Day 2: God Doesn’t Make Spare People

Monday was a great day here in California.  We let everyone sleep in a bit, woke up about 9 am, and headed to the beach.  It took us slightly longer to get there than anticipated, but we had fun spotting all the crazy names of Donut shops on Beach Blvd.  Pulling up to the beach, Katie Perry’s “California Girls” came on the radio in both vans… (this would be the first of about 20 times that we heard that song…) Everyone went their own way at the beach: some went shopping, some went straight into the water, and some set up shop and played some volleyball.  The tide was pretty strong, and the current kept carrying everyone further down the beach.  Austin thought it might be a good idea to go boogie boarding with his hat on and lost it.  Poor guy.  Lesson of the day: don’t go boggie boarding with hats on!

We got to campus around 4, ate dinner at 5, and had our first night session at 6:30.  Ben Kolarcik band led worship and Matt Proctor preached about “grace.”   He spoke from 1 Tim. 1:12-17, highlighting two reminders that God loves us when we don’t deserve it: because (1) God wants our help, (2) God forgives no matter what, and about how God turned his back on Jesus because he would not turn his back on us…. powerful stuff!  It was awesome to see our students singing and participating.   There is a general sense of expectation: that this week is going to be different than just any other week…

We headed up to another building to have our youth group time, and had fun scavenging the building for furniture in order to turn a classroom into the CCS lounge!  We had a great conversation… some great questions asked: “why did Jesus have to die?”  “Why would God allow his only son to die for us?  That doesn’t seem very loving…”  We had an awesome time discussing the topic of “grace” and “sin” and how “sin” isn’t merely a behavior, its a condition, sickness, and virus.

Today was an awesome team-building time for our group, and it was a great opening night to our week of CIY.  Aside from being just short of exhaustion, our leaders are doing great!  Props to John and Sarah for bringing Lila and being awesome parents and youth coaches at the same time!  

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