This past weekend (and a bit of the week) was the east coast swing of the National Youth Workers Convention. This has been a staple of my life since early 2000’s. When the convention comes to Nashville I take on a bit different of a role. The role of volunteer.

I email whomever and say, ‘put me to work.’ So I’ve done things like the prayer room or labyrinth many times. This go round, Adam asked me to take photos. So off I went with my new gear set up (more on that later) to chronicle some of the event through my camera lens.

I am working on uploading all the images onto flickr to sort through. You can take a glimpse at them all.. warning: There are quite a few

The best part about NYWC is that many times it functions as a family reunion. So many of my favorite people on earth are there, working, attending, or teaching. Some even crash.. Had so many heartful, fun, and building conversations that, for that reason only, I would love for NYWC to go on and on for weeks.

Some of my favorite images from the convention that was

I’m a big contemplative type. So a stop into the Sanctuary for compline prayers was a great end to the day. Many thanks to Mike King for leading & Lilly for Design. It’s a great gift to give space.

My friend Nita, who has worked at 61st Ave UMC for as long as I can remember was brought to NYWC as special guest and “Queen” for the conference. I loved her face in this pic, it is so her. I’m actually surprised I got some good shots during this as I was pretty much in tears the whole time. She deserves something good like this more than anyone I know.

This is just a neat picture to me: 1. cause I think he’s looking at me 2. the colors are just fabulous & I don’t have any other pictures from the event that look similar than this series. 3 can’t reflect on an NYWC event without mention of the David Crowder Band

Never heard of New World Son before (which wasn’t any surprise to me since I’m so out of the CCM know). They were some high energy fools. Music was pretty good too. It was a real test to get some photos of these guys, but this was a real fun one.

The Haggards are an interesting duo. 1. I think Gayle is salt of the earth.. On stage and behind the stage, she was really gracious and sweet all around. 2. Tim has some more “unbuilding” to go. He built himself up for so many years & much of it crumbled, but there is always remnants that are still part of him that he’s got to work on. He also wants to move on, but I say, his past is what makes him human.. because before all the outing happened some 4plus years ago. I didn’t like the guy one bit as a representative of Kingdom.

We’ll wrap this posting with the closing moments of one Starfield’s songs. Endings of songs are great, the lights are moving, lots of movements & energy. I just like this one.