The morning started early at 5AM and because I slept in pew I didn’t move all night. We had a wonderful breakfast provided to us by the Mechanicsburg church, took a group photo, and then we packed up the bus and set off. This time I had a window seat so I was able to listen to my satellite radio for a while. Then I took to reading and taking in the mountainous views as we made our way through Maryland, Virginia, and Tennessee. We stopped for lunch in some back woods exit in Virginia at Wendy’s around noon. Around 1:15 we were on the road and made no further stops until we reached Knoxville.
When we arrived at the University of Tennessee around 4:30, we started the unpacking of the bus, this time it was everything. We had to walk quite a ways to get to the courtyard but every one of the kids did a great job carrying everything. We had to move the stuff three times before we actually moved in to our dorm rooms. I am rooming with Joel and on the other room that is connected to ours Craig from Maryland is rooming. By the time we all got to our rooms and back down to the lobby in our Maine Conference shirts it was 5:30 so we headed over to the dining hall for dinner. I had a very good slice of pork roast with rice and carrots and we started with the meeting of other kids and advisors from around the country. After supper we headed to the convention center where the opening service began.
Starfield, who is a Christian Pop band from Canada, opened the services with three rocking songs. They were awesome and asked the kids to come down in front of the stage which was like a real rock concert. The kids loved it and I had a great time singing along since I knew two out of the three songs. I noticed Bill from my church happened to sneak up and sit down in our row during this time too. Bill is representing Bangor Theological Seminary during the event. The service itself was wonderful, much like General Synod. It was held in an arena with a large stage and screens that put words to songs up and litany. The passing of the piece was fun and it seemed I led the way with getting people to pass the peace with other kids and advisors. The music was fun and I again felt that special connection with God through the crowd. I heard from one of the staff there is approximately 2400 youth and adults here, much smaller than the last NYE from four years ago. I guess the economy and fuel prices really made it difficult for a lot of kids to come. Hopefully this will change in November and really start to rebound after 1/20/09.
After the service Heather (another advisor) and I went back stage for a brief meeting and then we headed back to the courtyard to meet up with the rest of the Mainahs. At 10:30PM we all headed down to the Alumni building for a conference meeting where we discussed our community life down here and Friday’s schedule. We got another NYE t-shirt and a lobster sticker. At 11:45PM we got back to the dorm where I sit here typing. It is now 12:20AM and I am going to sign off for now and get some sleep. Good night and God Bless!
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