Sorry it took me a while to post this. I've been reminded by every single person that reads these to post it since I got back.

***THIS BLOG CONTAINS EXTREME RELIGIOUS AND SPIRITUAL FERVOR. IF YOU ARE SENSITIVE TOWARD THIS AND FEAR POTENTIAL OFFENSE, THEN PLEASE. DROP YOUR GUARD, OPEN YOUR HEART, AND EMBRACE A DIFFERENT VIEW. ***

Have you ever been so exhausted that you are afraid you won't be able to hold up your head and it will roll right off your shoulders? Ever been so hungry, you begin to picture your friends as giant hot dogs and turkey legs and you'd begin to gnaw on their arms if they'd just hold still? Have you been so caffeine-starved, you'd sell your pants just to get a cup of coffee? Or experience that unrelenting heat that makes you feel like your flesh is melting and if you could just get an egg, you could fry it on your forehead? Have you ever had such a bad headache, that you are sure you must have ruptured something essential and any moment you will DIE? Lastly, have you ever been surrounded by 100,000 people so passionately in love with God that they are willing to endure all of that, making it worth it for you too?

As I mentioned, I went to The Call this weekend and despite everything I just mentioned, despite the nasty "hotel" accommodations, despite the terrible restaurant experiences we encountered during the times we were eating, it was AWESOME.

The worst part: As I've said before, I love coffee. Up until this point in my life, I was positive there wasn't a cup I wouldn't drink. I've had bad coffee for sure, but even nasty coffee is better than no coffee at all. At least that's what I used to think. Until Saturday night. We had been fasting all day for the conference, yes including abstaining from the obligatory morning cup of Joe. So as you can guess, by the end of the day when we were ready break the fast, I was jonesing pretty bad. We went to a restaurant, the name of which I'll refrain from mentioning so as not to besmirch them, and the coffee was, to say the least, undrinkable. It was awful. I tried it with no sugar- BAD. 2 sugars- WORSE. 5 sugars- GAG REFLEX. That third sip was the last I had that day...

This is what we like to refer to as a *Coffee Emergency*!

That sadness aside, back to the actual conference. We lasted 8 1/2- 9 hours before we left, though it went on many hours later. During this time, we had awesome worship and praise, and most importantly, powerful prayer. That's what this whole thing was about. Prayer and repentance to God for our nation's rebellion and many transgressions, especially the blood shed on our land. This included, but was not limited to, repentance to Native Americans and African Americans for racism, slavery, and war, repentance to God for sexual immorality and the loss of purity resulting from sex outside of marriage, homosexuality, and pornography. But the most tears shed were over the injustice of abortion. There is nothing more abhorrent and heart wrenching than the murder of innocent babies. And don't kid yourselves, folks, from conception, they're God-breathed, soul-full babies.

Most evident throughout the day is that God will never allow you to endure anything you aren't able to. He knows what you can handle and what limit you need to be pushed to in order to make you stronger in Him. (That whole "What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger" garbage has a point after all! ) What do I mean specifically? During the middle of the day, when the sun was high in the sky and beaming right down on us, I wasn't doing well. The incredible heat was getting to me, I couldn't stand any longer, and both of my friends and I had identical vice-grip-like headaches. Hunger was getting worse, and we were all so exhausted from the lack of sleep.

I was almost prepared to ask my friends to leave for fear that I would literally pass out, when I looked up and saw a cloud. I immediately begged the Lord to move the cloud in front of the sun for some relief. As usual, He was two steps ahead of me and knew I had reached my limit. He moved the cloud directly in front of the sun, enshrouding the whole stadium in glorious shade. The cloud remained for a long time so I was able to recover from the intense heat. He even relieved my splitting headache and gave me the strength to stand and worship, and even dance again! Divine intervention is for the broken and humble. Not for the foolish girl thinking she needs coffee to provide energy! The Lord is my Strength!!!

(Obviously this is not my picture, as usual, but depicts the scenario pretty accurately.)

Eventually, we all tuckered out though, and decided we needed to leave. We broke the fast, ate a tiny bit, and went to rest. One of our group went soundly to sleep, but 2 other friends and I decided we couldn't let our last chance go by...so we headed back to the conference to stand in the Pedestrian Overflow section outside the stadium, to watch the worship on giant video screens. Still so amazing and refreshing.

The long drives were brutal and painful, but we survived, had a couple of laughs in between, and our spirits were revitalized from the experience. I have returned, caught up on sleep, and now much catch up on blogs.

Blessings and Love,
~Ari~