And now for my last ramble:
Friday:
We woke up and ate at our normal time, then rode the campus connector bus over to chapel. Alex joined us for breakfast, but not for the bus ride over to chapel. Instead of Matins, we had a Service of Confession and Absolution, in preparation for Divine Service later in the day.
After chapel, we proceeded to Breakaway E. Alex, Andrew, Paul, and I all chose to attend “Infant Baptism: For You,” by Rev. Brian Thorson. Rev. Thorson taught an excellent session. He began by asking us for arguments we had heard against infant baptism, then proceeded to debunk as many of them as time would allow. He gave us a ton of Bible verses in support of infant baptism and the various concepts that go along with it, such as the fact that we are sinful from conception. Rev. Thorson also pointed us to a study that says that infants can lie. Here's a link to the study; I haven't had a chance to read it yet: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2007/07/01/scibaby101.xml
Unfortunately, Alex had to leave the conference a few minutes before the sectional ended, due to his travel schedule. After the sectional ended, Paul, Andrew, and I went over to our fifth and final plenary session. Before the session started, Mrs. Ostapowich told us that 1191 youth and adults attended FOR YOU in MN, and that only 268 of those had ever been to a conference before. She also said that between FOR YOU MN and FOR YOU NC 34 states and 4 foreign countries (, , , & ) were represented.
After announcements, Pr. Cwirla began teaching. Today, he focused on confession and absolution. After Pr. Cwirla’s talk, we all went to lunch. We then proceeded to Divine Service. There were noticeably fewer people in attendance at this service than at previous services, because several groups had to leave early on Friday.
After listening to Rev. Klement Preus’s excellent sermon, singing several beautiful hymns, and being fed the Lord’s Supper, the conference was officially over. The MHers hung around at the front of the chapel for a few minutes for several group pictures, including a couple with Pr. Borghardt.
After taking the pictures and saying our good-byes to everybody, the Gehlbachs and I walked back to Centennial. While Mrs. Gehlbach and Mrs. Fischer went to get the Gehlbach’s car, Paul and Andrew hung out with me in my room, where we played Egyptian Rat Slap and Liar (both of those are card games, in case you don’t recognize those names).
After the Gehlbachs left, I helped load the conference supplies into a truck for the drive to North Carolina. I got to go out to dinner with the conference staff, and I also got to meet a really cool guy by the name of Ted Rosenblat (sorry if I misspelled your last name, Ted). He really likes Hillsdale College, and just might be paying me a visit up there one of these days.
After dinner, Mrs. Fischer & I went back to our rooms. My flight home was Saturday morning, so I spent Friday night in the dorms, once again sleeping the sweet sleep of the conference attendee.
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