creationfest
 
the vancouver sun never felt so good. after four days and four nights of camping in the gorge amphitheatre (three hours east of seattle, usa) in the 40 degree hot and dry desert, it was good to be back in vancouver.

for those that are not familiar with creationfest, it is four days of concerts and camping that are “a tribute to our creator”. many good christian bands were playing including jars of clay, delirious, switchfoot, tobymac, newsboys, chris tomlin, superchick, starfield to name a few. i was there with tyron, dave tanner, sarah begs, alan, and jon ng (all good friends from ubc crusade).

things i learned:
- my body is very adaptable: it knows when i’m camping and when i’m home (i will spare you the details)
- driving through the night after 4 days of little sleep is not the wisest choice (but at the time, it seemed like an ingenious plan)
- three things that made our lives bearable during the extreme heat: spray bottle, iced drinks, and an air conditioned car
- God takes care of the little things too: multiple incidents of lost car keys, the time we lost alan, dangerous swerving in the middle of the night
- when you have no shame, it’s quite simple to get other church groups to give you their food
- moshing with christians is not as easy as it looks. between dodging flying objects (people like to throw things), jumping to the beat, trying not to get squashed by people that can’t jump to the beat by pushing them away, the multiple body odours all around you, trying to rest in the verses of the songs so that you have enough energy to jump during the chorus (it’s tiring, plus i’m out of shape), it’s quite a skill.  

there were a lot of good speakers there as well. they all spoke about the good news of the gospel. it was really beneficial for me to hear it again. i had forgotten how GOOD the good news was. i had forgotten how much joy, and life, and love, and goodness belongs to a person that follows Christ. and again i was reminded how precious and valuable this truth was. and then i remembered how much i had wanted to share this message of life to those i love, and how much i still do. 

tobymac was probably the most popular of the bands, he put on an awesome show. but what impacted me most about his show were these words: “take the shackles off my feet so I can dance, i just want to praise you, i just want to praise you”. i realized that for so many years I had shackles on MY feet. many times during praise & worship, i’d want to jump and dance for the Lord. but my shackles weighed me down. my shackles were my pride, i was afraid of how others would see me, i feared looking like a fool (especially since i’m chinese and dancing is NOT in my blood). but what i yearned for in my heart was to dance to the music in freedom, like no one’s watching except God. i was able to dance that night, and it was so fun! and my heart was so glad. 

it was amazing being able to worship God with over 20,000 other people overlooking God’s beautiful creation.

David, wearing a linen ephod, danced before the LORD with all his might, while he and the entire house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD with shouts and the sound of trumpets
~2 Samuel 6:14-15~