There are so many things that I've looked at a hundred times, but never really seen.  I've heard the stories and read all the books, but there's a lot of stuff about faith that I never understood or took to heart, at least not until this past summer.  The ELCA Western States Youth Gathering in San Jose, CA, was an amazing experience.  I went head to head with some serious issues of mine, came face to face with God's amazing power and had a blast all in one week .

On Monday morning 11 other members of LOC and I took off for sunny San Jose.  As usual I had this perfect little picture in my mind about how the week was going to go, but as soon as Christian's bag didn't show up in San Jose I realized that my idea of the perfect week was a little off.  Monday night we slept at our host church in Santa Clara.  The next morning we woke up bright and early to go pull some weeds.  A local reservoir had decided to turn the overgrown water's edge into a beuatiful beach, and it was our job, along with about five other churches, to make it happen.  Lesson to learn in pulling weeds: patience.

Wednesday morning featured more of the same, including another day of living off of food available at the 7-11.  After hacking and tally-whacking our ways through more tree-sized weeds our service project was finally complete.  By this time I had realized something really important about my friends at LOC.  I have been blessed with a church family.  All of us from LOC are really close and it really shows to other people.  The fact that we were all wearing matching mustard stained T-shirts helped, but that's beside the point.  One girl even said, after meeting one of the LOC participants, "I want some more!"  There's a big difference between friends and family, and God has given me a family.  As a church family we even adopted a new member.  Brent, from Vancouver, Washington, was more than happy to join our tight-knit group, and we were glad to welcome him.

Wednesday evening we traveled to our very nice hotel in San Jose and then went to our first session.  The subject was ‘Face to Face’ with God, a matter I thought I had heard all about.  I was very wrong.  The speaker spoke about God and His love in a way that was very different from the many sermons I had heard before, and it touched each member of our group in a personal way.  This was followed by a performance be Ken Medima, a blind pianist and signer with a gift for thinking on his feet.  Already my perspective had been drastically altered and this was only the first day!

Thursday morning we went to another session that was equally touching.  A man spoke one coming ‘Face to Face’ with ourselves, and the worship was amazing.  Later the entire group went to Paramount's Great America. We had tons of fun fellowshipping and just hanging out with all our friends, new and old.  We watched fireworks going off just beyond the roller coasters, and had a thrilling Fourth of July.  We went back to our hotels and crashed, that is after just enjoying each other’s company for another three hours.

Friday morning we had another session.  This one dealt with friendships.  While listening to the speaker it was awesome to look around at my group, my friends, my family.  Later that day we discussed going ‘Face to Face’ with the world.  We were forced to stop looking in and start to look out.  Talk about powerful!  On Friday I also learned that the body of Christ could be displayed anywhere, even in a haunted house.  LOC trips have never been conventional, so our trip to the Winchester House was no different.

Saturday morning there was a huge pajama party that the girls and I went to while the guys slept in. That afternoon we all went to workshops on topics ranging from September 11th to the Simpsons.  Like I said the body of Christ is displayed everywhere.

Sunday morning we had the privilege of helping to serve communion at the closing service.  We were all marked with the cross on our foreheads, a sign we carried with us as we left, despite the stares we received.  We did look a little funny with pink and blue crayon on our foreheads.  After that we had to rush to the airport, hop on a plane and head home.  I couldn't believe the week was over.

So much happened in those seven days that I could write a book!  This is just a small part of everything I learned and discovered.  I finally saw what I'd been looking for so long.  Where I once saw strangers I now saw friends, where I had seen friends I now saw family, and where I had seen family I now saw the body of Christ at work.  One week can make a difference in a person's life -- it did in mine.  Now, I can't wait to take this one week and make a difference in the world.