WHAT DID YOU LEARN ABOUT YOURSELF OR SOMEONE ELSE AS A RESULT OF HAVING GONE TO CELEBRATION?
"I learned that we, as humans, cannot live our life on our own, we have to have someone there for us to take care of us. God is that someone, and He will always be there for us. No matter how hard we try to hide from Him or how hard we try to turn away from Him, He will always be there telling us He loves us."
"I learned that I'm not as close to God as I should be and that if I want my relationship to grow, I have to work at it and it's not just going to happen. Also, I actually understand how big of a deal it was for Jesus to have died on the cross for me and my sins, because I was brought up in the church and I heard the story a million times. I guess it got old (I know, it's terrible), and at celebration I finally understood what He was trying to make me, personally, understand (that He loves me no matter what)."
"I learned that I can help people just by telling them my own story. Celebration furthered my belief that God has a plan for me, and that my hardships are just a part of it. I know now more than ever that everything is going to be fine and that somehow my tough situations will be used for the greater good."
"I'm not overly outgoing and I don't usually make friends easily, but as I watched the people around me who, within a weekend, went from being complete strangers to incredibly close friends, I realized that I'm not the only factor involved in making a weekend awesome. I forget to include God in my equation for a perfect weekend and once I let Him move in me everything is exactly the way it should be."
"I learned that I need to find more time for God. I normally get caught up in my life and don't have time to talk to God. I learned that I need to make that little space of silence during the day so that I can talk with Him."
"The craziest thing in the world is finding out just how much some people have gone through, and just how wrong preconceived notions or judgments can be...my perspective on life has changed through family discussions."
"I learned that one of my spiritual gifts is being a leader, loud, accepting, and getting people going and involved, and I can use that gift at celebration. From being a family leader and listening to people talk about their lives, I've learned that everyone has bad stuff in their life and we can only get through it by relying on God and finding a network of Christian friends to love and support you through the bad times."
"I have learned about the kind of a Christian that I am. I also learned that I need to spend more time with God."
"I learned that it's always necessary to really think about things that appear bad in life. It's human nature to look at the bad things over the good things in this world. I learned to put it into proportion and to see it how it truly is."
HOW DID CELEBRATION AFFECT YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD AND OTHER PEOPLE?
"Celebration helped me see the big picture, really. I know that He has a plan for me and that "no" is an answer, so sometimes I won't get what I want or maybe not right then. I have been trying to be a witness to other people by not going with the crowd and reading my bible more often."
"My relationship with God is stronger than ever. I feel very enlightened about His plan for me. My friends and I have drawn closer to each other than ever before. Simply being together for a weekend and watching each other serve other people our age creates a ton of mutual respect. I never would've thought we could get closer than we were before, but we are."
"After the last celebration I was on a "God-high" for a while after, but after this celebration I came back to school and found that loving all the people around me makes a huge difference in how I feel and how I make other people feel. I think I'm slower to judge and make sarcastic comments and more likely to be accepting and patient. I like thinking of God as my friend and through peoples talks, I feel closer to Him and I can see the ways He has been present in my life."
"Celebration brought me so much closer to God. I learned to talk with Him on a more personal level. I began to talk to Him personally instead of talking to Him as some super-natural being. I also met so many great new friends that share many of the same Christian values as I do. It was good to make those kinds of friends. They all helped me grow closer to God that weekend."
"In 2 Timothy 1:7 it says, "for God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline." Celebration has taught me to be bold with my faith, to not be afraid to just go up to someone, be the first one to say hello, and be a light of God's goodness and love in their life."
"I realized that my relationship with God is not as close as I think it is. But after this weekend, I not only grew closer to Him and realized that He is not just another authority figure, but He is someone that I can have a very close relationship with."
"Celebration was like a wall in my faith that was put up behind me. No matter what I do, I will never have less faith than I had before my first celebration. Each following celebration, a new wall is built and I keep moving closer and closer to God in my faith."
