We were not going to mention this, but Ben brought it up during devotions anyways, so the morning started with Ben having an impromptu bathroom break at 5:45 AM. Then at 7:20, Micah impatiently knocked on Allie, Sofie, and Enna’s door. They ignored him because they wanted to sleep (EVEN THOUGH THEY SAID THEY WOULD BE READY!!) but then he knocked again and they went to the pool. After a fun game of “Mermaids” at the pool, everybody ate breakfast at 9:45. After breakfast, we went shopping for T-shirts for our secret Santa activity, and got Beignets. People constantly brought up Micah’s new semi appropriate nickname “Big Daddy” which was randomly given by a friendly passing bicyclist. Then we all headed to the convention center where Ben, Enna, and Micah played Ga Ga Ball for 3 hours, and Allie & Sofie laid in a hammock for 3 hours. After putting on ponchos, we headed to Legacy Kitchen to eat dinner and talked about devotions and the mass gatherings. After that, we walked to the Smoothie King Arena for the mass gathering. The gathering’s theme was “Created to be Free,” and we heard Austin Channing Brown talk about her experiences at church and how she was affected by her race. Drew Tucker and Miles Wallace also shared their experiences about expressing their freedom. Next, we went for another swim in the pool and met Allie’s friend, Michael. There were jumping contests, belly flops, and swimming races. Finally we ended the night with devotions in Julene and Erika’s room where we talked about expressing our inner selves. Thank you to the congregation for supporting us to be brave, authentic, free, and disruptive disciples.

Big Daddy and Allie finding their own way, deuces