FESTIVAL OF TENTS 2009

What a great way to start out this year’s Festival.  God loves us so much!

Here is a breakdown:

• Matthew Hiller (“Puppets and Praise”) introduced what he would be sharing with kids this weekend.  He spoke out of John 12, and how Mary chose the right thing to do…come and sit at the feet of Jesus.
• Worship was long and deep.  There was a time during worship where the worship team just kept playing the same refrain, singing and encouraging us to sing Jesus’ name.
• Many people shared God’s heart for us to come to Him, to come to His feet–”wholly surrendered”–to see how He loves us.
  “Forward movement…” to God;
  “Restore to me the joy of your salvation…”;
  “Let God wash away the mud from your feet…”;
  “This is the day, and this is the hour…to let the love of God come into the untouchable places…”
• “Shout to the earth His name
  Let the whole earth know HIs name
  That Jesus is alive
  He reigns on high!”

Right as people began sharing, I heard, “The Spirit of God is come!–to soak up our offerings of worship.”  There was a picture in my mind of the sponge, hovering over us, full and dripping.  The verse from Malachi came to mind, “Test Me in this, and see if I will not open up the floodgates.”  The image was that God was soaking it up, only to wring it out over us, to cleanse, to annoint, and to bless His people.

This year’s Festival of Tents is off to a great start, I think.  Let’s continue to come to His feet, to pour out the most expensive perfume on HIs feet.

=jb=

What a crazy day…we didn’t think we’d ever get here.  Eventually, though, we arrived.   It was quite warm…85, I think.  I’m looking forward to some cooler weather the next couple days.

I know anyone can say this about any Festival, but I’ll say it anyway…there is a sense of anticipation here.  What we *aren’t* anticipating is a lot of rain (even though it might).  The “rain” we wait for–as most of us look forward to–will begin during worship…which just started!

=jb=

Here are a few pics I took as I entered the park today.

(Pic #2…rookie mistake)

=jb=

Morgan and I arrived at the park about 1:30pm this afternoon.  I took some drive-by pics of the “barn raisers” resting after having completed raising the tent.  I’ll post those pics in my next post.

There didn’t seem to be as many early settlers today as have been in past years.  No clue really as to why…economical conditions?  Busier schedules?  <shrug>

It was breezy today, which is a nice change from past Festival’s.  The weather this weekend is going to be perfect (in my opinion).  Hopefully, the new “weather widget” to the right helps out to know just how hot (or not) it’s going to be for the rest of the weekend.

I didn’t really get to say ‘hi’ to anyone other than the Christina and Rod & Emery’s kids (well, most of them).  There were very helpful in helping me get our tent in “sleep mode”.  Good thing Timothy found a decent rock…

I’m back home, now, which isn’t too far away…but far enough that camping is worth it.    We’ll be heading out tomorrow AM to become “official campers” at the Festival.

Hope to see you there!

=jb=

Hey there!  I’m sure you’re getting packed, getting to Brownsville, and getting settled.  Did you bring everything you needed?  Don’t worry, somebody has an extra one. 

I’ll be blogging about this year’s event periodically throughout the weekend.  I’ll be the big guy carrying the Wenger laptop case (ask a Wenger for the meaning of that).

About 40 hours to go before the first Praise Celebration of the Festival of Tents 2008!  Hope to see you there.

=jb=