Let’s see… so much in this show to cover!
– Brittany did a great job hosting the DCLA recap. She ran our registration area… but once she was done she got to join “the fun team” and run around with me capturing video and pictures.
– The opening thing we shot on the Mall. It got super hot and by the time we got back to the convention center, about a mile away, we were both exhausted.
– Right before we shot this opening scene Brittany and I witnessed one of the most bizarre moments of our lives. A woman was laying on the grass with the monument in the background above her… that’s all I can say as this is a PG rated blog.
– Each night before we let the students into Big Room there was a massive “walking in” moment where we tried to slow everyone down. Here’s a video I took on my flip camera the night before. That’s Tic Long leading the way. Awesome moment.
– The worship times with Starfield were insane. I had a hard time squeezing to the front. The kids jumping, dancing, and worshiping was a lot of fun. I’m glad we captured Scott Erickson painting and dancing as well. He makes his art fun!
– I love the clips from students sharing about their DCLA experiences. You’ll hear a few of them reference the storyline. During 4 big room sessions the speakers covered the entire Bible and weaved students into God’s story of redemption for the world.
– Shane Claiborne’s point about God loving Afghanistan and Iraq reverberated all weekend long. I heard people say AMEN but I wonder how many people are still wrestling with that point.
– I’ve seen Tommy and Eddie (The Skit Guys) do their thing a bunch. But I have to say… I loved how they came up with new skits, even a serious one, to fit into the storyline.
– There’s a couple of clips from the concert on Saturday night with KJ-52 and Hawk Nelson. Holy cow… the kids were into that. I was in the little pit between the stage and these barricades they put up. Lemme tell you, it was a little scary!
– I’m happy the clip with the kid answering his cell made the cut into the podcast. That was stupid funny.
– I’m also glad we included the part with the youth pastor, Verne. He and I exchanged a bunch of tweets during DCLA. I love how a couple students were like, “No, Verne doesn’t fart a lot.” But the one girl is like… “Yeah, he farts all the time!”
– Brittany scared me to death. I found this little walkway above the ballrooms. I am positive we weren’t supposed to be up there as it was like 100 feet above the floor. You can see on the video that she is standing in front of this chest high wall. She was freaking me out since she wanted to stand on top of the wall! I’m not afraid of heights. But I am afraid of people falling off of things.
– I caught the youth pastor from my in-laws church, Larry, talking about labs. He was great. I’ve never gotten to know him but I know he’s a big help to YS.
– I think every student I interviewed, except the kids in Verne’s church, were from Jersey.
– My favorite line in the show comes at the end… “DCLA is dipped in awesome sauce.” Amen to that.
Big ups to Ian. He took 90 minutes of raw footage and strung together a 7 minute show.
I guess I’ve always known this. Heck, I know I’ve been nuts a long time. But this weekend I got a lot of glimpses at just how crazy some youth workers are. In fact the craziest youth workers are volunteers who wil bring 45 kids from Kansas to Los Angeles for an event– by car– is absolutely insane. It’s one thing to do that for money. It’s an entirely new level of nuts to take your own vacation time to do that.
People who are faithful, full of the Holy Spirit, and willing to take big risks for the Kingdom of God often look crazy. It’s a good kind of crazy. It’s the kind of nuts that gets me excited.