"And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned." Mark 16:15-16
The night I asked Jesus to be my boyfriend, it was the last day of the millennium and the world was scheduled to end at midnight. I was hopped up on enough sugar to kill a crack addict; having consumed an entire twelve pack of Reese's cups and several melon flavored Mountain Dew's. If the world was going to go all to hell when the clock struck midnight, I wanted to be stuffed with junk food. Somehow we had been able to convince Mom to give us permission to go on a youth group weekend retreat, to West Virginia.
It was the first time we had ever traveled out of state without a parent (or cop) and I was relished the freedom. Mom didn't really buy into all the Y2K hype, but filled the bathtub full of water just in case. News networks had been spewing scary predictions and scenarios for months. They hypothesized that computers would not be able to switch from the year 1999 to 2000 without catastrophic failure. Electricity would shut off, Wall Street trading would collapse,planes would plummet from the skies, and the world as we know it would end. Experts had crawled out of the woodwork and charged big bucks to "Y2K proof" computers. Fortune 500 companies shelled out millions of dollars to essentially have their calendars updated. Mom told the three of us to "Try to find a way to walk back home if Y2K is real. I won't be able to come find you."
The youth group had been steadily growing; youth pastors Dwight and Ashley were able to fill an entire 15 passenger van with teenagers. The retreat hosted thousands of teenagers for the weekend; entertaining them with a concert, workshops, praise and worship, and guests speakers. I was on cloud nine; never having gone to a concert or anything remotely resembling a youth retreat since bible camp.
We all unashamedly belted out Veggie Tales songs the entire drive. While disembarking the van I attempted to act out the line "I took my buffalo to the store and got his head stuck in the door". Hopped up on sugar I grabbed myself by the back of the head and attempted to lightly tap it into a wall. What I didn't take into account was the force in which I slammed my head into the wall and the material it was constructed from, brick. I hit myself so hard it staggered me backwards and I fell down,seeing stars. My wise youth leaders gently asked me to lay off stimulants for the rest of the night.
The evening events were scheduled to last until into the wee hours of the morning. A Christian Rock band Sonic Flood played a moving mixture of worship songs. A guest speaker gave a heartfelt testimony about how he had accepted Jesus as his savior. He described how he had been living life in the fast lane; sex, drugs, and rock and roll were ruining his life. He was depressed and suicidal when he found himself in a church asking Jesus to be his savior. That the simple act of asking Jesus to come into his heart changed the trajectory of his life. He was now living a fulfilled and exciting life as a youth pastor.
The speaker pointed out that it was only a couple minutes before the clock would strike midnight. " I don't think this Y2K nonsense is true, but what if it was? If all the computers stopped working, plunging the world into chaos. What if a plane fell out of the sky and landed on you(everyone loved using that outlandish example). Would you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you were going to heaven?"
While the Youth Pastor gave an alter call; asking people who wanted to pray for salvation to come to the stage; the band counted down softly the last few seconds of the millennium. 10-9-8-7 "What if you died this very second, would you go with Jesus or be left behind?" 5-4-3. A handful of teenagers, most softly crying, were making their way to the front. 2-1. The second the countdown reached 0 the lights in the auditorium shut off. Some kids yelped in fear. Had the Y2K predictions come true? I looked around and noticed that the amplifiers and other electronic equipment still had power.
YOU ARE READING
I Am My Own Cousin.
Não FicçãoMy parents were teenagers when they had a set of identical triplets, quickly followed by three more children. They decided to home school us, move us into the back of a TV/VCR repair store, and embraced a religious/conspiracy zealousness that the wo...
