Passion 2012

Hal and I had the joy again this year serving at Passion 2012 under the leadership of KW & Julie along with John and Susan.
Unbelievable, awesome, incredible, joy filled, God lead, Holy Spirit filled, OMGoodness......

We checked in on Sunday and got our t-shirts that we would wear for the next 4 days and our volunteer badges and wrist bands.  The essentials to get you where you need to go and want to be for the next few days. 

Here we are all fresh and filled with excitement.

 We attended our Volunteer meeting Monday morning at 9:00 am and still fresh, rested and filled with excitement.  Notice we are sitting on the floor.  There are no chairs at this event, other than the Dome.  I think we told John and Susan that before they signed up?????

Once again we were Community Leaders with a group of around 500 college age kids.  We had one of the smallest groups and we were very thankful as some groups were 4,500.  By the end of the four days seeing their sweet faces morning and evening you got to know some of them.  Oh how they touched me in so many ways.

This is a glimpse of the first wave of kids coming in to register.  The estimate was 43,000 kids from all over the US and 30 countries.

 Each person attending Passion 2012 was to bring a towel and socks to be given to the local homeless shelters in Atlanta.  This is just one of the piles of towels created.

And socks

Pow wow number 1....

Pow wow number 2....

Dan, Aaron's Host for the week is from Austin.  Hal and I so enjoyed talking with him about Austin and how much we loved living there.  What a nice man!

Coffee in hand, Julie and I are ready to greet our kids.

Aaron Coe, our Community Group leader and Julie.  We were fortunate to have Aaron again.  This was his third year to be wtih Julie and KW.  He and his wife, Carmen and their 3 kids now live in Atlanta.  He relates with the kids so well.  They listen to ever word when he speaks. 

 Our sound technician, Josh also lived in Atlanta.  His little girl Lacy celebrated her 1st birthday while we were there.

We took several photos of the group on Thursday, our last day wtih them.  Aaron suggested a Tebow photo.  All the kids instantly knew what to do.

This year the theme of the four days was Freedom.  Freedom from slavery.  There are 27 million people trapped in slavery.  That being sex slavery, sex trafficking, child labor slavery.  When you made a donation to one of the six projects dedicated to ending slavery in the world you were invited to add your mark on the sculpture that would tell the story of slavery and ultimately, freedom.  The materials used to create the sculpture included used and reclaimed items found on the Department of Labor's list of top goods produced by forced labor and child labor around the world.  The used materials were collected by the Passion team from trash piles and donations.

Shoes, blue jeans, t-shirts, soccer balls, decorations, coffee and wood were some of the materials that made up the Hand sculpture.

The Hand sculpture stands over 100 feet tall and the kids raised over 3.5 million dollars for the the fight against slavery.

 Leading up to the Hand sculpture were 27,000 white flags.  Each flag represents 1,000 people - men, women, girls and boys who are trapped in slavery this very moment.  Wednesday evening everyone, 43,000 kids and 2,000 volunteers walked in silence from our respective areas to the International Park.  Just before midnight we lite our candles and waited for the Hand sculpture to be lite up.  The moment was quite emotional.  After the singing and chanting of Freedom Freedom Freedom we all left quietly.

CNN covered the event....http://edition.cnn.com/video/?/video/world/2012/01/05/cfp-clancy-do-something-now.cnn

 The girl interviewed is Brooke, a grad student at A & M.

When each of us registered, participant and volunteers, we each received a card that had a word and specific time to pray throughout the 4 days.  Once you prayed you were to peel off the word from the card and stick in on one of the large wooden letters placed throughout the venue.  It was a mystery to learn the final day what the letters spelled and how they would be used.

 Together We Are A Force For Good

This was placed along the walk way to get to the white flags and Hand sculpture.

Another God filled four days that touched my heart and soul.