CyberTsunami

Tsunami Student Conference Update

Plans are fully underway for the 2008 Tsunami Student Conference in San Jose on December 29-31. Here are the quick update details.

Theme: More Than Enough
Theme Verse: Philippians 4:11 -- I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. (HCSB)
Focus: to help students find their contentment and meaning in Christ above all else. He is More Than Enough.

M.C. -- Bob Smiley -- we had such a fantastic response from Bob last year that we invited him back for another round as the M.C. and comedian. Check him out at www.bobsmiley.com.

Main Speaker -- Chris Simning -- you won't believe this guy's testimony. 

Born with a nearly imperceptible case of cerebral palsy, Chris Simning was stricken with an extremely rare muscle and nerve disease in the eighth grade. Four years confined to a wheelchair, and unable to care for himself, Chris experienced a miraculous healing that allowed him to finish his undergraduate degree from college as well as earn a Master’s degree from in Clinical Psychology. After many summers of service in Christian camping, Chris has accepted the call to speak full-time. His passion for telling his story ignites him further to speak on how God brings healing to the wounded of heart even in the worst circumstances. Chris’ first hand experience with the pain of life compels him to seek the provision of God. His zeal for the Bible, and his humorous personality, endear him to people of all ages.

We are still in negotiations for other speakers and bands. The web site will be up and running as www.studentwave.com as soon as logo development is finished.

Tsunami Location Change

Just a quick note to let everyone know that we have been able to change the General Sessions of the Tsunami Student Conference to a much better location. We are still at the Long Beach Convention Center, but instead of being in the Arena with folding chairs to top of hockey rink ice, we are in the Terrace Theater with a great stage and plush seating. It's going to be great. You can see the layout at www.longbeachcc.com.

All other Tsunami information is still the same.

Tsunami Update - Prepaid Lunch?

Order Lunch in Advance for the Whole Group

 

You can order a lunch in advance for your group for Friday afternoon. Your lunch will be waiting for you immediately after the last hot topic breakout session. You won't have to search for a restaurant, fight the crowds. or waste time getting to your ministry project or siteseeing destination. Plus, you can eat your lunch on site at theConvention Center, if you like. The menu includes  a salad and soda, sandwich and soda, or pizza and soda for $10. You can also get a whole pizza for $26.

While that may sound expensive, when you add in the cost of regular items at a convention center and the time and expense of going someplace else, it's a good bargain. Download the order form here  and email it to tsunami@csbc.com.

Tsunami Update - T-shirt Deadline Is THIS WEEK!

Pre Registration Deadline for Free T-shirts Approaching

 

While you can register your group for Tsunami on site, if your students was the conference T-shirt free, registrations must be postmarked or submitted on line by December 1. That's right, every who attends Tsunami and pre-registered by December 1 will get the conference T-shirt absolutely free.

 

Over 1,600 people have already pre-registered, but there is still room for more. To register on line, just go to www.studentwave.com and click the "Register" button. You can also download a mail in registration form or reserve your hotel room. Some hotels are filled, but there are still many good options.

 

After December 1, you can still pre-register at the $67 rate, but the T-shirt will not be included. After December 17,  the registration rises to $70. 

Tsunami Update for November - Student Involvement

Student Involvement at Tsunami

Tsunami is a student Conference and there are many, many ways for students to get involved. You can click on the links below to download PDF forms of most of the ways students can get involved.

• Outstanding Students In each of the three general sessions, Tsunami will recognize an Outstanding Student. These students live lives that exemplify the theme of being connected into something "bigger than yourself." Students must be nominated by their pastor or youth pastor using the nomination form from the website at www.studentwave.com. Students will receive a modest prize from one of Tsunami's ministry partners and the student will be interviewed on stage so students must be present to be selected. 
• Ministry Projects Ministry Projects are one of the best and most unique things about Tsunami. On Friday afternoon, students can begin to act on what they are learning about being connected to something bigger than themselves. Some projects require advance sign up, so download the form to reserve your place. Projects include:
  
  • Cleaning up local Churches
  • Children’s programs
  • Graffiti clean up
  • Flyer Distribution
  • Feeding the Homeless
  • Beach clean up
  • Singing and Reading to Patients in Nursing Home and Hospital’s
  • Inventory of Food and Clothing Closets
  • Senior Homes Beautification
  • Collection of Food and Clothing

