I'm sure the hotel thought they were in for it when man buns, hoodies, and skinny jeans filled the lobby of the downtown Dallas Sheraton. I mean what would
you expect from a couple thousand college students from state schools all over the south central US converging on a hotel to celebrate the New Year? To be honest, I wasn't real sure what to expect myself. #SCSalt was one of several XA (Chi Alpha) conferences going on around the United States this past week. I was there to represent Eurasia, to see if any of these selfie takers might be interested in serving or studying abroad. Their hoodies and backpacks revealed they were from LSU, Texas A&M, OSU, Rice, Sam Houston, and lots of other letters and greek symbols with which I was not familiar. My high hopes of having hundreds of students sign up to work with us in Eurasia diminished as we set up our booth directly across from the wildly popular 'sign up for a dodge ball tournament that would start way past my bed time' booth. I lowered my expectations and dodged a few frisbees. Before the booth was even assembled students began to come over, I didn't really engage too much, I mean, the first gathering wouldn't start till later in the evening at 8pm so if I was going to make it thru the week with those late hours I needed to get in an afternoon nap! With little to no prompting they began to ask about opportunities in Israel, Russia, India, & ministry to the Syrian refugees. My curiosity was spiked, cynical me wondered if these were some random religious studies majors in need of an internship so I inquired further. Computer science, nursing, English, music, graphic arts, archeology, and something to do with animals were the majors they rattled off. I tried to keep my jaw from dropping as they began to tell me about what they hoped to do with these things in the future and further inquired about opportunities to serve in Eurasia. These were some sharp twenty somethings, who had just paid hundreds of dollars to spend a week of their precious Christmas break at a conference with sessions about missions, prayer, and godly sexuality?! Is this real life? Are these real live university students from the United States of America?! I surely had not heard about them as I flipped thru People and watched the news during my pedicure yesterday. I DID see interviews of people who looked a lot like them toting kegs and cases out of the liquor store promising the news anchor that they would not drink and drive and some versions of them talk about what they would be wearing on New Years and how many parties they planned to attend. I still wasn't convinced this handful of students who stood before me represented the masses that were gathering here in Dallas and at the other venues across the nation, I mean, it really seemed too good to be true. As they filled the lobby each day and night, students continued to come and inquire about opportunities to take Jesus to some of the toughest nations of the world. Astounded and filled with awe I sat in the very back of their closing New Year's Eve service and took the above photo. I watched these future doctors, musicians, archeologists, teachers, video game creators, and tech geniuses- worship the Lord unashamedly. I watched precious moments as huge football players embraced one another in prayer, as students knelt all around the room praying for their families, campuses, and futures, as young couples prayed and worshipped together. Hope filled my heart not just for new workers in Eurasia, but for the future of my own nation. Standing before me on New Year's Eve this was IT, our future America seeking the Lord. The service closed out around 11pm and the event transitioned into a New Year's celebration with lots of music, food, laughter, and midnight kisses. (I know this from the hashtagged photos and noise level I could still hear from my bed in my 12th floor hotel room.) Happy New Year America, our future is BRIGHT!
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