Countdown 08' Rockin New Years Eve

I can only come up with one word to describe Countdown, amazing.
For anyone who doesn't know Countdown is my churches(Christs Church of the Valley) new years party, its a great outreach event. This was most definitely not your churches typical new years party. The planning and preparation process took a long time. I know I spent many hours in different meetings planning and preparing for this incredible event. The party started at 9pm New Years Eve, and lasted until 7am for those daring the stay up all night. I began setting up with a bunch of people the day and the day before the party, its always fun to hang out with my buddies so I was cool with the whole set-up process. I also did some shopping a few days before, it was a great learning experience. I learned to never go shopping with 5 girls again. Enough said.
Our current youth group size is about 140-160 each week so any attendance over that was good. The "hoped for" number was around 300, but my pessimistic side was kicking in and I didnt think that would happen. Anyway, 9:00 rolls around and the people start arriving, at this time there were more blue-shirted leaders walking around than students, but that was quickly to change. I walk outside and i see the registration line, The line was at least 50 people, and it stayed that way for a while. There were large crowds of people trying to get in, it was an incredible feeling trying to see all of the people try to get in! As people began to walk in I started talking to random people, My attempt was to get people excited and pumped for this party! There were so many things going on around the building. 25 xbox/xbox 360 systems(halo3, halo2, NCAA,Madden, Call of duty 4, Dance Dance Revolution, Guitar hero 2/3. In our upstairs kids classroom the stage was rocking with RockBand, the new Xbox game. That was one of the most popular systems. The speakers were blasting and the stage lights were shinning, all great effects to pump kids up for the game. There was at least a 45 minute wait for people's bands to play, it was awesome.
Along with all the manly rooms there were make-over rooms, and board game rooms, and a room for poker and relaxing. There were two Large inflatables, some larger than what the book said, but it was okay. There was also a nice coffee house style/karaoke tent set up outside, along with a bball court and some other sports.
The band also rocked the place! they played a pretty good set, opening up with Paralyzer by Finger Eleven.
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at 3am there was a fashion show, it was...interesting. There were some ugly people, but thats okay too! Jesus still loves them. It was an incredible night, the best part about it was discovering that there were 380 kids there!!!!!
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150 of them never being at ccv before. The night was great, most things turned out great and everyone had a good time, I cant wait to see what happens next year because this year turned out to be one to remember.
For more pictures of the night click here!

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