Lorcan Murphy at Connect 2009!

       So, A few weeks ago, I asked my youth pastor, a certain Jonathan Shaw, if he had any books on dating and relationships, as I recalled him mentioning reading one many moons ago. He still had it, and a few weeks later, he lent me a related book, called "Wisdom on Making good decisions". It wasn't the book I had requested, but he was still looking for the one on dating, "Wisdom on Wisdom On Friends, Dating, & Relationships" , and thought I'd enjoy this one as well! His analysis was accurate, as I tend to read Christian spirituality and guidance books like some sort of junkie! A few weeks later, he lent me the one on Dating and relationships, and I read it in about 2 days. Anyway, fast forward to the present, after I had told him what I thought of it, and as I was leaving youth club tonight, he asked me if I would be willing to write a review of the books for "Connect", a christian youth conference over midterm. I agreed, because I don't really like passing up oppurtunites! This occaisionally ends badly for me, as I can take on too much, or leap before I look, and end up knee-deep in proverbial poopy. But I'm pretty free for time as of late, so I agreed.
        The next part of his sentence left me a little anxious though. "Yeah, you'll just be getting up on a stage for a little bit, say a little bit about the books, the good and the bad, and how much they cost, and then they'll be selling them in the bookstore afterwards!" Whoa, back up. Stage? That bit sounded scary. I say this because people tend to look at people on stages. Connect has over 300 people coming to listen to people who talk, I presume on stages. This struck me as distincively scary. However, this is usually the sort of scary that ends up being great for me, as it gets me out of my comfort zone. And as I'm planning on being a youth minister when I'm older, learning how to speak in front of a large crowd without spontaneously catching fire out of fear would seem to be a somewhat indespensible skill. I'm sure it'll last less than 3 minutes, if that, but those 3 minutes will probably be the most frightening 3 minutes of my life. I've done plays before, but this is different! Anyway, if you could keep me in your prayers that God will help me to talk about the good parts of these books, but still maintain an honest perspective, and not suffer cardiac arrest on stage, I would be quite grateful!