Saturday - Farewell! (Jessi)

Today was our last day at the youth rally. We had a great breakfast at the cafeteria, then we headed off to our dorms to pack up. Once we were packed, we returned our room keys and loaded our belongings into the Williams car. We went to the closing worship service and got floor seats really close to the stage. Koine sang a few songs before worship started. We started the worship with a song and responsive reading led by Rev. John Boggs. Koine led us in singing more songs. Rev. Boggs preached an inspirational sermon about being involved in and serving our churches. We sang another song, then Rev. Boggs spoke a prayer with the congregation responding in song. We joined in the Lord's Prayer, then sang our rally song written by Koine, Sacrifice With Shouts of Joy, to close our worship. Youth rally committee leaders Nicole Westra and Rich Warnecke went up on stage and made many thank you's. We ended the rally by shouting the theme of the rally "No Fear" as loud as we could. Confetti and smoke machines concluded our cheer. We exited the arena and said goodbye to our dear friend Leni Mueller. After we left campus, we went to eat at Chick-Fil-A. There were beautiful brick houses along the way. Some even looked like castles. Then we went to the World Fair Park. We played in an interactive fountain and walked around a historic part of Knoxville. We even went to the observation deck of the Sun dome and saw a beautiful, panoramic view of the city! Tonight, we are going to sleep at Ascension Lutheran Church in Crossville, TN and the Williams are starting their drive back to Texas. We have had an amazing youth rally!

From Mr. Schneck:

Wow. I’ll say it again. Wow.

The closing service for the youth rally was this morning. The teens don’t want to leave. This has been such an incredible experience for them and for me. I pray that they can put what they’ve learned and the encouragement to not be afraid to use their gifts to serve their families, communities, church, and in all their Lord into practice. As the group talked about our day and our week last night, it stuck me how much this experience was like the disciples on the mount of transfiguration. It is so good to be hear with the Lord and with more fellow teen believers than our teens have ever been with in one place. I just want to pitch our tent and say, “Let’s never leave!”  But God has work for us to do. We have to go back down the mountain (and back to Alaska). But Jesus is still with us on the plain. And we have nothing to fear.

The teens were encouraged to use their gifts, whatever they are, to serve the kingdom. Parents, thank you for the privilege of having this experience with your teens, and for your support (financial, prayer, and otherwise) to make this happen. I hope I bring you back some inspired young people energized to continue to live and serve to God’s glory. You have some incredible teens with great gifts. Please encourage them to put them to work.

We’ll see you Sunday night!

Friday (Gideon)

The day started out normal going to the buffet for breakfast. After going to the arena for our morning presention we all worked our way to the workshops and rec sports.The 3 o'clock sports were cancelled due to the sound of thunder so no one could play outside.In the evening we attended a country/rock concert by the Aaron Tracy Band, then went to the hub to party, watch comedy sportz (improv), and play football, then we went to our dorms to party with our room-mates.

From Mr. Schneck - another great day of presentations and faith building. Pastor John Enter from West Palm Beach, Florida gave an outstanding presentation to the rally teens on how God uses the events of our lives in amazing ways to shelter us, during which he shared the video linked here: FALLING PLATES

Thursday - the Lord Shelters Me (Valerie)

We started the day with a nice breakfast at the Presidential Court Cafeteria. Then we headed to the Arena for devotion and a keynote by Pastor John Enter. It was a great way to start the day. After that myself and Leni left on our Excursion (horseback riding) while everyone else went to lunch. After lunch the group went to different workshops. They all told me they had a wonderful time during them. The horseback riding excursion was such a cool experience; I have gone before, but this was just AMAZING. When we got back we went swimming in the OLYMPIC sized pool! It was very deep! (It said it was 5ft deep at one part……it definitely wasn’t 5ft deep.) After swimming we had Asian food for dinner. Then we went back to the Arena for the comedian, guitarist, and impersonator Matt Jerigan! He was awesome! After that, we headed to the Hub to listen to Koine Unplugged-what a wonderful band! There was a magician after them, he was super cool too. Well, we’re about to have our evening reflection with our group.

From Mr. Schneck - Great presentations again today. Fantastic keynote address from Pastor Jon Enter on finding our shelter nd comfort in the Lord. His presentation included a striking video linked here: Falling Plates . Thanks again, Faith congregation, for making this trip possible for us!

