**Note: I'm including some pictures from Goldrush, but they're not mine. I've gotten them from different students during the week, so enjoy!**
This past week I was blessed to be a part of Goldrush, but not in the way that I'm accustomed to. I have been a part of Goldrush for 7 years in the past as a student on the servant team. I feel like I've seen Goldrush from every angle now as I have been on design team (decorating everything), music team (leading worship every morning and night), drama team (doing a skit every night), cafe team (working the cafe), and now hospitality team (making small groups, rooming assignments, name tags, etc.). I've also now seen it from the perspective of a participating student as well as a staff member. But I'm getting ahead of myself...
Goldrush is a student lead conference that Perimeter church has hosted for about 20 years. Middle school and high school aged students at Perimeter have the choice of being on servant team and then choosing which team they are on based on their individual talents: design, music, drama, speaking, tech, dance, set-up, hospitality, cafe, missions, prayer, emcee, and Goldrush News. All of these students have meetings once a month starting toward the beginning of the year and then as Goldrush gets closer, they have them once a week. Most teams meet more than that to accomplish everything they need to. Each student on servant team also gets to lead a small group at Goldrush along with one or two other leaders.
Does this sound crazy yet? Then Goldrush gets here and it's crazy! Outside churches sign up and bring their students as well and we usually have about 1,000 students in all! The students attend worship sessions with music, a speaker, a drama, and a dance every night. They also have devotions and worship every morning and then attend two sessions with speakers each day. After that, depending on the day, students will either have a free day (at Dave and Buster's or SkyZone) or go do missions (at different places like apartment complexes or food banks).
Goldrush is a week of serving and learning more about God's love for us and how we should then live in response to that incredible love. At the end of the week we had many students come to know the Lord and even more who rededicated their lives to Him during our concert of prayer! Something I love about the concert of prayer is that as the students walk in, all of the staff from each church (that are attending Goldrush) line the doors that the students walk through and pray over them and read scripture over them. It was one of my favorite moments of all of Goldrush!
The last thing we have at Goldrush with all of the churches is a celebration where we simply worship our glorious God for who He is and what He's done for us. Then Perimeter decides to do something which is... trying? Testing of my patience?
We have a lock-in for all Perimeter students at the church. At this massive church. You know how some people describe themselves as morning people or night people? I'm neither. I'm a sleep person. This might have been the time that I was leaning the most on the Lord during the week. I knew that there was absolutely no way that I could stay up for over 24 hours (from 5 AM Thursday to 7 AM Friday) without Him. The Lord provides though! I was placed at a certain point in the church to make sure that students weren't sneaking away to purple. For all you non-student-ministry people: girls are red+boys are blue=purple=bad.
Too long to read the entire post? God is good. Always!
And to those of you who I know were praying for me the whole week? Thank you! The Lord listened to your prayers and used you!
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