Logos 5

This past December, Christie and I traveled to Grand Rapids, MI with our boys to attend the LOGOS 5 Wesleyan Youth Convention. We were sponsors for the Junior High students. A total of around 50 youth from our church attended. Gannon and Grant are part of the JC Bodyshop youth group at College Wesleyan.

We arrived a day early so we took the boys to the Gerald Ford Presidential Museum. The museum was very impressive. The best part was the replica of the Oval Office as it appeared during Ford’s presidency. There was also a large section of the Berlin wall in the main lobby.

Overall, I thought the conference was very good. I enjoyed the music and the speakers were inspiring, especially that of Marilyn Laszlo, who shared her story about time spent in Papua New Guinea as a missionary and Bible translator for Wycliffe Bible Translators. Some of the high school students felt that the speakers were not “deep” enough in the Word for them. Our youth pastor Mike Hofer had to remind them that this convention was designed for students who are at various levels in their walk with Christ. Some of these kids’ parents are Bible professors at IWU and I think they are a little spoiled by the preaching they hear every Sunday at our church.

Several of the high school and junior high kids became ill during the trip. Fortunately for them, Christie was there acting as both nurse and pharmacist. She had her bag of medicine with her and she was busy dispensing aspirin, cold and flu medicine and other remedies to the kids. I jokingly told her that we needed to put a Walgreen’s sign our hotel room door as they were always knocking on our door saying “Christie do you have any……?”

Although Gibson is too young to be part of the JC Bodyshop youth group, he participated in all of the activities with the “big” kids. In the evenings after the general sessions were over students could participate in the Street Party in one of the convention halls.

The Street Party consisted of video games, and other activities such as a mechanical bull, dodge ball, jousting, and basketball to keep the kids busy. Christie and I were both exhausted from the trip, but we both agreed that we had a great time. Our boys had a wonderful time as well. We are so glad that they are able to attend conferences like this where they can learn more about God with their friends.