Denver Christmas Conference 2010

Wow, we just got back from a whirlwind trip to Colorado. We enjoyed some great, but quick, time with Michelle's family up in Greeley and then headed quickly down to Denver for our first ever Denver Christmas Conference, now that we are officially staff with Campus Crusade for Christ.

You might be asking what the Denver Christmas Conference is (better known as DCC). Well, we weren't quite sure what it was either. But we found out first-hand that it is a great - although exhausting with two very young munchkins - experience! But rather than me trying to explain it, here are the words direct from the godcc.com website's "What" page:

We want to see your life changed. We want to see the world changed.

Every year at the Denver Christmas Conference (DCC) college students from all over the Midwest come to grow closer to Jesus Christ through prayer, powerful worship, passionate bible teaching, and community. You will have many opportunities to be equipped with life and ministry skills, to connect and network with other students, and to reach out locally and globally. We are excited to announce that this year we will be assembling at least 100,000 meals for on-going relief efforts in Haiti in partnership with Kids Against Hunger on Dec 29.

This year you can look forward to a film festival, multiple dance parties, fun on the 16th street mall, and possibly the biggest New Year's party you've ever been to.

GO DCC and GET FREE this winter break!

A snapshot of just a portion of the room during one of the main sessions.

As mentioned above, part of this year's DCC included a time where staff and students participated in a meals for Haiti even that allowed us to package over 104,000 meals to be sent to those in need as a result of the Haiti earthquakes that happened just one short year ago this week. See the video below for the story that Denver's local Fox news channel did (you can even see me - Nate - in the video at about 1:41 or so - at least my back as I loaded boxes onto pallets). It was one of the many Faith Building events that students and staff participated in while at this years conference.

 

Another faith building experience you might have seen or heard snippets about if you follow me on Facebook, was a Freeze Flash Mob that both students and staff participated in on Denver's popular 16th Street Mall New Year's Eve. For those that don't know what that means, it basically means this: the total group of people at this event (around 1200 students and a few hundred more staff on top of that - so lets say 1500 to be easy) went out to Denver's 16th Street Mall (which is an outside pedestrian street with shops, restaurants, etc - where they were holding New Years parties along with fireworks at 9:00 PM and Midnight) and acted like they were just normal people out mingling or shopping or doing whatever all up and down the entire 8 blocks of the mall. Well, at a pre-planned time of 8:15 PM, everyone that was part of the Denver Christmas Conference froze in place no matter what they were doing for 5 complete minutes. Once that 5 minutes was up, they "went back to being normal"... well, that is usually where Freeze Flash Mobs end, but not this one. As part of the faith building experience, the staff and students used the attention this flash mob produced to strike up conversations with bi-standers along the mall... all in the hopes of guiding them through a survey that leads to a spiritual conversation. It was quite the event, especially with the very cold temperatures in Denver that night.

After DCC, we headed back up north to Greeley and spent another full week meeting with friends, family and some newly introduced friends to share more about the ministry God has called us to and what it is He is doing with and through us. If we haven't had a chance to share with you yet, just let us know - we are striving to connect with everyone personally so that you can hear first hand what is going on with our new Patrick Family Adventure.

Now that we have made it home after a decently long journey for us and our kids, we are recovering and giving thanks for all God did in the "short" two and a half weeks we were in Colorado. Thank you to all who helped us out on this trip, we are grateful!