Exhausted yet Refreshed

Wow, Breakforth is over now and boy was it an awesome weekend. I must say, I believe I may have enjoyed Breakforth over YC, though that might be because I was volunteering instead of attending.

Let see, I started this day by sleeping through my alarm, hehe, so instead of waking up at 7, I woke up at 9. Luckily, my first shift didn't start till 12:15pm. :) However, I did miss my ride at 8:15 to go to church. So I ended up going straight to Breakforth and joining the 2nd Morning Worship Service, which was really awesome. Worship was led by Lianna Klassen, whom I have never heard of before, and her songs are more celtic (spelling?) in nature, but nonetheless, it was a really awesome worship session. And the speaker for that morning was Philip Yancey, whom I also have also never heard of before today, but he too was excellent. I somehow misplaced or lost my pen today, so I ended up using my cellphone notepad to take notes, hehe.

After the morning session, I went on shift and set up for the Main Assembly. My ushering position today was much easier than the one last night, though the position last night had a better location in the concert hall. Last night, I was ushering at the VIP reserved seating, so I spent a good two hours or more saying "No, sorry you can't sit here, these seats are reserved" and other such comments. And saying no to people repetitively all night is really tiring, cause it makes you seem so mean. But today, I was ushering at the very back, well... right in front of the bleachers. So the only thing I had to do was collect the offering. But today's main assembly was yet another awesome one, as Robin Mark led worship and David Nasser was the speaker. So many awesome speakers and worship leaders this weekend, just phenomenal. Brian Doerkson, Paul Baloche, Lianna Klassen, Robin Mark, Joyce Meyer, K.P. Yohannan, David Nasser. And not to mention the concerts by Starfield, Rock and Roll Worship Circus and to end it all off, the Newsboys.

So, after the morning session, we had to kick everybody out of the main hall immediately so that the Newsboys could do their sound checks and everything. And it seems that we had some people that refused to leave when the ushers and even security approached them to. But they left after security threatened to call the police in... and it seems that they had actually snuck in. Tsk tsk tsk. So, I volunteered to stay on shift after my 4 hour shift during the main assembly... so I ended up doing a straight 9 hours on shift today. :) But man did we need all the ushers on shift for setting up the Newsboys concert, cause there had to be at least 1000 or more people that came just for the concert. this being OVER the 6000 or so people that was already registered for the concert through the conference itself. So we had security and ushers positioned pratically everywhere in the shaw conference center, and it was packed... and unfortunately, we even had to pack everybody like sardines in order to fit everybody that showed up. And guess who got chosen to ask all the ticket holders (the people that did not attend the conference but was just coming to attend the Newsboys concert) to bunch up like sardines... ofcourse, me. Again, I had to be mean, but I think I made up for it by laughing and joking with everybody that I was in contact with. But when the doors finally were opened, it took us a good 40 minutes just to get everybody into the concert hall itself. But once we all were in and the Newsboys took the stage. WOW, just awesome. And a worship/music concert in a straight concert hall is so much better than around a stadium like at YC. Oh, and the Newsboys were giving away a free book on the Principles of Christianity or something like that... but I think we weren't given enough to give out or something, cause at least half the people did not receive one, which caused a lot of fuss. But oh well... I didn't even get one...

But alas, Breakforth is now over. And I can not wear my beautiful yellow t-shirt everyday anymore, hehe. I must say, it has been a wonderful weekend, even though I am physically and mentally exhausted, I am spiritually renewed. My feet, ankles and legs are so sore. My throat is hoarse and my neck hurts (probably because I passed out once I went to bed last night and I don't think I was in the correct position), but I would do it all over again if I could. :)

Hmm... so I calculated that I was on shift for roughly 26 hours this weekend. Isn't that awesome?? hehe. Some people would argue that I was crazy instead, asking for more work instead of taking my breaks. But I think it was awesome, cause I was only on for 11 hours at the beginning of the conference, and I complained, yes I admit, I complained (not to a supervisor) and I kept wanting and asking, and I got more hours. 4 hours came from finding out that my schedule was missing a shift, another 8 hours for volunteering to help usher for evening concerts and 2 more hours for helping with equipment and take-down. Overall, a very blessed weekend. Even for me, and for those of you who wonder why I can think this was such a blessing when all I did was work? Well, my spiritual gift has always been in Serving, and I enjoy it best when I am in a position to serve. :) Wow, I've written so much over the past 4 days... but I think it will start to die down again in frequency of my blogs. Oh, and breakforth pictures are up at my http://www.flickr.com/photos/g_mahfia/ page for all those who wish to see those pictures and/or all my other pictures I have taken with my d-cam over the past month.