AOYC 2012
24-7 - May 18-21, 2012 @ Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, ON
Stories
We asked our conventioneers to share their stories from the weekend - how God has worked in their lives or something that really impacted them from convention. Here are their stories:
- I have never been touched so much by the holy spirit as I had been at AOYC. The laughs, the tears, the songs that broke your heart and yet mended it back together with a simple change in chords - I couldn't have asked for a better weekend! To hear the stories of beautiful, life changing miracles occuring in our day to day lives just makes you want to give your complete self to God and tell him to take full control. That, is so much easier said than done though. My eyes have been opened and my heart cleansed and I would like to thank the Skit Guys, Peder Eide band, Danny Ray, the trippiest man alive and the absolute best speaker, Tom Tufts for an amazing weekend that I will never forget! God bless and I hope next year will be just as awesome or even better!
- Melissa Koopmans - Thank you for doing such a wonderful job on the Youth Weekend. My daughter loved it! She came home and told us all about it, shared the notes she took and can not wait for the next one. Congratulations to you and your team for putting together such a great weekend. It surely must have been a monumental task! Thank you again.
- I just thought you would like to know that we had a young lady commit her life to Christ this weekend as well as a young gentleman begin dealing with a deeply rooted pornography addiction.
The Holy Spirit was at work in mighty way. - I had a great time at the convention! I hope to go next year.
- Dave VK - Hey, so this is my story. I am in grade 10 and this was my first year going. My best friend was my room mate and it was his first year as well. A bunch of youth from my church went as well. I didn't know anyone else so it was kinda nerve racking at first. I met a few people and sat with my friends from church during the services. The first two days were kinda hard for me. But on the night of the dance I didn't care what anyone else thought because I was with all my friends so I just danced, even though I am no good :P. I met this one girl at the dance. We didn't talk much but there was a look that I knew we were going to get along. I asked my friend who she was and she told me that she went to her school. So the next day I talked to her and became friends. I met some of her friends and some of my friends friends. Soon I had alot of new people I met as friends. The leisure time was when I really connected. First I just kinda followed her, my friend who also knew her, and his friends. We were in the lounge playing cards and laughing in no time. Then we all started to talk and it was a great connecting experience. On the day I had to leave I was sad to leave all the friends I just met. We all promised to stay in touch and we are so things are working out.
Now for the worship and speaker part. Ok so first off I'd like to say that Peter and his band is amazing. So the first night it was like getting to know each other and warm up. So it was a good mood lifter upper. But as we got into the weekend the worship got intense. Some of the songs were so full of energy it was awesome but still had the Christian feel to it which I liked. I liked how it was electric guitar and stuff directed how youth would like it. The songs were also very powerful. The song " Abba I belong to you" really hit me. Things don't normally affect me emotionally but this one hit me hard. When he asked us to open our arms up to God, it felt like he was actually embracing me as one of his many children. I had tears in my eyes. The same night when we could go to the cross and pray I felt like now I could pour my heart out to God. Why now? I don't know, but I did. I told him all my troubles and I felt like I was kneeling in his temple with him listening to me. I felt soon after my stress lifted a bit. The whole weekend I forgot about all my problems. The worship and the weekend itself was just so moving for me. The speaker Tom. Man he was a funny guy. BUT.. he also had great messages. The messages I received from him were very moving. The other speaker on self injury knew what we were dealing with. I know friends who go through that and I found his talk very informing. The Skit Guys. Boy oh boy they are funny! I was hurting soooooo much because I was laughing so hard. They are just so funny! But the magician. HE WAS CRAZY!!!! Just some of the things he did were crazy! I was the kid who he gave the elastic to after he did that elastic trick. It was a real elastic! No tricks!.
But over all this whole weekend has been a life changing event for me. I find it easier to live in the way of God now and I will try to continue to do so. This weekend was amazing and will continue to go to the next ones.
