Forward - Day 2

We were back today, and of course I was there pretty early.  Maddie was on the bus again, heading down with her friends, getting ready for another really full day.  And it was such a huge day.  She loved it so much.  

We started out early to get on the buses to make the trip down there to Forward, and fortunately it's not a super long drive down there.  Maddie and Lily aren't huge fans of the bus ride down there and back, but there are a few friends that they ride with, and of course there is special seating just for their group down there as they arrive together.

The Tribe Wars began this morning to much fanfare, and I was doing my announcing bit for that.  Maddie was snapping a few photos along the way, this one below of a game each Tribe representative had to pick from a box that could have points that would advance the Tribe... or perhaps result in an ice bath!

After that, the worship was super solid with special guests, and of course the messages were so good, one session after the other ending with the final one for Friday with Pastor Franklin.

I was doing a few different roles here, breaking down boxes, serving food, writing the verbiage and scripting flows for the Tribe Wars, delivering pizza to the volunteers, and even performing the job of "sitter," basically filling a spot behind pastor at one point, just to make sure there was someone there for camera shots and so on.  But the new role for me was that of announcer.

Yeah, this one came up out of nowhere.  I was the announcer for the Tribe Wars, spelling out the rules, counting up points, and just adding commentary here or there for all the different games as they took place.  I was pretty nervous about the whole bit, as it was a good bit of unscripted stuff in front of thousands, but on the whole, it all worked out well in the end throughout the day.  You can imagine how sore my throat is currently...

Maddie enjoyed the day much, much better than yesterday.  She was still seated towards the front, but not in an area where she would be crushed by a mob of excited fans.  She was so into the Tribe Wars, and of course all the other parts of service.  She and her friend Lilly talked and talked about it all the way home in the car afterwards.  She and the others went to Discover Mills during the break in between, eating food and doing a bit of shopping where she got a Fennic Shand pop doll.  She was back at the conference a little later, right there amidst the crowd waiting to get in, and piling into the arena for the start of the hype sessions, games, and music.

It was another great time.  There are a ton of pictures of it from the staff, not to mention the photos taken by Maddie along the way, along with all the other cell phone pics taken by attendees.  

This might be the only picture of me though!  I'm working with Pastor Jacob and Pastor Jake - and our friend Daniel - as we write out the flow for the game segments before each session.  That's my laptop there, and that's the room we basically hung out in the entire time.  Behind me is a door that goes straight to the arena.  Meanwhile, Maddie is outside hanging with her friends.  The Splash Tribe took their name seriously with quite a bit of water out there to cool everyone off, but there were mist tents and shady spots to have a seat in.

We're all so tired now at the end of the second day, but today was great.  The girls got in and found their seats for each session without any problem, and sat further back and just had an awesome day today.

Anyway, it was another great night - and another late night.  Maddie and Lily were full of stories of the day's adventure on the way home.  We said goodnight to one another upon getting home, and knowing we all had to get up early once more, it was off to sleep.  Or in Maddie's case, off to her room where Lily and she would spend an hour or two talking before eventually getting to sleep!