Oklahoma FFA State Convention - 2014

                                     
Last week was the annual Oklahoma FFA State Convention.  This year's theme was "Ignite".  I attended the event, as usual, and enjoyed spending time with our two boys that are in FFA, plus our college daughter came to stay and attend for a little while.

During the Convention, many awards were given for the year of FFA accomplishments.  Both of our sons have competed in various events, but the oldest was awarded with a special award of Proficiency for his Ag Communications/Broadcasting work.

He's already working on trying to win 1st in this division next year, although 2nd is great, too!

There are so many neat things to see, do and hear while at the convention. This year, sand artist Joe Castillo performed. He was amazing!

I think someone said he had been on America's Got Talent. I found his website at joecastillo.com, if you are interested in watching his work.  He was a spiritual man, which was evident by his words.

The State Chorus was great again this year, though no one from our small town was in it for a change.  Oklahoma FFA Alumni, Colte Julian was part of the group and entertained the audience with his Jerry Lee Lewis style!

Perhaps the best part of this year's convention, to me, was the last keynote speaker, Walter Bond.  Walter is a former NBA player turned motivational speaker.  We watched some of his speeches on YouTube, so if you're interested, you can check him out! He was great and inspiring!

We had a big group of FFA members this year, even with five or six missing at the time of this picture!

FFA in Oklahoma is probably different.  A prayer was held at the beginning of the convention.  People tell about their faith in God, their love for Jesus, and they give glory to God throughout the whole thing.  That doesn't happen everywhere.  I'm thankful that it does here.

As we were leaving, I saw this group praying together.  Guess who it was?  The new officers who had just found out they would be leading the 2014-2015 FFA year.  That's what makes this organization great - at least in Oklahoma - and hopefully all around the world.