Yes, I'm finally posting The Clash!

WHOOYOO! aaron and I had a blast at The Clash. It was amazing. We had expected a lot before we went, but it exceeded our 'wildest dreams'.

We drove up Saturday afternoon with Andrew and Tyler. it was a good time on the way up, listening to a lot of Radiohead, (since both aaron and tyler are like their biggest fans; and Andrew and I didnt really care), and eating my moms cookies (all 25 of them). We were supposed to be heading for my aunts house in Annandale, Va, (which is most definitely south of Washington, D.C.) so when we drove past the Pentagon and the Washington Monument... we knew we had missed an exit.

it took us a while but finally we ended up at the right house. which was good because my aunt and uncle had prepared a large number of filet mignon and other delicious food for our dinner. (it definitely beat Mickey D's by a long shot) After dinner, we played some GTA III (Grand Theft Auto 3) before turning on the X games. after watching Sean White demolish the other guys, we watched Rambo: First Blood. (all this on their 65+ incher tube!) we got to bed 12:30 ish.

Breakfast was amazing, too. it definitely reinvigarated us for the rest of the day.

so we very unwillingly left to go to church.

Covenant Life was pretty awesome. While we were there we were involved in probably the biggest cluster of Sovereign Grace-ers that has ever infiltrated the ranks of CLC. We met the whole Hunt family, all the cool singles who were up for the Worship God conference (and we got to meet Drew there, too!) and some people who were going to the Coldplay concert in D.C. that night.

After playing some frisbee on the back lawn of the church, we went with one of Andrew's friends, from i forget where, to Quiznos for lunch. It wasn't that bad.

After a nice quiet 2-hr ride to Messiah College, we settled into our rooms.

aaron and I had a room in the basement level while tyler and andrew roomed with two different guys upstairs.

Later, me and Aaron met up with his friends from sunny San Diego, Jonathon Farrington and Andrew Scalin, and I quickly became fast buds w/ them.

We spent a lot of time in the lectures. A lot of time. Like, figure, 35 hrs-ish of lecture time in 168 hrs total. (which is, like i said, a lot)

We had four main speakers: Jeff Purswell, Nathan Sasser, Iain Duguid, and D.A. Carson. All of them were amazing, Dr. Duguid did a great job explaining science and e-volution, D.A. Carson was incredible as he explained the character of a Christian apolegetor from Nehemiah, Nathan Sasser explained in "simple terms" (like, blow-a-normal-persons-mind-to-Mars terms, cuz he's a genius who makes Einstein sound like a retard) the philosophical side of a Christian worldview. But Jeff Purswell, man, he was unbelievable. I dont know if anyone else was like this, but, I was blown away by the revelations that came to me every time he spoke. He was so clear, caring, passionate in his lectures. I cud have listened to him for the rest of the month and thoroughly enjoy it. I cant wait to hear him again. D.A. Carson was pretty hilarious though, he would tell the funniest storys and then just give you a really funny look right after the punch line. He also had these comical little quotes that were totally Canadian (thats where he's from):

"Does that stratch where you itch?"

"...looked at us in the same flipping way!"

"...had singers guarding the flaming gates!"
"...respect for the wrath (pronounced: roth) of God."

Anyway, they kept us on our toes to understand what he meant by each one.

the lunch room: was an awesome place for fellowship, fun, and for ridiculing some of the food that was offered so kindly to us. I stuck mainly to the edible stuff, but other people weren't so conservative.

At the end of each day, round 10:30 to midnight, the Messiah College Gym was open for volleyball, bball, and, because we forced the issue, indoor soccer. It was a really big gym, so we cud all play those sports at the same time.

We were assigned at the beginning of the week to a 'discussion group', a group that would talk about the days lectures at two appointed times every day. Everyone got to know the people who were in their discussion groups, which was good, cuz we played sports together, ate meals together occasionally, and sometimes hanging out.

I had a great time meeting and getting to know everyone.

ya, we had a lot of good times. out of our 168 hrs at the Clash, aaron and I spent less than 20 hrs of our time asleep. so sometimes we had to take five to remember where we were.

One night while aaron was still in disscusion group, Jonathon Farrington and I thought we would have a little fun. Aaron's group was on an open, second-story room and we were on the floor below them. after preparing our attack weapons (a.k.a. paper airplanes), I showered their group with them and me and jonathon took off.

After running from the yells and cries of terror, we came back later to remove the crime weapons.

The last nite, we had a worship session. It started at like 12:15 and it was pretty awesome.

The worship was really amazing. Aaron left early to pray by himself in his room, but me, Jonathon Farrington, and Andrew Scalin stayed. after a couple songs, and a word or two from our make-shift prophecy-mic, we broke into groups to pray for one another, each for their confessed sin and needs. after twice of that, we continued worshipping until...well...it was amazing/awesome. there was a obvious point when the Holy Spirit fell on everyone there. It was almost as if I cud see the Spirit pouring out from heaven. a prayer group on one side broke into crying and speaking in tongues while another girl on the other side, who was being prayed for, was stricken (i'm not sure how else to describe it). people began breaking into groups of three or four to pray for one another and for God's kingdom. while the worship leader-guys continued singing and praising the Lord, Andrew went to pray with the first group (where everyone was speaking in tongues), and Jonathon and I began praying for each other. This lasted for another three hours before we finally stopped and went to bed around 5 in the morning. It was truly awesome. All good things must come to an end. less than two hrs after we went to bed, we realized that we were already late to putting our sheets and things outside the door and to returning our keys. After aaron and I finished packing, we said goodbye to everyone we had met.

For the trip home, we had one of Andrew's VT friends join us, David Uliani. He was a cool dude and slept most of the way home.

and someone was getting a little bored, and having a little too much fun with the camera. :-)