• Tsunami Student Choir If you have students who love to sing, then you need to let them know about the Tsunami Student Choir. Anyone can join, you just have to show up. Rehearsals are held on Thursday afternoon during the Sponsor Orientation, Friday morning in the last Hot Topic session, and Saturday morning before the last General Session. Every student who participates will get to sing onstage in the last session. All you have to do is show up, but if you have questions, contact Roger Byrd at 559.256.0857 or rbyrd@csbc.com.
• Video contest This is a great way to get your whole youth group involved (and maybe on screen) at Tsunami. Just make a 1 minute video involving something "bigger than yourself." It just a fun way to to connect into Tsunami. You might even win front row seating. The contest is going on now at YouTube.
  
• Volleyball Tournament On Thursday afternoon, during the pre registration time, students can have fun and practice "serving" at the Tsunami volleyball tournament. Like all tournaments, there are lots of rules, but you can get them all online. The deadline to sign up is the middle of December.
  
• CBU Scholarship Essay One student at Tsunami will receive a $10,000 scholarship to California Baptist University. CBU will chose one student based on an application essay. It's an amazing offer. If my teenagers were eligible, I'd have them apply.

I love it when Thanksgiving comes early. Some churches don't give much attention to Tsunami until after the holiday. This year they have almost a week before the T-shirt deadline on December 1. I'm looking forward to a very busy week.

Tsunami BIG Video Contest

Tsunami 2007 BIG Video Contest!

Tsunami is getting into the video community. Since this is a student conference, get the members of your youth ministry together and make a video--approximately one minute in length--of something BIG.  (Be sure to involve the students of your youth ministry in the video in some way and to mention this year's Tsunami theme, "Bigger Than Yourself.")

Then, go to the Tsunami contest page on YouTube. Scroll down below the video, and click on "Post a Video Response" to upload your entry. You will need to create a YouTube account to post a video response. (You can also search for CSBCTsunami if that works easier for you).

The deadline to enter is December 1st, 2007, and videos will be judged solely on humor and creativity. 

Please include the following information in the video description: church name, church city, and contact email. Otherwise, you may send the information in a separate email to tsunami@csbc.com.

The first place youth group will get to have their video shown during a session at this year's Tsunami event, and will receive front section seating for two sessions.

The second place youth group will also have their video played during a session at this year's Tsunami, and will receive front section seating for one session.

OFFICIAL RULES

• By uploading videos to the CSBCTsunami YouTube page you are assigning CSBC the right to use your video in websites, emails, and in public performance settings.
• Any videos determined to be inappropriate for any reason by the Tsunami staff will be deleted from our YouTube site immediately and not considered for this contest.
• All videos must be uploaded by December first.
• Judging will held the first week of December.
• Winners will be notified by email by December 15.
• Please include church name, church city, and contact email in a separate email to tsunami@cbsc.com.
• Note that because YouTube is a free public service of Google, ads may appear on the CSBCTsunami page. These are not sponsored by CSBC and CSBC does not endorse any products or service that may appear as ads.

That's all there is to it. Get out the video cameras and go at it.

See you at Tsunami.

Tsunami Update for September

Wow! It has been a whole month since my last post, but that is partly because we have been busy with new plans for Tsunami. The web site has been up for about a month and we already have over 500 people registered for the conference. The HQ hotel (the Hyatt) is already full, but there are plenty of hotels in walking distance, plus some cheaper hotels further out.

The web site has several new features also. Not only can you register and reserve your hotel rooms online (right now!), but you can see promo video from last year, see the SonicFlood video they filmed as Tsunami, see a clip from the m.c., Bob Smiley, and you can also listen to the first TsunamiCast podcast. Chris Fletcher interviews MOI (the worship leader) on leading youth to worship and connecting into something BIGGER THAN YOURSELF.
Also on the web, California Baptist University is offering a $10,000 SCHOLARSHIP to one student who attends Tsunami this year. There is an application including a reference letter from their pastor and a 500 work essay. Take it from a dad who is about to send his oldest child off to college, that's a great scholarship!

We are working on plans for a volleyball tournament at Tsunami. Information will be on the web soon. And we are working on a video contest. We will send out an email blast on that as soon as it is ready.

