This past weekend I was privileged to attend The Salvation Army's annual Youth conference known as Youth Councils. It is a weekend specifically geared to teenagers, and one I love to attend every year. I love to see the teenagers interact, to see them make commitments to Christ and, quite simply, to watch them leave their cares behind and have a thoroughly good time.
The Fredericksburg Corps was well represented on Saturday night as one of our group prayed, Maria & Luis Salazar gave their testimony - and they were tremendous - and our delegation performed a skit. I was very proud of our teenagers who were very well behaved and adopted a positive attitude.
Often I come back from a Youth Councils with some specific moment(s) that stays with me. There were several this weekend but, perhaps the one that stands above the rest was a young girl from Winchester, VA. who performed a mime. She was a pretty, slender teenager and showed great emotion as she performed a mime that was perfectly synchronized to the music. She was smooth in her movements and graceful throughout. At the end of her performance she was greeted with a standing ovation like I have never seen before. You see, this girl is deaf. She performed a mime to music that she has never heard! I'm not sure how she did it, but I marvelled at her performance, as did a room of hundreds of teenagers. Teenagers with a myriad of backgrounds, issues that most of us can never relate to. Many are hardened by life even at this young age yet, as the performance finished, they all erupted with the most incredible silent ovation. As every person stood to their feet, holding their hands aloft and shaking them...sign language for clapping...I was moved. I was moved to see ALL of these teenagers so willing to support this young lady, to show her appreciation, to show her...love. As they raised the house lights she was able to really see the applause for herself, and her pretty face produced a beautiful smile and I knew that a life long memory had just occurred...for me. Thank you Jesus for that moment.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I was moved beyond words that night when the silent ovation was given. You've described it perfectly and I suspect that for that moment, most people in that room were part of a bigger, more heavenly moment than we'll ever know.
ReplyDelete