Donnie's Wedding and Youth Conference 2010!

My family drove to Hammond, Indiana (and surronding areas) for my brother Donnie's wedding! My sister, Grace, and brother-in-law's brother, Levi, stayed with me for the rest of the week to go to the church's Youth Conference!

Rehearsal Day
We arrived at Donnie's house at noontime, and did minor work until the rehearsal dinner was being held at 4pm. We wandered around the church, had dinner, and began rehearsal.

Driving to Indiana with our feet out the window:


Working on Donnie's place:


Bam-Bam! Enough said...



What an organized wedding preperation it was! Every detail was planned out to perfection. My role wasn't as complicated as some, but it took me a while to understand it all.

Myself, a "Jr. Groomsman", with my sister, Grace:


Practicing onstage:



Ele, Levi, Andrew and myself stayed at Donnie's house, while the others spent the night with other local families. We had lots of fun!

Getting out the pre-wedding jitters!



Wedding Day
Us guys awoke and drove to the church's Groomsmen Lounge. After the photographer arrived, we took groomsmen (and various other) pictures. The wedding went fairly smoothly! Donnie and Connie are married! :)

In the groom's room:


One of the my favorite pictures ever:


In tuxes, waiting for the photographer:


Bear, Manda and Amity:



The only mistake I made was onstage. After a half hour of standing on the steps, I stared into a light too long and lost my balance. I started to tip over, but caught my balance and jerked back into position. It made a slight noise, but I'm not sure if many people noticed. :P

The bridesmaid photo:


The day, in general, was great. However, I had numerous wardrobe malfunctions. My tux button fell off, and I had to loosely tie it back on. I got some sort of ink on both my tux jacket and pants. I still don't know what it was (perhaps my shoe polish?). I also got blue paint all over the tux. Additionally, the heel of both pairs of my dress shoes started to fall off. To top it all off, after the reception was over, my tie slipped off and fell into oil in a parking lot.

Donnie, Connie, and Pastor and Mrs. Schaap:



Nevertheless, it was a great day! I became a brother-in-law again!

Donnie and Connie at the wedding reception:


Pre-Youth Conference

Sunday
Sunday was a great day. At nighttime, Dr. Jack Schaap preached a fantastic message about walking with God. In short, he explained the importance of getting away from everything man-made and just being alone with God - perhaps deep in the woods.

Displaying our fancy new T-shirts from Appii.com:



Monday
On Monday, Katie took myself, Grace and Levi on a tour of her bus route. We got to meet many people deep in Chicago. We stopped at a park, and played games with a bunch of kids. We also had dinner in a Spanish family's home. It was amazing trying to follow conversations in both English and Spanish!

At the park:



After that, we went to Lake Michigan. It was beautiful! We could see the large buildings of Chicago from the shoreline. The water, however, was freezing. It took much coaxing for me to actually go into the water. ;)

On Lake Michigan:





Levi, the Sand-Man!



Tuesday
We had little to do on Tuesday, and ended up going into three different thrift stores! In the evening, we went to a church where Katie's tour group was singing. We met her other tour members. The service itself was fantastic.

Playing miniature golf at the college:


Toying with camera effects:


Katie and Grace, making plans for the day:


Katie with her tour group:


Youth Conference
Wednesday
Wednesday began Youth Conference. My favorite message was by Dr. Schaap, about being A Polished Shaft for Christ. I don't want to be used for little things; I want God to use me to change the world.

Sitting in the balcony:


Thursday
Thursday was a very long day. We had to be at the church before 8am. The most memorable part of the morning was Schaap's interview with Mosab Yousef, son of the founder of Hamas. My favorite part was near the end. Schaap had been praising Yousef for all the great stuff he is doing to fight Islam, when Yousef stopped him mid-sentence. Instead of accepting the glory, he deflected it all to Christ. "Please, do not give me any praise. God is all that matters. All glory goes to him."

In the afternoon, we went to the Illiana Motor Speedway, and received a free vuvuzela (horn) for being one of the first 500 to arrive! They did go-cart races, a monster truck show, and a bus derby. If you ask me, the bus race was the best. One of them even flipped over!

Some of the 5,000+ at the race track:


The Monster Truck crushing:


Prepare to crash, buses!


Towards evening, we all went to Hyles-Anderson College. They had food, games, inflatable slides, and lots more. At nightfall, they launched fireworks!

Friday
My favorite message of Friday morning was by Freddy DeAnda. In the afternoon, Schaap preached one of his most famous sermons, "America, America", which I've actually watched before. Nevertheless, it broke me to pieces. I'm still a little shaken from it, and I'm writing this two days later. In brief, we live in such a wicked nation, and only by the grace of God are we not destroyed at this very moment.

Levi and Emma, a super-fun dog:



Stopping at Arby's on the way home:


After the final service, we drove home. I got two free t-shirts out of the deal, too. ;) Overall, the conference was fantastic. From side-splitting skits, to meaningful music, to great games, and to moving messages, this was a blessed time!

---

God bless, J.J. Biddinger