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Several months back, the youth and sponsors at First Christian Church in Greensboro went on the fundraising path to raise money to send our kids to ICYF in Orange County California.

Now, ICYF is an international youth concert that held every four years with in the Disciples of Christ denomination. The ICYF Conference was from July 20-27.

The ICYF experience was broken down into two parts. The first three days was a mission experience that took our group of 18 people to a local mission of San Bernardino, California. It was an experience that saw us participate in food giveaways to hungry families, some maintenance work around the mission, help in the medical clinic, and the occasional babysitting.

Overall, it was a very spiritual and uplifting component to our trip to California. On Thursday of that week, our group departed for Chapman University where the conference part of our journey would begin. We shared in community with 750 youth and adults from all over the world.

We were treated to eye-opening keynotes, small groups, great music, and outstanding worship services. The theme for that concert was "Read the Book, Be the Movie." A fitting title with the simple message to just be your self. We departed early Sunday morning for LAX, but still remembering the friends we had met, the friends we knew already, and the idea that we should be happy for who we are and not try and be like others, but to be ourselves. The idea that we are all beautiful and we all can read the book and we all can be in the movie.

Josh Gentry is the youth director at First Christian Church Greensboro