Favorite FOCUS Conference Moments

1. John Leyendecker's Keynote Talk the first night. John began his talk by sharing a quote - "heart speaks to heart." He hoped that by sharing his testimony, our hearts would be touched. And I know mine was. He has been through such suffering in his life, and Jesus helped him overcome it. It was truly an inspirational talk (I cried),  and I am glad to have been able to hear his story.

2. Pre-Screening Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez's film, The Way. Oh my goodness, was this an inspirational film. It is about a man (Sheen) who looses his son (Estevez) and chooses to walk El Camino de Santiago to honor his son. He meets many friends along the way, and the story that is told through their relationships is heart warming. I totally support this fantastic film, and hope that everyone goes to see it. After watching the film, we were able to dialogue with Emilio Estevez about the making of this film. It was a great experience.

3. Audrey Assad's concert. This girl can SING. Man. She has a beautiful voice and was so funny. She is truly using her gift to honor God. Everyone should check out "Restless." I was able to talk to and connect with God when we sang this together. Beautiful.

4. Curtis Martin's talk with the student leaders. He said "we must first build relationships to show people the love and joy of God in our life." Yes. He told us spreading God's word is first about loving people.

5. Being challenged to cut the noise out of my life. Curtis Martin spoke of cutting listening to music in the car out of his life and the impact it has had on his prayer life. One of Rob Bell's nooma videos is about this; it questions how can we except to hear God in the loud noises in our lives. Sister Mary Gabriel echoed this in her keynote, saying that everyone must go on a spiritual diet. She says certain things (noise) must go in our lives. Lisa Cotter challenged the women to cut out the emotional noise (love songs, chick flicks, etc) out of our lives. This is all hard to do. But so worth it.

6. Adoration, confession, and praise and worship on Saturday night. Connecting with God is always so good.

7. Father's homily on Sunday afternoon was fantastic. I can honestly say it was the best homily I've ever heard. He talked how in baptism we have become "little Christ's" (or "Christitos" - like a chip!) and are called to spread the word. He challenged us "if not you, then who" and talked about the bystander effect. It is our responsibility to change lives.