I’m a Popsicle for Jesus! Day Two at the Passion 2012 Conference began with temperatures in the teens, but that didn’t stop Carolyn and I from standing on the street corner and encouraging 40,000 college students by yelling, “You’re almost there!”, “Building C is straight ahead!”, and “Girl, those leggings are cute but you need to put on some pants!”
We were joined on the street by our new friend, Delia, a Emory professor from Romania, and I will now base everything I think I know about Romanians on her. “The Romanian people have a great sense of humor, wear purple coats and have a strong like for Clif bars.”
Day Two was better in that we didn’t have long stretches in the cold, but would go out for an hour, direct people to the correct areas, then go back inside to thaw. Once the students had entered the dome, we were able to go inside and watch from the rafters. As volunteers, we had two places to view the happenings – standing in the back of the first level, or sitting in the volunteer lounge and watching on televisions. The only aggravation of the entire conference came in the form of another volunteer. There’s always ONE, amiright? As we entered the dome, we were ushered forward, forward, around, around, until we finally made it to the volunteer lounge. They waved us forward to some actual seats in the dome, (YAY!) then a few minutes later asked us to go back to the lounge. I’m not sure why, but someone mentioned they could see us from the stage. What, a crazy woman in neon yellow waving and screaming, “CHRIS! CHRIS!” is distracting? I thought they were professionals.
Anyway, we moved back to the volunteer lounge but the tv sound wasn’t working. I politely asked the volunteer mentioned above if they were going to turn up the sound and she said, “I don’t know but you’re here to SERVE NOT TO LISTEN.” And she said it in that church tone, you know the one that says, “You’re that girl,right? The one that wears her jeans, too tight for church?” Kittens, my only regret is that I didn’t take her picture for you cause I wasn’t three feet away before I was thinking, “You are so going on my blog, Sister!”
We were there to serve?? Really, cause I’m pretty sure I’d been serving in the freezing cold all morning, and serving with JOY I might add, while she was inside the temperature controlled dome sitting on a cushion about 6 inches thick and listening to every note and every speaker since the event began. I was getting really aggravated, then it hit me! Holiness is a competition and I’d just kicked her servant tail. Lisa T-1, Granny Grunt-0, BOOM! God is keeping score and she just got pwned! My theology could be flawed. I’m not sure, my pants are usually so tight I try to sit in the very back, and it’s harder to hear.
Other than her, it was a great day. I got to bless 40,000 college students AND hear Matt Redman, Chris Tomlin, Charlie Hall, Kristian Stanfill, Christy Nockles, Beth Moore, Christine Caine and Francis Chan. Not bad, huh?
I also got to eat lunch with my lovely niece, Nolan, who almost didn’t join me because she was HORRIFIED by my outfit. What? Just because I was wearing huge, black shoes, wool socks, a pair of running pants, a pair of JD’s flannel-lined pants, a cami, a turtleneck, a bright neon shirt, an orange fleece vest, a grey coat, a multi-colored scarf, a neon vest, gloves and a hat doesn’t mean I’m not fashionable. It just means I’m multi-fashionable! Well, at least I was warm.
What are the chances that next year when I volunteer, I’ll get a nicely-worded letter saying my help is not needed? I’m thinking pretty high.
Your first clue they were trying to run you off would have been when they put you outside. Your are lucky they even let you in to warm after all you were just there to serve.