NATCON Top 10 (from October 2006)

Meeting Joshua Harris was one of the most memorable experiences of the DG Conference. All the readers of our blog are probably aware of the rivoting, stimulating and theologically sound book "I Kissed Dating Goodbye." And you are most likely aware that this book was written by a guy named Joshua Harris. We were helping people check in. Steph and I were at the table that included the 'H's.' We were busily checking people in and making sure they received all the materials. A good looking, dark haired and rather short guy walked up to the table and said "Harris. Joshua." We thought nothing of it other than noticing that he was a very gracious and thankful. When he said he was from Maryland the bells suddenly started ringing, the lights went on and the gears started turning in my head. And I knew this was not just any Josh Harris, but it was THE Joshua Harris. Without thinking, I blurted out loud, "Are you Joshua Harris?" And Stephanie quickly caught on and said, "Oh, The Book! The Book!" Neither of us said anything about the book. Come to think of it we probably didn't say much of anything at all. Our faces turned bright red and laughed. He was still very gracious. Oh, it was embarressing and it was worse knowing that Ellie was at the next table watching. Like always. (JK). When he left the table we were still laughing. And we had to explain to the poor guy behind him that we were not laughing at him. Duh. He had been watching the entire interaction unfold.

During one of the breaks, we spotted C.J. Mahaney wearing a Nike baseball cap and sitting in the upper balcony. We made our way up the stairs to introduce ourselves. We had been very encouraged by his sermons at Bethlehem earlier this summer and wanted to thank him. The first thing he said to us was, "Hi, how can I serve you?" We were floored by his humility and kindness. (Oh, hang on for a second...we just spilled Steph's Diet Berries & Cream Dr Pepper. I think we've almost got it under control). He was so gracious to us and after we told him that we attended Bethlehem, he was so excited. He told us he's been given the opportunity to speak at both a past DG Conference and Bethlehem and that he loves Bethlehem and prefers the honor of speaking there. We told him how much his sermons (this last summer when he spoke at church) had impacted our hearts. Then, in the most humbling attitude and tone he asked, "You guys came all the way up here to tell me that?" C.J. told us he felt like we had brought a dump truck of encouragement and unloaded it on him :) We walked away encouraged and humbled. Worship. The singing was amazing. We sang so many great songs. One of our favorites was 'We Will Dance.' Wes, we thought of you. I sure hope you read this blog post. And Comment.

Piper saying "smart ass." No further explanation is needed.

David Wells saying "I want to be hip, man." It made people laugh. We laughed. He's funny. (By the way. I really hope the guy I marry makes me laugh. If not, I will be really sad. Sometimes theological people are just not that funny.). Plus. We saw David Wells, Alex Kirk and some other unknown men on the street in front of the Piper's house on Sunday afternoon. We seriously almost ran over them.

Mark Driscoll. He was our favorite speaker at the conference. Good job, Mark. Way to be you. You really are up on your pop culture. For real. I really liked listening to him. Totally different than J. Pipes.

Getting candy from the info booth. Well, some of us enjoyed this pleasure more than others. Stephanie took the most advantage of the free candy. Andrea came in a close second. And Ellie just informed us that she didn't take any! What a waste. Our favorite was the mint/chocolate combo candies. Man. I would go for one right now, but we don't have any. Dang it.

Seeing friends/missing friends/hanging out in the bookstore/looking for Pug. So last year at the conference we decided to eat at Chipotle. We=Ellie, Stephanie, Andrew Lundquist and Andrea. We were laughing about something. I don't remember what we were laughing about, but it was funny. REally. It was. You would have been laughing too if you had been there. One of us was laughing harder than the rest. A nice, young (and eligible) bachelor (from the south) approached our booth and said (to the one who was laughing the loudest) "You have the best laugh I've ever heard." This of course made us laugh more. We soon left Chipotle and returned to the conf. The next day we were walking in the hallway and the one who was laughing the loudest was laughing again. Who do you think we passed in the hall? Yep. It was Pug. He made eye contact and said, "I'm still listening." Gosh. How embarressing.

Learning more about Christ's Supremacy. Christ is greater than anything. The conference this year was a little harder to understand than last year's. It was very intellectual. I mean. We did like it because we are lovers of knowledge. It caused you to think about Christ's reigns over all, even in the post-modern culture.

Meeting people from around the world/helping check-in/being able to serve/watching ellie with the guy from wales. Yeah. It was pretty funny watching Ellie's flirtatious behavior with some. Oh gosh. Let's be done.