Heritage 2022

Praise the Lord! I finally finished my Heritage 2022 post. For those of you who have not heard about Heritage it is a youth conference in Colorado Springs, CO. Heritage has been going on for over 20 years now, but this was my first year attending the conference. I was so grateful to be able to go this year. The conference spanned over three days from July 19th-July 21st with a meet & greet on July 18th. The services were truly life-changing and it was neat to meet so many new friends from across the U.S.

I was able to go to Heritage with my best friend, Lolita! We flew out on Monday, July 18th. We arrived in Denver, CO and then drove our rental car to our hotel in Colorado Springs. The hotel that Heritage takes place at, Alta Hotel, had a long waiting list so unfortunately we were not able to stay there, but we did get a hotel right across the street. We stayed at the SCP Hotel. The hotel was very interesting to say the least, but it had very beautiful décor. We loved all of the flowers and the greenery!

We headed to Alta hotel on Monday night for the meet & greet and the singspiration. The singspiration was really neat! There were multiple churches who had prepared songs and medleys to sing. I purchased the music links from Heritage so I can include the singspiration songs below if you would like to listen 🙂

Bishop Tommy Johnson ended the singspiration with a beautiful old hymn called “Hallelujah Square.” I had never heard the song before but it was a beautiful song.

So funny story…when we first arrived at our hotel on Monday, there was a parking space that had a square on it. It was the closest parking to the entrance. We were worried that we would not be able to park there but we asked the hotel employee and she assured us we could park anywhere in the parking lot. After hearing Bishop Johnson sing “Hallelujah Square,” we started calling that parking spot Hallelujah Square lol. So all week we joked about getting that spot.

On Tuesday morning we got up and headed to get some breakfast. I was so excited this was the day that we were going to visit Whit’s End. And as you would expect I took tons of pictures lol. We got to stay there for a couple of hours. They had the Whit’s End Soda Shoppe, different rooms for different Odyssey locations, and the Focus on the Family Bookstore.

After going to Whit’s End we went to one of the malls in Colorado Springs. We had multiple people tell us that their Dilliard’s had good deals. We don’t have a Dilliard’s in Fresno but I would describe it as similar to a Macy’s. There was a lot of cute stuff there. We walked through the mall and then headed to Target. We ran into Sis. Garrett at Dilliard’s who told us that the air conditioner was broken at the Alta Hotel and she suggested we buy handheld fans for the service. Target sold these compact fans that were rechargeable. We all got one and the fans came in handy the week of Heritage. Thankfully they fixed the air conditioners in the hotel so it was not too bad after that.

Tuesday night was the first service of Heritage and I was so excited. I was anticipating a mighty move of God. Everyone who I talked to about Heritage said that the services were amazing and everyone lingered in the altars in prayer after the preachings. I came to Heritage with some needs and I knew that I did not want to leave the same. So we got ready that night and drove across the street to the Alta Hotel for the conference. My friends and I decided to be in the choir every night so we had practice before prayer at 5:30pm.

When I tell you that the Holy Ghost was so strong during choir practice, I mean it! The first song we practiced was, “Anything Can Happen,” by Mark Crowder. The second song we sang was called, “Done Me Nothing But Good.” I had never heard the song before but I loved it! The Holy Ghost fell during the second song, people were shouting and praying during practice. This was one of my first experiences at Heritage Conference and I just knew it would only get better from there.

Bro. Brian Jones preached the first service of Heritage 2022 on Tuesday evening. Bro. Jones preached from the book of Acts chapter 27 on, “Beware of the Soft South Winds.” All of the preachings at Heritage were amazing so instead of commenting about them individually, I would recommend you listen to them when you get the opportunity. I have included all of the preachings in this post 😀

After service that evening a group of us went out to eat at Applebee’s. My friends and I squished in the car which was an adventure in itself lol. We had a great time at dinner and I had so much fun with them ❤

On Wednesday morning we got ready for service and headed back over to the Alta Hotel for the first morning service of Heritage 2022. Bro. Sam Ham preached first on Wednesday morning from 1 Chronicles 13 on, “How?” I said I wouldn’t comment on every preaching individually but this service was indescribable. The glory of the Lord was so evident after Bro. Ham’s preaching. This was a service I will never forget. The moving of the Spirit was so powerful and our second preacher, Elder Hyler did not end up preaching a full message that morning. Elder Hyler went up briefly during the altar call and flowed in the Holy Ghost and we all continued praying.

After they dismissed service that morning, my friends and I went out to get lunch. However, we had noticed one of the tire’s air pressure in our rental car was steadily decreasing. So we went to a gas station across the street from the hotel and we waited in line to put air in the tire. Well after waiting for a while it was finally our turn and I guess the machine was malfunctioning so an older gentlemen suggested we go across the street and put air there. Well…when we got across the street the air machine was broken. So that same gentlemen told us of a tire place nearby that could air up our tire for free. We headed down the road and followed his directions. When we got to the tire place there was a group of Apostolic young ladies from the church in Colorado who were stranded because they got a completely flat tire. They were waiting for their church family to come and help change out their tire. So we were not the only ones that day who were experiencing tire problems 😛 We got our tire aired up and headed to get something to eat.

Around this time, we had noticed the rain clouds starting to come in and the weather changed very abruptly. The weather all week long was very interesting and reminded me of the South. Well, on our way to get food, we experienced an incredibly scary flash flood. My best friend Lolita was driving and she was understandably terrified. We hardly ever get rain in Fresno so none of us are used to driving in the rain let alone a flash flood. It was raining so hard at one point we could not see out of the windshield! She pulled over under a highway overpass and I hopped in the driver’s seat. Like I said none of us had experience in this type of weather but I felt comfortable driving in it.

We managed to make our way down the street to Chick-Fil-A for lunch. We were all relieved to be out of the rain. After we got our food the Emergency Alert notifications began ringing on our phones.

After our event-filled afternoon, we headed back to the hotel to get ready for evening service. That night the choir sang, “The Way That I Take,” and “On Calvary.”

On Wednesday evening, Bro. Jonathan Dudley preached a powerful message from Genesis 22 on, “Visions From the Altar.”

After service was dismissed, a group of us ladies went out to eat with some of the youth from Arizona. After dinner, we all stayed outside and talked for awhile. These are some of the sweetest ladies and I am so glad we got to meet each other!

On Thursday morning we got up once again and got ready for the last day of Heritage 2022. This was a bittersweet day! While we were all looking forward to the services to come, I knew many of us did not want Heritage to end. On Thursday morning, Bro. Ham preached from 1 Chronicles 13 on, “Why?” This preaching was like a part two to his preaching on Wednesday morning.

After Bro. Ham’s preaching, Elder Don Hyler preached from Psalm 90:9 on “Final Sale.” This was a beautiful message! Most of the preaching, Elder Hyler told a story and I know many of us left with a renewed love and appreciation for this Truth.

In between services, the girls and I made a Target run, grabbed some lunch, and then headed back to the hotel. Since this was our last day we made sure to take lots of pictures. While we were in the hotel, there was an older gentleman who asked if we wanted him to take a group photo for us. We happily agreed as we had nobody to get a photo of all of us together. Well it turns out this gentleman knew Truth and was once in church. He asked about Heritage and the service details so he could send the information over to his sister. It was pretty neat that he happened to be staying at our hotel right across from where Heritage was taking place. I pray that he gets back in church and I am thankful God puts us in the right places at the right times.

After a fun afternoon, we got ready for our last service of Heritage 2022. That evening the choir sang two beautiful songs! I loved both of them and they have been on repeat since they sent us the links to the music.

The last service of Heritage 2022 was incredible. My little fan came in handy Thursday evening lol because we were all shouting that night when the choir was singing, “What Do You Want The Lord to Say.” Something I really admired about Heritage was that even though God moved so strong during the choir songs and people were praying and worshipping, the elders knew when it was time for the Word of God to be preached. There is nothing wrong with a shout service, we experience those sometimes, but I remember someone had gone up there and said, “There’s always preaching at Heritage,” and I was thankful for that. Of course God can move in the shouting and praising, but the preaching of the Word is the most important part of the service and the Lord knew we all needed to hear the preaching that night.

Just when I thought Heritage 2022 couldn’t get any better, Bro. Dudley preached from 2 Timothy 3 and Acts 2 on, “The Peril and the Power of God,” and what a timely and anointed message it was. I would encourage everyone to listen to this preaching!

After service, some of us went back to our hotel to change. Then we went back to the Alta Hotel for the lock-in. We had pizza and snacks upstairs on the fourth floor. They asked that we not take the elevators since there were so many of us and it would take a while. So we walked up those four flights of stairs and back down afterwards! Funny story: I remember later that night my Apple Watch telling me that I had made a new personal workout record that day. Shouting and taking the stairs really is a workout haha.

When we went downstairs a group of us started playing the game Spoons. If you have never played Spoons it is a blast, especially when lots of people play. There ended up being close to 20 of us who were playing at one time. And one by one people were getting eliminated. I made it to the top two people remaining! It was Mariana from Arizona and I. All of our friends were cheering us on and it was honestly such a blast. I ended up winning the game with my set of 3s and Mariana was so sweet she came up and hugged me afterwards. I truly did not expect to win the game but I had the most fun playing with everyone and was so thankful for the memories made that night.

We all went outside after that and I got to meet some youth from the Bible app which was pretty neat! This last year I have had the opportunity to meet youth from the Bible app, from all throughout the U.S., at different conferences. We all took a ton of pictures and I made so many new friends. My friends and I got to exchange numbers with the ladies from Arizona and we have since started group chats with one another which has been a blessing ❤

My friends and I planned to sleep in Friday morning since we had stayed up so late the night before at the lock-in. But we all got up bright and early with only a few hours of sleep because it was our last day in Colorado. We have talked about staying an extra day next year so that we can see more of Colorado, but I was thankful we had that Friday to explore Colorado Springs. We packed our suitcases, checked out of our hotel, said our goodbyes to friends and headed to downtown Colorado Springs. We got to go to the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum. Admission into the museum was free and it was neat to see some of the history of Colorado. The museum was absolutely beautiful! And we spent some time in the museum store.

Afterwards, we walked around downtown Colorado Springs. We got some lemonade and bought some other goodies. It was about 1:30pm and we headed back to the car so we could drive to the Garden of the gods. This place was beautiful! It’s like a national park in Colorado but online it describes it as a National Natural Landmark. So many people had recommended we go here before we left Colorado Springs. My friends went last year but this was my first time and the views were incredible. My phone’s camera does not do it justice. I also got to buy a Colorado sweater, which I was super happy about!

After leaving the Garden of the gods, we headed to Denver to drop off our rental car and catch our flight back home to Fresno. We made sure to get there extra early since the airport is so huge! We had enough time before our flight to get Chick-Fil-A 😛 My friend Lolita and I walked past a Currency Exchange Window on the way to our gate and of course we had to stop. We both wanted to see if we could exchange our money for another currency and sure enough we could! We both laughed so much afterwards but we were so excited to do this. We ended up exchanging for a $5 Australian dollar. If it wasn’t for the line that formed behind us, we would have stayed there and exchanged money for multiple other currencies haha.

Well the time came for us to board our plane, and unfortunately we had a flight delay due to a mechanical problem with the plane. But what’s a trip without any flight delays lol. Long story short, we were delayed a few hours but eventually got back on the plane to head home. We were both exhausted at this point and I could not wait to go to sleep. I wasn’t able to get any rest on the flight back home to Fresno, so I had plenty of time to think about the amazing week I had at Heritage 2022.

For those of you who attended Heritage this year, you know that they are currently looking for a location to host Heritage next year. I believe that God will open a door for us to have Heritage 2023. And I am looking forwarding to attending Heritage 2023 and to being a part of what the Lord is going to do until then.

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This has been my longest blog post thus far! I did not anticipate this post taking so long to write and edit, but I am grateful I finished and that I can look back on it throughout the years to come. Heritage 2022 was unforgettable. Thank you reading, I appreciate each one of you! God bless 🙂