- Stephen Van Dalen -
The AOYC this year was my third year going. I've gone to Brock, Ottawa, and now Laurier. I didn't attend last year because I had to work all weekend. Anyways I would really like to share with all of you a little bit of a testimony of my weekend and of my struggles with God.
I am 18 years old, and I've really been struggling with my relationship with God. The Convention is always something I look forward to and this one really moved me, the speakers really spoke to me and the whole weekend was just a great learning experience for my relationship with HIM. I go to a public high school so a lot of my friends aren't Christian; a lot are Catholic but still.
On Good Friday last year my sister and I were in a car accident... she was driving. It was after the movies and we had just dropped my boyfriend off, and my sister was in the front with her boyfriend at the time. I had been sitting in the very back of the van but decided to move to one of the bucket seats to be closer to the front. Anyways long story short it was snowing and we hit ice or something and all I remember was the car swerving to the left and us rolling in the ditch. I must have been knocked out or something because I don't remember anything from the heading to ditch till we landed and my sister's boyfriend undid my seat belt. We were all fine... the front window was smashed the mirrors were off, the front doors were jammed but we didn't have a scratch on us. Anyways called 911, police came bla bla bla.. The next day when my dad went to get our stuff from the van he said that there was a knife that was in its package but had a hole in it. The knife was thrown from the back of the van to right in front of me. I guess it must have flown past my head... if it would have been any closer I could have been stabbed. After that night I knew that the only reason we were all okay was because God had his hands or something else's hands wrapped around us keeping us safe. So I decided to profess my faith after that.
So this is where my journey had started. Like I said before my relationship with God has been sort of rocky, up and down like Tom said like a roller coaster. After the AOYC this year my relationship with him has been amazing. The AOYC was very emotional for me, I found myself crying a lot in my small groups when I would tell stories or even in the services, I would be listening and just start to get tears in my eyes. This year was the first year that I actually wanted to raise my hands in glory and in praise for the LORD. I didn't feel like an idiot doing it I felt completely normal. When Tom asked us to go to the cross the first night I got up right away and went... he told us to take everything to the cross and boy did I ever. I went up there and knelt and I found myself starting to cry, I had no idea why I was crying but I did and my brother was behind me and put his hand on my shoulder and we prayed together. I prayed for my mom, she's been going through a rough time lately with her health and I just wanted god to relieve her of her issues and make her live a normal healthy life.... We found out just this week that my mom's breast cancer is back ='( its been 6 years and now she has to go through the whole thing again and its not fair. I was so upset with God after I found this out, I had been praying and I just thought that yeah He is great, he will make her better, but what happens?? She's not better at all but the worse thing possible happened. I have been very frustrated with him lately... at the convention I became so much closer with God it was simply amazing. I just hope and pray that he will take good care of my mom and help her to get better... to finally be free from all this pain she is in. At the convention I was honestly moved by God, I could feel his presence there the whole weekend. And I know people say that the HOLY RUSH I guess you could call it wears off after a little while but this time was different I'm still all for God. I actually talk about him with my friends more... and like Tom or Peder said to say when we got home what he did this weekend I did tell a few people... I told some of my friends that I got to know God better. They thought it was a little weird but I didn't care, at all.
Something amazing happened to me this week before we heard the news about my mom. I have been dating a guy for a year and a half... we were still together during the convention. He is not a Christian but does believe somewhat in God. Anyways we had been arguing a lot and just not communicating the same way, we weren't happy. I was very frustrated with our relationship one night and before bed while I was praying I told God to take control over my relationship, that I was putting everything in his hands. The very next day we broke up... it was crazy. I was sad of course because we dated for so long and I did love him. But we decided it was for the best and that we were still going to be friends because we ended it on good terms so I was sort of okay with it all... what made me even more okay with it was that God was in control over it. I knew that because I asked him to take control that we obviously were not meant to be together... I think me dating him was a test for my relationship with God. I finally decided to let him handle it and I think that is a big step in my relationship with him.
p.s. Katie & Krista & John I miss you guys so much <3 (Met @ AOYC this year)
BFFAOYC xoxo
- Andrea Feddes