Last weekend I (Jason) had the opportunity to volunteer on the tech team for JR Pitch.

JR is a province wide junior high youth retreat held in Stayner, ON.  I haven’t heard the final number, but I am pretty sure there were more than 1,000 youth camped out for the weekend. (I had the luxury of sleeping in the lodge!)

I have been volunteering for years, and it keeps growing. We aren’t able to fit all the kids in the Tabernacle anymore, so we had to split them up and simulcast: the speaker was outside with 1/3 of the kids, and the other 2/3s were inside watching the guest speaker on huge screens.

From what I hear, next year we will take the technical side of things a step further: broadcasting from three different venues to each of the venues.

There were three guests this year. Jared Hall is an illusionist from Texas who left all of us scratching our heads in amazement. Hamilton-based band Elias provided the music for the weekend. And 321 Improv made my face hurt with their wit and humour (for the record, it is not a good thing to be giggling uncontrollably when holding the video camera which is live). All the guests did a great job of entertaining, but more importantly, sharing how Jesus has made a difference in their lives.

Angie was considering joining me for the weekend, but ended up staying home and canning 45+ quarts of fruit, freezing countless bags of fruit and making pear sauce (like apple sauce, only from pears). I know, I know, she is amazing!