Christian rap group) cd blasting. Since the volume was incredibly loud (the car was vibrating) our conversation was really funny. We had to yell at each other to be heard or mute the sound. At our arrival in the hotel parking lot, 3 ladies are walking by and they say hi to Jonathan. They treat each other like long lost friends. Anyways these 3 ladies become my roommates for the conference and we had a blast. Every night was like a party. Serious. But the best thing about Monday was the Gateway reunion. About 9 of us from summer project(Shymkent) went out to Denny's. I love my teammates so much cuz they make me laugh. I don't even remember what I talked about or what people were telling me but it was funny.
So much stuff happened each and every day I can't do a day by day summary. I guess the best part for me was just being able to talk to my roommates. I love talking and we would stay up 2 or 3 every night talking. And it wasn't just oh this is what happened to me today, we got deep and personal. Like we all shared our first impressions of each other when we met in the parking lot. They were all pretty negative but it was good to be able to share them and realize how wrong we were about each other. Another night our friend from the U of Arizona shared with us how she broke out of this cult church she used to attend. It was very interesting cuz i have another friend who currently attends this church and was trying to encourage me to attend some of their services. Probably a good thing that I didn't go.
All the main meeting speakers where phenomenal. But the one that stands out in my mind was the last talk. The talk started with a clip from "Saving Private Ryan". I did not understand what was going on i couldn't tell who was shooting who or why, but every few seconds about 10 people would drop to the ground and blood was gushing everywhere. I guess i should go watch the movie. Anyways, he was talking about how any cause now worth dying for is not worth living for. That really gripped me. Because i don't know if i ever thought about it like that before. I know everyday I need to kill self, but at least i'm still alive. The way he put it just made it seem much more radical to follow Christ. I had to ask myself if I would be willing to die for the chance to proclaim the gospel. I'm not ready to think about the answer to that question.