If you want to be on the email blast, just click here and send me your email address.

Studentwave.com is LIVE!

The Tsunami website is finally up. It has taken a lot longer than we thought, but we finally have information up on the web for the Tsunami Student Conference at www.studentwave.com. While we still need to get the schedule and the housing information on line, you can get bios on most of the talent (more to be added), clip art, videos and pictures of previous Tsunami Student Conferences, and information on the theme, ministry projects, and other student participation. You can also register on line right now.

Posters for the event will be mailed out around September 1. If you aren't on the mailing list, go to studentwave.com and click the link for updates or you can just mail your information to tsunami@csbc.com.

Register as early as possible for the best seats. All you need is a $20 deposit per person.

See you in Long Beach.

Tsunami Update - July 07

Tsunami Student Conference

Plans are continuing for the Tsunami Student Conference in December at the Long Beach Convention Center. Publicity will be up soon at the main website and mailouts will be starting by the end of the month. If you want to make sure you are on the email or mail list, just email me at dwatts@csbc.com

The theme for this year is Bigger Than Yourself. The theme comes from Ephesians 3:20-21.

"Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (NIV)

The main speakers are Erwin McManus and Wayne Chaney. Wayne is the pastor of Antioch Baptist Church in Long Beach. His staff was a very important part of the Tsunami team last year helping us get into several areas of Long Beach for ministry projects. Erwin is the pastor of Mosaic [church] in Los Angeles and the author of several books. Erwin has spoken at Tsunami before and has been eager to come back.

As noted in an earlier post, the worship band will be MOI. We are working with MOI to write some original music for the conference. The new additions are Leeland and Bob Smiley. Leeland is one of the hottest tickets around right now. The last issue of Youth Worker Journal had an interview with him. He is only 19 years old and is writing with Michael W. Smith and has been nominated for both Dove and Grammy awards. Bob Smiley will M.C. the general sessions. Bob and Leeland will also appear at Knott's Berry Farm.

In the coming month you'll here of other new changes including a more relaxed schedule, a few more options (including a volleyball tournament), and expanded ministry projects.

The website (www.studentwave.com) should be up and running soon. We’d like to know what you’d like to have on the web site. If you have something in particular that you would like to see on the site, leave a comment below. If you want it, we'll try to get it on the site if at all possible and practical.

I look forward to hearing from you and seeing you at Tsunami.

 

Tsunami Talent

It is almost mid May. By now we usually have the talent lined up for Tsunami, but not yet. If you have read the previous posts, you know that we do have MOI scheduled as the worship band. We are still working on the speakers and concert bands. We have made some offers, but it is too early to mention them.

When we looked at the evaluations for 2006, they didn't give us much help. We had 80 evaluations that had suggestions for speakers and musicians for 2007. Those 80 evaluations had recommendations for 76 different speakers and singers. Very few of them were listed more twice. Just for fun, here are the artists and speakers that were requested just once out of all the evaluations (note: this is neither a recommendation nor a criticism of any of the artists, speakers, or the people who recommended them).

Aaron Shust, Avalon, Big Daddy Weave, Bill Gravell, Caedmon's Call, Carman, Chris Rice, Chris Simning, clayton risner, david Nasser, Delirious, Doug Fields, Greg Laurie, half & half (so.cal locals), in harmony, Jaci Velasquez, Jay Lowder, Jon Ruben, Kirk Cameron, Kj 52, Sean McDonald, LA Symphony, Lifehouse, Lincoln Brewster, MAE, Mercy Me, Moi, Nick Vujicic, P.O.D., Passion, Phillips, Craig and Dean, Ravi Zacharias, Ron Luce, Scott Krippayne, Skit guys, Starfield, T-Bone, The Afters, the Fold, the fray, Todd Agnew, Will Snipes, Zoe Girl, Tim Hughes, Grits, The Phanatic, Jars of Clay

You can see what a difficult job we have. Since I am a little bit of a glutton for punishment, we haven't filled all our slots for talent yet. If anyone has a recommendation, add it as a comment. Just remember that there are many factors that go into choosing talent (calendar, cost, style, other concerts in the area...).

As soon as we have our talent contracted, we'll post it here and in an email blast.