Passion: Day 1

I was so excited when I walked into the foyer of my sorority house and saw a poster advertisement for Passion.  Passion is something that I had always heard many wonderful things about and always wanted to go, but I never knew when or where it was.  Passion is a big gathering (18,000-20,000 people to be exact) of college aged students and their mentors/advisors etc.  (You don't have to go with people, obviously, you're a college student ha.  Many people were there including many who were not college aged.)  This is usually held in Atlanta through the Passion City Church and Louie Giglio.  This year they also held it in Houston, Tx, which is where I got to attend!

This year, the speakers at Passion were Louie Giglio, Francis Chan (Crazy Love), Beth Moore (<3) and Judah Smith (shout out to my friend Katie!  Judah is her pastor in Seattle.)  None of them disappointed!

When I first arrived in Houston, I went and met my sweet Chi Omega advisor, Nancy, at our hotel.  She was so gracious and paid for our room.  We settled in, got ready, went downstairs and met her pastor from Laramie and some students from Navigators (another Christian college group from Laramie.  I didn't know any of them because I'm an FCA girl, but it was awesome to meet them and know they were also from UW!) and then headed over to the Toyota Center (home of the Houston Rockets (J informed me after I brought her a souvenir that she's an Oklahoma City fan, not the Rockets.  So what.. A souvenir's a souvenir right?!)  While waiting in line, the craziest thing happened!  I saw two girls that looked super familiar.  I knew I had seen them before, and finally pinned it to last years FCA retreat in Estes Park, Colorado.  They were two soccer players from the Colorado School of Mines and roomed with 4 of us Wyoming girls last year.  I finally talked to them.  SMALL WORLD!  Anyway, we finally went inside!

The entire arena was filled.  First up, Chris Tomlin and Kristian Stanfill came out and led us in some awesome worship songs.  I think my favorite part of the entire conference was seriously hearing that entire stadium full of God's children praising the Lord.  Seriously got goose bumps and had an awe over me.  I've never heard a sound like that!

When they were done, Louie Giglio came out and gave the opening address.  After that, Hillsong led us in late-night worship!  Here is an amazing video.  One song that I'm in love with right now is "Oceans" (it's the first song I taught myself on the guitar!! :)  Just excuse my singing that you can hear at times.  Sorry 'bout that!  But really, listen.

Can you hear now what I was talking about earlier with those many voices worshiping our creator!  Awesome (awe-some.)  When they finished late-night, Louie closed us in prayer and we headed back to the room and got some rest for the next day!