Passion: Boston...so worth it.

I don't even know where to begin. The weekend was amazing. It was so refreshing, challenging, affirming, eye-opening...I could go on, but I'll stop. On Friday, we arrived at the BU Agannis Arena to register and I'll say, there weren't many people there. I asked one of the volunteers how many they were expecting..."1200 or so" was her response. My first thought, "ONLY 1200?!?" Glad I didn't say that out loud.

But seriously, I was at two Passion events in Nashville with over 14,000 people. Where was everyone? When I told Justin and our friend, Becky, the number, I knew they would be as shocked (and disappointed) as I was. BUT, there were two girls in line behind us who were so amazed and excited to hear how many were coming that their eyes lit up. They said they only have 12 people in their New England Conservatory Bible study group. So, 100 times that is ginormous. My Bible-belts, cultural-Christian mind needed to hear their excitement. I needed to realize that students in New England aren't as inundated as I was on my huge college campus with tons of Christian groups and opportunities for large worship gatherings.

After that swift kick-in-the-pants, I knew this was going to be a good weekend. Once we entered the arena, it opened with a great time of worship led by Chris Tomlin. I forgot how much I enjoy his music. From our seats, we had a great view of the students as they sang praises. When Louie got up to welcome us, he asked how many people were at their first Passion event. Almost every hand went up! It was awesome. That's exactly why Passion decided to come to Boston.

Throughout the weekend, God affirmed our decision to move up here. I was given a new heart for this city and its college students. There were students from all over New England excited to be together. We spent time praying for each other's campuses, cities, and for the world. Passion also brought a focus on social justice locally and around the globe. We collected socks and towels to give to Boston's homeless. We collected money for Blood:Water Mission to build wells in African villages. (They brought 6 tubes of water displaying each city on the regional tour...Boston, Chicago, Atlanta, DC, Dallas, and LA. Each city was going to be challenged to sponsor one well in Africa which costs $3000. When the total is raised, the water turned blue. Not only did we raise enough for our city's well, we raised enough for all of them! By Saturday night, all 6 wells were blue!) We gave toward Passion's World Tour and prayed especially for the event in Kiev, Ukraine.

The best part about our time, for me, was seeing so many students and joining with them as they praised Jesus. Remembering how important my college years were in forming my relationship with God and praying that it would be the same for these students was so good. It made me realize that being here is the right decision. I was starting to think maybe I didn't like this place and I was missing the comforts of home. But after this weekend, I'm sure without a doubt that this is the right place to be and the right time to be here.