#27 Be a street performer in a large city
Last week was a big one. For over a year, the Mount Vernon Nazarene University Admissions team has been preparing for the Nazarene Youth Conference, a large meeting of Nazarene young people from all over the world that happens every four years. In years past, this event became giveaway madness, most students hoping for a few free t-shirts and maybe a sticker or two that they would put on their school notebooks. Our team has been blessed with the desire to be more of an influence than just a giveaway university. We also have changed our strategy into a more intentional atmosphere, seeking out students that want to make a difference and are accepting of the challenge to “change the world with the love of Christ”.
We received over 5,000 responses to the question, “How will you change the world?”, confirming our prediction that today’s youth are passionate and ready to make a difference. How awesome is it that we get the opportunity to work with these kids every day? Beyond that, by connecting with students as they prepare for college, I am able to be used for the next step in their training and experiences which will shape the rest of their lives.
The MVNU region decided that we would make a lasting impression the entire city of Louisville, Kentucky while we were there. We organized a Flash Mob with over 600 people from the MVNU Region. You can see one of the viral videos here:
Not only was this an absolute BLAST, it also helped me cross off Bucket List item #22: Be in a Flash Mob. I never really anticipated that this would be the nature of the flash mob that I would be a part of, but it’s the largest flash mob I have seen and the experience was incredible.
Several nights later, an opportunity to cross off another Bucket List item fell into my lap. While walking down the street from our hotel to the convention center, I talked to a man playing guitar on the sidewalk. After he complimented the group on our energy and enthusiasm, I told him that if he was still around that night, I would stop by and do some freestyle rapping with him. We exchanged laughs and continued on our way. Several hours later, that man was a block down from his original position. He laid down an acoustic rap beat and I started collaborating. I can’t really remember what was said in that freestyle, but the words flowed pretty well as I looked down the block and into business windows to see what I could rap about. By the end of the rap, everyone on the street was dancing and getting down. A food vendor looked over at me and simply asked, “Where’d that come from?”
I don’t know where my ability to freestyle rap came from. I started practicing it in the shower during my summer in Orlando, which complimented my beatboxing. It continued during long drives across the state of Ohio as an Admissions Counselor. One of these days I hope to expand beyond the basic rhymes and actually develop something that can spark a large crowd applause.
