Teens “Rock Out” at Creation Festival

WAITSBURG - Picture a tent city of 10,000 inhabitants. People from all walks of life set up camp en masse, eating and showering in hastily erected temporary facilities, crowding into huge evening concerts that shake the ground long into the night.

This isn't Woodstock. This is the Creation Festival. And eight young members of Waitsburg's Christian Youth Group were there.

The event, which took place at the Benton County Fairgrounds in Kennewick, began July 30 and ended August 2.

"Creation Festival," said Ann Miller, one of four chaperones who accompanied the kids, "is a big festival consisting of Christian music, speakers, and various other forms of entertainment, designed to touch everyone in attendance and lead them to a life with Christ."

So, in other words, the similarities to Woodstock stop at the lodging situation.

Each day, according to Miller, began with breakfast and a morning worship service. "The days' schedules were pretty relaxed," she said, "as we encouraged the youth to go and see the events they were interested in." The group took a couple trips to Two Rivers Park to cool off in the river. Afterwards, they would return to camp for dinner and the evening concerts, which were a major event highlight.

"We attended a number of concerts by 'famous' artists," said Miller. These notable acts included the Newsboys, Jamie Grace, Family Force 5, NEED- 2BREATHE, and Hawk Nelson. "I believe Family Force 5 was a hit with the young men in our group, as they 'rocked out' to their music the entire way home Sunday morning," she added.

One fifteen-year-old camper described the experience as "incredible." "It opened my eyes to a lot of different Christian musicians," he said.

Several campers commented on the spiritual power of the experience, which featured (besides the much-touted concerts) several speakers and showings of two films, "God's Not Dead" and "The Song." "All the kids watched and enjoyed both movies," Miller said.

Despite the fellowship, however, sometimes teenagers just have to be teenagers.

"On the last night of camp," said a male camper who spoke on condition of anonymity, "the girls decided to disturb the sleep of the valiant young men and shake the tent." (According to Miller, the Waitsburg group had two tents - one for the boys and one for the girls.) "In revenge to this evil act," he continued, channeling a rather corny version of biblical gallantry, "the boys awoke early in the morning and shook the girls' tent back."

The matter might have rested there, but the girls were soundly asleep at the time and the jostling had little to no effect on them.

"We boys," he continued, "decided to take it to the next level."

So after packing up their tent and supplies, they surrounded the girls' tent and yanked all the support poles out of the ground, causing it to collapse on the sleeping occupants.

"After doing so," he said, "we went and got cereal and timed the girls to see how long it would take them to get out of their tent while we ate." It took about ten minutes - enough time for some of the boys to go back for seconds.

On the whole, though, Miller believes the event was a positive experience for her charges. The group is already making plans to go next year and plans to start fundraising for that trip this fall.

Miller was grateful to the Waitsburg Presbyterian Church Youth Fund for paying for the youth group's members to attend, and to many others for their support.

"I would really like to thank the parents and church members who helped make this such a wonderful experience for the kids," she said.