All Staff

We had a great time at All Staff last week. Young Life puts on a phenomenal conference for us every 4 years and it never disappoints. It's always an amazing, exciting, inspirational, perspective-providing experience. I was absolutely amazed at how everything was done with such EXCELLENCE for 4,000 of us. There are just too many good things to go into detail about, and I'm still processing through a lot, but here are some highlights off the top of my head:

1. So many YL friends from around the country that we get to see. We all stay in one HUGE hotel (the only one in the country that can hold all of us besides Vegas hotels) and after the sessions at night it was just so fun to hit the restaurants for appetizers and see face after familiar face. For an extrovert like me, it's PEOPLE HEAVEN!
2. The speakers were amazing. My favorite was Dale Bruner with a close second of Donald Miller and Earl Palmer. (Donald Miller is my favorite author and Steve and I happened to run into him in the elevator where it was just the 3 of us! Steve and I had a good laugh about what dorks we felt like afterward.)
3. One night we had a huge BBQ dinner out by the pool (you can imagine what this pool looked like if 4,000 of us were out there at once) where Brandon Heath performed pool-side for us. It was my idea of the perfect party.
4. It was about 80 degrees most days. January is my new favorite time to get out of town and soak up some sun. It was so nice to be warm.
5. Young Life is known for it's fun surprises for kids at camp and they always do the same for us at All Staff. Jeff Foxworthy made a special appearance during a program event, which was pretty hilarious. (Did you know he leads middle school Young Life?!) Jack Hanna also showed up for a program event on the last night--complete with zoo animals-- that was absolutely the funniest thing I've seen in years. He had NO IDEA what he had gotten himself into and it was this very awkward, hilarious thing. His words: "I've done Letterman 4 times a year for the last 22 years and I've never had an experience like this." Jars of Clay and Nicole C. Mullen also showed up for concerts and we got to preview a movie (documentary) that will be released nation-wide in April called Expelled. It's about intelligent design vs. Darwinism and Ben Stein was there to talk us through it a little bit.

Overall, it was a great time and one we won't soon forget!