On Top of a Pump Jack the View is Amazing

Otherwise entitled, "Hey, Cool, I Went to Denver City this Weekend."

Forty-eight years ago, some bright spark at the church of Christ in Denver City thought, "We should have a youth rally in Denver City every year." And so, the DC (you all get what I mean by DC, right? I don't have to type the whole thing out every time?) Teenage Christian Conference was born. (I totally stole all TCC-related pics from TCC's Facebook page.)

Forty-eight years later, it's still going strong. And not only is the teenage version (which is just as much fun for adults as teens, btw) still crazy-successful, but DC also hosts a Keenage Christian Conference (for the over-40 crowd) and a Bilingual Christian Conference (Spanish & English) at other times of the year. This church is small, but my goodness, do they ever keep themselves busy.

Anyway... I was perusing Facebook a couple of weeks ago when TCC came up in my suggested events, and I was sad for about 10 seconds that I couldn't go, then remembered that one of the speakers lives in Round Rock! Just north of where I live! And he's a friend from my aim days!

So, I promptly sent a message to his wife to see if we could tag along. (Yeah, I'm really friends with her more than him. What?) So we got it all arranged, and I set off on a two-week stretch of happy anticipation, which all culminated in Chad & I getting on a church bus in the wee (4 AM!) hours Saturday morning. And then I promptly fell asleep, to be woken a couple of hours later in a McDonald's parking lot.

Blah blah long drive with teenscakes, and we arrived! In Denver City! Yay! Our group opted for Dairy Queen (and when I say "our group", I of course mean the adults in charge). Chad & I are not fans of DQ, so we walked all the way across DC (a whole half-mile) to get ourselves some Sonic drinks and then walked back to the church, except we didn't, because we were apprehended by one of the ladies in the church who knows us from many years of Bible bowl, and who drove us the remaining half-dozen or so blocks. :) By way of aside, Chad & I were marvelling once again at how quickly the body adapts; a half-mile of walking in dry 85-degree heat across level ground is pretty darn easy after two months of walking up and down hills in humid 95+ heat.

Yeah. So we got to the church, signed ourselves in, wondered what was taking our group so long at the DQ, and went round greeting all and sundry that we know, and even a few we don't. That hour or so before everything begins is a lot of fun, and I almost said it's my favourite time of the day at TCC, but that's not true, because there is no part of the day at TCC that I don't love. Well, except that part at the end when I have to get in a car and leave. :(

Our group finally finished their lunch, I retrieved my Bible and non-sun glasses that I had left on the bus, we found a seat (you can see Chad about halfway down on the left-hand side in a grey shirt in this pic), and TCC started with some singing. It's hard to go wrong when singing with 800 people; it's bound to be 1) Loud, 2) Fun, and 3) Absolutely amazing. Plus, Skip is a crazy-good songleader.

So, loved the singing. Loved the speakers-- they were fabulous. Loved, loved, loved the fellowship; that's pretty much the reason I go, after all.

Tomorrow: Acappella concert and the after-party.