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

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Spiritual Coasting and God's Vomit

In my opinion, and of course this is my opinion because this is my blog, but I believe that the general church-going population believes that as a missionary, I am always on this mountaintop spiritual "high". That I am always seeking God because I have moved so far from home and my family. Let me dispel this rumor, this is not true. Just like in America, my spiritual walk has peaks, valleys and plateaus. There are times when I see God working and moving in such tangible ways that I sit back and worship and praise His name. I pray so fervently that I become physically tired. Our team takes time to pray every week for various things, but always seeks God's guidance and leadership over us. And there are times when I see a situation and I pray real hard and I don't see God moving and I look to the sky and ask, "Where are you? Creator of the universe, who can make all things happen and controls the movement of every star, why aren't you moving in THIS situatio
Read more

My confessional: I hurt most of the time

This is something I rarely talk about, much less write about. So buckle in, I'm getting vulnerable here. When I was young, up through high school, I was very active. I played softball, golf, any activity at youth events. If there was activity, I was there. During my senior year of high school, I noticed a lot of pain that I just couldn't describe, it was just all over. We were talking with my local college about playing my freshman year as a walk-on with the softball team, but as the heat of the summer kicked in, it wasn't an option. I remember the heartbreaking moment for me admitting that I had hit my limit. I could still play recreational ball, but competitive softball was over for me. At the beginning of my sophomore year of college something was very wrong, but again, I couldn't explain it; I just hurt all over. I had to sit out a semester of school and my mom was on a mission to find out what was wrong. I was having blinding tension headaches and I constantly
Read more

Small Bits of my life: My God is so big

Image
So, I arrived in Rwanda to start a new adventure. You have been with me, prayed for me, and encouraged me when I was scared (even though I pretended I wasn’t).   This is probably one of the most difficult emails to write because I’m trying to sum up the last 3 years of my life in one (not so) simple message.   When I first moved here, I was doing communications for ROC, the organization that I came here with and fell in love with Rwanda because of them. I was facilitating a women’s entrepreneurship program. I started a Bible study for some junior high girls in my neighborhood and a ladies Bible study for other Americans. I was also volunteering once a week with an orphanage. I wanted to do everything, I wanted to see everything and meet everyone. Three months in, I was tired…and sick. The first year here, I was sick a lot. I think it was a combination of learning how to properly clean and cook food and just being smooth worn out. Everything was new and exciting and I didn’t want to mis
Read more