After a mother and her daughter shared their struggle with addictions and imperfections, the youth who were present at the worship on Thursday were invited to write their own hidden truths on slips of paper.

On Friday morning before worship, these anonymous “Post Secrets” were on display on bulletin boards by the youth arena.

“There were some things I needed to get off my mind and out there – like carrying a dead dog in a suitcase — I had to get rid of it,” Alicia Loch said, connecting her Thursday post to Friday morning’s speaker who comically compared sin to the secret of a dead dog in a suitcase and Christ to a thug who took it away once the person with the suitcase had let go.

Here is a sampling of what was shared in the notes:

“I still love the friend that hurt me”

” I don’t know what to write on this but God knows what I’m going through and that’s all that matters”

“Self-worth”

“I haven’t done daily devotions in a long time”

“I am jealous of my sister”

“I’m insecure about my peacemaking”

Not everyone had powerful confessions to share. “It was hard to think of something,” said Haley Kuhns.”I feel like I tell everyone lots of things about myself, so I just kind of wrote something down that not many know.”

The personal nature of the posts resonated deeply, Haley said. “Some of them were really intense,” she said.