Life from the Toaster

Sarah and I are back! Twenty seven plus hours of worship and Biblical teaching squeezed into a long holiday weekend, thirty five hundred young singles and married couples all filled with the unquenchable desire of learning more about, and glorifying their Savior, such was New Attitude '08. It had been a number of years since I was a participant in a large Christian conference/gathering of this magnitude and I was curious as to what it would be like. I knew it would be encouraging just by the speakers coming but I underestimated just how encouraging it would be. The worship also deserves mentioning because anytime you have 3500+ passionate people together in a group with a singular purpose of praising God, it is simply wonderful!

I would strongly urge readers to prayerfully consider going next year. It is going to be in Baltimore, MD for the 10th anniversary and Sarah and I are already thinking about how we can get a large group of folks from our church to commit to making the financial and time commitment necessary to go. Yes, you can download the messages online, which I would encourage people to do, but the fellowship with such a large gathering of other believers, the communio sanctorum, per se, is I feel, of great benefit.

There is much I could say on the messages themselves but since they are online, I would once again encourage you just to download them and listen for yourself they are all worth listening to. Since this was a road trip, we of course got a large number of pictures, some which sadly I have be ordered should not see the light of the internet, so I will just post some of the calmer ones:

Two very passionate speakers, John Piper and CJ Mahaney:

Sarah and our friend Rebekah, who went with us:

Sarah and a slightly unkept looking individual:

No the conference was not in Elizabethtown, that picture probably makes no sense unless you know what I am talking about when I say "livin' large, lovin' life" :p

Sarah and Rebekah demonstrating the size of a bridge over the Ohio:

Panorama of the Ohio River: (Click to view larger)

Another panorama from a view we passed in WV:


Playing in a hotel mirror which was around 8ft tall: