Cooper began his talk with a cool story about how his five year old had an experience of Jesus at a youth conference, where he even said, “Dad, I think Jesus was inside of me.”

He then broke down the story of Jesus on the road to Emmaus.

Cooper went on to tell us how in a few hours we will be heading home, and some may say that “you guys will be heading back into the real world”, but he exclaimed that he thinks that Steubenville is the real world. After this conference, we need to go back home and share what happened here with those that weren’t able to make it to this conference, because if we don’t share anything that happened here we’ve blown it.

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Mary Kate has been coming to SteubySTL since 2006, and this weekend is her 25th Steubenville conference!

If you were here last weekend – or if you watched the Livestream – you know that she was the female worship leader (and she killed it, by the way). Between conferences this year, she has been volunteering her time as a liaison, helping with LEAD. And if you are here this weekend, be sure to say hello to her in the bookstore (and go back and view the Livestream of worship last weekend; did you hear that she killed it? well, she did.) Besides those roles, she has also been here as a teen participant and as a young adult chaperone.

When she is not here at Steubenville, Mary Kate spends her time working as the Campus Minister at Notre Dame High School, an all girls Catholic high school in St. Louis Missouri. She also leads praise and worship for various ministries, youth groups, retreats, and conferences. She loves to listen to Taylor Swift albums on repeat until she comes out with her next one. “RIP the old Taylor, I miss you”. She loves to get creative by painting, songwriting, sewing, playing guitar, beading, bedazzling (not really, but she wants to bring it back), decorating new spaces, etc…

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“Jesus in the Stairwell”- that was my immediate caption to this picture that my sister Lisa took during Saturday night Adoration. At first I thought the stairwell wasn’t the most becoming location for a photo op. I mean, stairwells are those places with no décor, full of brick and concrete. They are more out of purpose and less about “show”. Maybe I also kind of think of creepy stuff happening in stairwells. I’m sure that’s because I’ve seen too many movies where people are trying to escape some evil in places like that. When I’m in a stairwell, I usually want to get out of it as soon as possible and get to my destination.

My other thought about the picture was that there was no one around Him adoring him. Doesn’t he deserve a picture with at least some hands raised up towards Him? Some reverent faces gazing up at Him? He’s all alone! But then I thought again. How like Jesus to turn His back from the spotlight and to seek out the person at the bottom of the stairwell. How like Him to prefer this humble spot to reveal His glory. After all, He came to us from the womb of a humble virgin. And when he was laid in a manger, did you know that it is actually a feeding trough for animals?

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Echoing throughout Oscar’s talk was the line “we all suffer differently.” He shared first about the suffering of his wife giving birth and his daughter having a headache. Then, Oscar reminded us that we never suffer alone. He described times when he sacrificed for his children and explained that his own sacrifices are nothing compared to the sacrifice that the Father makes for each of us. When God sacrificed His son for His children, He made the ultimate sacrifice. As Oscar says “God revealed Himself through the beauty of that cross.”

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