Summit ( The Place You Should Go Next Summer :b )

This summer has been so fun and awesome! How has it been for you all?

I've been so busy with work and having a blast that I've had little time - or will - for writing. But I'll be getting back on track now :D

The last two weeks of July have been the best weeks of my life. Why?

I was at a place in Manitou Springs, Colorado called Summit Ministries. But it wasn't the place that made it so great.

It was Summit.

"Summit? What is that?"

"It's a place to go to learn about what I believe and why I believe it to see if I really believe what I think I believe and if so, how I believe that and can I prove what I believe is what I actually believe."

Old Testament belonging to Josh McDowell

Lolol. Sorta... ;)

This is a question that can't be answered in a few minutes - at least not thoroughly enough by me. I can just keep talking and talking about it forever - and then some more. :D

In a short sentence, Summit is a place that equips and prepares youth for life and college in Christian apologetics with a strong Christian foundation.

"What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us." ~ A.W. Tozer

This quote was our basic foundation of Summit. We said it every morning before going on with the lectures.

These mineral spring fountains are all over town :)

The idea of that was to prepare our minds to choose to think about God in a good way. Because it would affect everything else we would learn and hear.

What we think about God filters all of our thoughts to be one way or another. So first we must have a right image of Yahweh and ourselves.

Roommates 

Small group

The first lecture was on ideas, which was also important as being first so that we could apply these principles to every other lecture we would hear.

Society tells us that ideas are personal choices that affect only us and no one else. Our ideas are totally up to us - unless our idea happens to be that their idea is wrong and that they must change, lol ;).

My seat was the one at the very end of the second row :)

Ideas are important. They aren't just a part of us.

Ideas have consequences.

Ideas have victims.

Ideas have outcomes.

Ideas have power.

Ideas. They aren't just stuck inside your head. They spill out all over the place into every part of you, the world and your family.

Ideas do matter.

So, it is important that we have great ideas with great meaning and great reason.

Those are the two basic things that were taught at Summit. But what else was Summit?

Summit is a place where you sit for over 60 hours lisenening to a total of over 20-30 speakers ( most of which can speak good ), where you must sit and not fall asleep and hopefully take many notes.

"And you say that is fun!?"

Haha. Yes.

Visiting Graffiti Falls

At Cheyenne Zoo

Hiking Pikes Peak

It is also a place of community. You make many friends. The food is great. There are many different activities to do during the afternoon break ( I would hike a lot or play Volley Ball ).

"But the lectures themselves. 60 hours of them!"

They aren't normal lectures.

They are filled with knowledge and proof and interesting facts.



We had lectures on the following topics:

-Marriage
-Children
-Abortion
-Presenting our Faith in a loving way
'Homosexuality ( including a testimony from a guy that used to be a homosexual but is now a believer in God )
-Worldviews ( Islam, Muslim, Marxism, Post Modernism, New Age Spirituality...)
- Media
- Government
- Christian right on the college campus
- And much, much more!

Each of these things were dealt with thoroughly, sometimes by more than one lecturer. And we were taught how to present our Christian views to other individuals that believe what is wrong in ways other than "The Bible says so!"

And besides just the lectures, the speakers would usually stay around for awhile so we could go up to them and ask them questions or just talk with them.

Hiking the Incline

Finally made the top of the incline!!!

Selfie at the top :)

Every evening we would have an open forum on the front porch. Here one of the speakers would come and we could ask questions. As a group we had quite a few great discussions.

Once, one of the speakers pretended to be an atheist. That got...pretty interesting. And it made us realize how little we really know of what we believe.

Garden of the Gods

Summit was not a waste of my time or money. I would encourage EVERY person to go there.

You just learn so much and make some great friends that will last forever and have such an awesome, tiring ( yes, you get little sleep) time that will totally revive and inspire you to live great.

Everyone can get a t-shirt of our session at summit

And the back of our shirts have all of our signatures:)

And like one speaker told us, Summit is worth more than the price you have to pay. If you ever lose your faith or fail to help one come to faith - that is what is priceless beyond horrible reason.

He told us that around 80% of college youth lose their faith because they do not have a solid foundation of knowledge of why they believe what they do.

Summit is so worth it! Check it out!!!!!!! :)

Can you find me in the photo? ;)

What do you think? Would you be interested in going to Summit? Have you heard of this place before?