A small while ago I went to a youth sleepover called Fruit of the Roots. When I first got there, since this was my first time at this event, I had high standards. My opinion of the sleepover slowly lowered because of the type of youth there, and how they acted. Soon other youth groups started to show up and more varieties of people came. This made me a little happier. What we did the first day was getting to know each other, had free time (we played basketball, volleyball, threw frisbees, played board games, and talked), ate dinner plus snacks, and to end the first day we had a worship session.

I was kind of bummed on the first day because the people there were secluded to their own youth group and no one knew me except for the fact that I am Nathan’s younger brother. Soon I was cheered up because when we got in the guys room, with thirty plus guys, we decided to play spoons and of course, poker. I love poker and card games in general so I had a fun, but we had to turn the lights off by one in the morning because the next day we were going to do quite a lot of stuff. Now of course it will take time to fall asleep after poker but I also had to sleep on a hardwood floor which only allowed me to get three hours of sleep.

The next day I was tired but I was still manageable, and I didn’t know what to think of what was to happen that day. Soon after I woke up we had a good breakfast. I met and actually became friends with quite a lot of people that morning, which made me happier and less negative. After that we went to have early morning worship, which was amazing, and then talked about the outreaches we were going to do. Everyone only got to choose one outreach and so I chose the outreach where we gave gifts to the police officers in Hillsboro. We had lunch and then packed the gifts. We then left to go to the Hillsboro Police Office. The police officers were very kind and gave us a tour around the police department. Before we had to go, we asked if we could pray for them and they let us. They felt very blessed and thanked us.

After we left the Hillsboro Police Office we went to the local neighborhoods, near the church that was holding the youth event, and handed out fliers for their harvest party. Pretty soon we finished the job and headed back. We had some free time and then dinner. After dinner we talked about what happened on the outreaches and many people we healed and saved. Then we had our last worship session before the youth event officially ended. The last worship session we had was by far the most impactful and amazing because God’s presence was so heavy in that room and almost all the youth was like one big group not separate little youth groups.

During this event I truly was changed in many ways. The lesson is that things can turn out really amazing and impactful even if you're thinking negatively. I really began to get back on track in my relationship with God and am trying my best to be like Jesus and not others. Many good things came out of an event where just common teens like me were at which gives me hope for my generation and for my own life too.