LTC...It's just what we do for Easter weekend

Last weekend was Easter and many families have many traditions on celebrating our risen Lord. For the last 15 years or so, my family has attended the Leadership Training for Christ (LTC) conference. We started attending the Dallas, TX conference when I was a freshman in high school and moved into the Tulsa, now Rogers, Ark. conference. I was immediately drawn to it because it gave me an outlet for the talents that God had placed deep within me and I was shown how to develop those talents to bring glory to God. And you get medals. (I was am a fairly competitive person, so it was a motivator.)

People in our church would sign up as coaches to help guide us through events like drama, chorus, speech and so many more! They were mentors to us; guiding our unique talents that God had put deep inside of us. I'm sure sometimes they felt like they were herding cats! Some events were group events and some were individual; allowing us to share our talents with each other and also giving us time to grow one on one with God.

I remember being a part of the writing process of the drama script and writing about things that were pertinent to us. We were not acting out words of our coach, but our own words. And singing original songs written by one of the guys in our youth group. I will never forget singing, "Lord, Underneath Your Wings". Probably because our mom's made us sing it a million times!

When I graduated high school, I decided to start coaching or judging various events to stay plugged into LTC. I mean, LTC is just part of me at this point. Some years I was able to give more of myself and do more, but some years I would just show up at the convention and help my parents organize the medals. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, my dad serves on the LTC Board of Directors as the one in charge of making sure all 1500-ish kids get their respective medals. And most of those kids are participating in multiple events. It takes a an army to make sure every kid has their correct medal and my dad is the General. My mom serves as his First Lieutenant (not sure I got the rank right, my apologies, you get the point).

It's just what we do for Easter weekend.

This year, I missed LTC. This year, I missed a lot of things--birthdays, anniversaries, holidays. But I know that participating in things like LTC, helped shaped my foundation and help develop my personal relationship with Christ. Having a conference like LTC encouraged me to use what my God--who gave His Son and brought Him back from the dead three days later--gave me so that I might share that kind of love with other people, whether in Oklahoma City, OK or in Kigali, Rwanda.

Comments

  1. Beverly KillebrewApril 17, 2012 at 6:37 AM

    Well said, Jamie! I missed the convention too. But I did get to enjoy helping our kids get ready before the convention. It is an awesome tool parents and kids can use to prepare them for the future. Many thanks to people like your parents that work very hard behind the scenes for all of our youth!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jamie BoilesApril 19, 2012 at 1:51 AM

    Thanks, Beverly! There is just something missing when you don't go!

    ReplyDelete

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