Wednesday - Rally time! (Lilly)

This morning we decided to have breakfast at the waffle house, because there was one probably every exit. Then we went on the four hour drive back to Knoxville (everyone seemed much more tired on the drive back). When we finally got to the University of Tennessee we were welcomed by a very enthusiastic greeting by Josh, Grace, and Bec Williams. We received name tags, bags, and shirts. Then before we brought our luggage up to our dorms, we found Leni Mueller!! She grew about three feet and I called her an Avatar, because she is so much taller than the rest of us (well except the guys…wait she is taller than Josh). During the opening worship, with the 1,666 people there (that is the exact number by the way) Faith Lutheran was one of the two churches’ that was individually recognized. We were recognized, because we were the group that has traveled the farthest. The band Koine was playing for part of the worship. Tonight’s theme was “No Fear—The Lord Protects Me”.

Mr. Schneck's note - Incredible worship with the teens. After the service they hung out at the HUB - Comedy Sportz, swimming, and literally all the cheese pizza and orange soda you could handle. Finished the evening with a reflection devotion together as a small group (Alaska teens). A blessed day. I included with this post a link to Sacrifice with Shouts of Joy - Koine the lyric video of our rally theme song by Koine. Please take a listen, and imagine singing it with almost 1500 plus together in worship!

Tuesday - Prepare to Believe...(by Emma)

Woke up around 11 (Kentucky/Tennessee time), so we are slowly accommodating to our new time zone. After we got ready, we headed over to Culver's, home of the butter burger, for some brunch, and made our way to Florence, Kentucky, where the Creation Museum is located. The museum is fairly big with a beautiful garden and petting zoo. I loved the setup of the museum because it took you through as if it was witnessing to someone. It first started with interpreting the evidence, which evolutionists depend on, in the way creationists see it, and carried on to share the message of Jesus through historical and modern events. The petting zoo was exciting because it included a zonkey (mix between donkey and zebra), a zorse (mix between horse and zebra) and a wallaby, who tried to take a bite out of one of our own, (don’t worry, Lilly escaped with all her fingers). Although this humid hot weather and random down pours are a little confusing to us Alaskans, we are all excited to be here! Now we’re off to explore the town of Florence.

Thanks for all your support, God bless!

Emma Schneck

Mr. Schneck’s note – Teens have been great travelers as well as great comedy. Though suited to Alaska, they are not wilting too much under the Kentucky heat and humidity. I won’t tell you which two fell asleep during the planetarium show. Wasn’t much to explore in Florence. Found a great meal and southern hospitality at the local Big Boy. Everyone is pumped to begin the rally tomorrow. We will be meeting up at UT with the Williams in the afternoon.

Monday - the adventure begins...

We’ve arrived! After a very long pilgrimage starting at 12:45 a.m. from Anchorage to Los Angeles to Chicago with only one hour of delay in Ohare, we arrived safely in Knoxville at midnight Monday to commandeer a Chrysler Town and Country (Free upgrade! Yay!) with all the bells and whistles as we continued with a four and a half hour drive to Florence, Kentucky for our first night. The drive went smoothly with a careful of teens singing along to the radio and otherwise being wholesomely rowdy. We arrived at 5:00 a.m. and bedded down for a few hour on the hospitality of the congregation at Amazing Grace in Florence, KY (Thank you, Pastor Wilke and brothers and sisters!) . I finally had to wake them up at 11:00 a.m. (I’m hungry!) to grab a  bite (AT CULVERS you Wisconsin people!) before we hear over to the Creation Museum (only 10 minutes to Petersburg). I’m excited. I hope they are. Some highlights so far:

AK to LAX – Back row so the seats don’t recline much, but I think everyone got at least a few hours of sleep.

Los Angeles (LAX) – Spent a little over an hour. Hoped to see movie stars, but no appearances.

Chicago (ORD)- another long flight, but the Lego Movie was on (at least the boys enjoyed it)!Teens were fascinated by the toilet seats with automatic refreshing plastic sleeves (cool, but also weird). The airport Lo Mein could use a little help. I watched CNN and Fox News.  Teens played cards and LIFE on Jessi’s tablet. An hour delay when they gave someone else our plane, but only a little walk to the new gate. Besides our pilot walked down with us – a cool, personable adventurer type who looked like he just wandered off the outback. I’m sure he wrestles gators in his free time or something like that.

Knoxville – First impression of Tenessee. Free upgrade and satellite radio. (That was helpful.) Sang and joked all the way up. Saw a live coyote and many interesting roadkill.

Knoxville to Florence, KY. Four plus hours of driving (laughing all the way ha ha ha) and very grateful to the congregation of Amazing Grace for a soft, cool place to lay our heads.

Thank you, Lord, for safe travels.