Day 2 of Youth Conference started VERY early. I didn't sleep very well the night before (Stephen White snored pretty loud), so when the alarm sounded at 3:45am, I was pretty tired. But we got up, got dressed, and went down the hall, waking up the youth. Everyone did such a great job getting up, getting dressed and heading out the door for our Sunrise hike without complaining too much. I was very proud of them! Megan Rieger was feeling sick, so she stayed in her room. Same with Jared Picker - he had WAY TOO MUCH sugar and felt sick for about half of the day.
The hike was pretty simple - about a 1.5mile hike up "9 mile peak". The little mountain is 9 miles from the county seat - hence the name. It was a really fun hike, so I'm glad that we went. We left at 4:30 and arrived at the top at about 5:15am. We definitely needed flashlights in the beginning, but the sun rose quickly and we had plenty of light. The official sunrise wasn't until 5:45am, so we had about 30min to enjoy Kari's devotional on top of the mountain. She did a really great job! I was pretty disappointed that Austin Rieger decided to turn around and go down, right after we reached the top. He skipped the devotional. He ended up being a drama queen most of the trip. We learned that he didn't really want to be at the Youth Conference, so he decided immediately that he wouldn't have fun and he made all of these excuses about it. Wow - it is sometimes tough to deal with that type of personality.....
After the hike, we let everyone had an opportunity to rest a bit, get breakfast, take a shower, etc. We gathered again at 9am for our morning service project. We all met at the main administration building and split up in 3 groups to pick up trash on the YMCA grounds. We collected a ton of garbage and I think they were very impressed that we would do that for them. I don't think they are used to getting that kind of help from the "paying guests"...
My group was focused around the main pavilion. When we finished, we let the youth have some fun at the tricycle park. It was pretty amusing to watch them all ride these little tricycles!
When service was completed, we let everyone clean up and relax in their rooms before heading up to lunch. After lunch, everyone had free time until 5pm, which was pretty fun. There was swimming, roller skating, mini-golf, basketball, and I even took Jared Picker to the library for 45 minutes. I think it was good for him to get away from everyone for a while. With Autism, it was good to get him away from the crowds. I was able to catch up on some emails as well!
After free time, we had dinner, then waited for Amber Hopkins to arrive. Once she arrived, we worked with her to setup our "ropes course". This ended up being the highlight of the conference! I forgot to take any photos - I was too busy working with the youth and helping through this life simulation. We built a course out of fishing line. The main course was made from one type of fishing line and then we used a slightly thinner line to add distractions - wrong ways. They had to close their eyes, while holding an egg, and make it from the beginning to the end. They could ask for help, but they had to "kneel" to get help. One of the angels (that was my job) would help them when they asked. There was also "satans" - leading them astray, trying to steal their eggs. Every youth had a different experience and it was really fun to watch them struggle and learn. It may have been a better experience for the adults than even the youth - I learned a TON from the experience.
After the ropes course, we built a fire and had a testimony meeting. It got pretty late, but we had some really great experiences. Austin even bore his testimony - admitting that he had a pretty bad attitude, but was trying to do better! It was a great weekend!
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