Convention - Part 2

We all felt so relieved once the SCYL worship service was over. It is a joy to work hard preparing worship and then deliver the service, but it is a lot of work and everyone is exhausted afterwards. But, we all had another treat to listen to before we began our Convention "playtime". Holly, SCYL President still had to deliver her President report.
I introduced Holly after the Youth Director report and she came up and immediately introduced all of the teens at Convention. Then Holly read her report. It was a wonderful report as she unfolded the beautiful story of how Rachel and her met as children, grew apart, then reconnected through youth group and the SCYL. Holly's story emphasized how the church has help her to grow spiritually and how being in the SCYL has introduced her to friends and a community of people she would not have known. And, it brought her and Rachel back into a close and very meaningful friendship that would have likely otherwise been lost. It was a touching and emotional report that ended with an embrace between two dear friends.

After Holly's report, the teens were allowed to exit the business meeting and start planning the rest of our playtime at Convention. We met as a group back in 201 (the girl's suite where the common area served as our hangout place) to discuss what to do. Since everyone (mostly me, I think) was sleepy from the long, exhausting night of worship planning and sitting in the ER, we decided to make the day's outing sort of simple. Also, a couple of teens were interested in going to see the seven Tiffany angel windows at display at the Taft Museum of Art and the buses departed from UC in the afternoon for that. So, we decided to have a big outing day on Saturday and just do a hour or two of shopping around UC on Friday right after lunch. We did two van runs to a funky little shopping district on Ludlow street just north of UC campus. Ludlow street offered some interesting stores including an ice cream shop, eclectic boutiques and a trendy consignment place. The girl's (and Cody) seemed happy with this outing and bought some stuff, while Danny and Jon were pretty much done after 15 minutes. In any event, we all got back to UC in time for the buses to the Taft Museum. Much as I wanted to see the angel windows, I took a much needed nap. Bekka visited the museum and told me all about the windows at dinner Friday evening.

Friday night was the ordination service. Two students were being ordained, Gabriella Cahaley and Steve Sanchez. Although the service was long the teens were very patient and polite. The highlight was the music. Cody (bass) and Danny (acoustic guitar) played with the Convention band and rocked the house opening with an extended "Wade in the Water" and closing with "Day by Day". It was cool to see Cody and Danny jam at the service. They held their own and sounded great with the rest of the more seasoned musicians, Ken (guitar), Laurie (keyboards), Paul (guitar) and Lon (drums).

After the service, we went up to the reception to sell SCYL merchandise. And this year the SCYL sure had a lot of stuff to peddle. Love-Wisdom-Action Tshirts and bottles, potato stamp cards, led hats and custom magic wands made by Holly! The teens worked hard selling goods at the table and Cody, Danny and Jon provided music to draw people in. The teens sold $920 of merchandise at Convention. All fundraising profit goes to teen retreat travel and camp costs.

After hours, we all revisited Nippert stadium field, the scene where the night before we had to call rescue and rush a teen to the hospital, for more light-up Frisbee action. Newly ordained Rev. Steve Sanchez joined us for a high energy game of Ultimate. Whether playing Frisbee, watching from the bleachers or sitting around in the end zone, everyone enjoyed the late night activities on the field. It was great to spend some time running around and getting to know Rev. Steve, who loves sports, especially basketball.

Saturday morning we slept in until 11 am brunch. After brunch we gathered for our big outing to Coney Island Amusement Park. Coney Island in Cincinnati, is home to Sunlite pool, the world's largest flat surface swimming pool (200 x 400 ft). Also there, you can find bumper cars, carnival rides, paddle boats and canoes. The pool was the perfect place to relax on a hot Cincinnati afternoon. They had great slushy drinks and the water was perfect! The teens took lots and lots of underwater pictures as we had two waterproof cameras. I only share a couple here, but trust that many, many more were taken. It was a lot of fun. After Coney Island, we drove around looking for a fun place to sit down as a group and have dinner. After far too long of searching for restaurants and trying to decide where to go (complicated by me I will add), we landed at a Red Robin. This was perfect! Bottomless drinks and fries all around! The food was delicious and the service was extremely friendly and courteous. We all sat together at a big long table and had a fantastic meal.

We returned to UC in the early evening. I got a chance to see the end of the MUSE woman's choir performance and the teens had one last opportunity to work the sales table on this the last evening of Convention. Late night teen activities included a photo shoot of human statues at an interesting place on campus where there were empty stone platforms. The last night of Convention closed with the traditional late night pizza party.

Sunday morning we got an opportunity to see Rev. Sage lead the closing worship service. Then we packed up and Lori took us all to the airport (Jon got a earlier ride). Us travelers from Maine had an uneventful flight home and arrived back safely in the late evening. Thank you Lori Steinhiser for being such a faithful, loyal and hardworking leader. And thank you Lori for putting up with me and all my nonsense. Also, thank you Rev. Dr. Dave for leading the teen group in an opening prayer and for being available to us throughout Convention. Lastly, thank you to all the teen sponsors who make all this possible for the teens to attend such a wonderful event.