Passion 2017, a Spooky Walk Underground, and Other Atlanta Adventures (Part 1)

On January 2, Monday at around 6:45 a.m., the Leake and Co., consisting of Dad, Mom, Hannah, Priscilla, Justus, Elisabeth, Lydia, and myself, all squeezed into an ugly Toyota Sienna minivan (no, I'm not a fan of minivans) and drove down our road and to the unknown. We happened to be going to the 2017 Passion Conference, founded by Louie and Shelley Giglio in 1997, in Atlanta Georgia at the Georgia Dome. Eight people in an 8-seater van can be a tight fit, but we managed and stopped off at our Great-Aunt and Uncle's house in SC. We then got to Atlanta and tried to get settled into our rooms in the Weston. Our rooms had amazing views of the city. Since we were going to the Conference through Desiring God, we kind of kept with the DG people and attended a talk/dinner with John Piper. Yes, we all got to shake John's hand and some even got their picture with him.;)
Next began our sloshy walk to the first session. It rained the whole way there and I happened to forget my jacket and shoes (I had flip-flops) so I got pretty wet but that was actually for the better because I didn't have so many things wet and flip-flops dry so fast. The walk was nice and we finally arrived at the Dome. OK, talk about a LOT of people. 55,000 people all put into one building and all talking about a million things makes for a ton of noise. We were seated with the DG people on the first balcony (there were four different "layers"). The Passion band, with Kristian Stanfill, led us in worship and then Louie Giglio and Christine Caine spoke. Next came David Crowder and Carrie Underwood. Finally at around 10:45 we started our rainy walk back to the hotel and bed.
Tuesday dawned a sunny and beautiful day with blue sky broken by an occasional perfect snowy cloud. We again went to the Dome and this time Matt Redman and Christy Nockels led worship and John Piper spoke. We had to go back after lunch, though, for a Q &A with John Piper and that lasted a while. Next begins the search for a place to eat dinner. Justus and Priscilla were smart and started looking earlier then the rest of us, but most of us ended up eating at the Metro Cafe Diner, which I highly recommend. We quickly headed for the Dome to enjoy some really loud music and plenty of amazing lights with Passion and Chris Tomlin. Louie Giglio again talked and then we left after more Passion, thinking that was the end, but, no, it wasn't and so we missed out on Hillsong. :(
                                                                                 

They gave away the Jesus Study Bibles to most everyone at the conference. That's Louie, by the way.

The man to the left is Louie's childhood pastor.

David Crowder (Don't you just love that beard?)

Up in the clouds

Dinner with DG people.

A cool picture (that I didn't take ;) ). I think Elisabeth took it.

Thousands of lights from people's phones.

The Weston

City lights

Priscilla and Justus

One of the city views

The young people walking to the conference.

Elisabeth's red X for stopping human trafficking.

The Weston, where we stayed

John Piper, during Q&A time

The view from the 72nd floor of the hotel. You can see half of the Dome to the far right and the new one they're building. 

The conference gave a Jason's Deli lunch to everyone. This is Elisabeth lunch.

The top floor of the Weston

The revolving bar at the top 

Lydia 

The Italian burger

Justus and Priscilla at the Metro Cafe Diner.

More at the Metro

Here's a clip of the conference. This is David Crowder.

This song-clip by Jimi Cravity was one of my favorites.