An Excited Loud Echoes Through Ford Field

Seeing the way these young people were acting, dressing, and speaking made me realize, to an even greater degree, how important youth ministry is. These young people broke my heart that night as I realized how lost they must be. Many of them probably didn’t grow up in loving homes. Many of them may not even have homes to go to when they left the mall that night. What is truly heartbreaking is that many of them may have never had anyone share the Gospel with them. Their actions that night are only a result of the environment they’ve grown up in.

Galindo analyzes that the fundamental “mission” of a congregation is the same as any other congregation that exists in any part of the world. He argues that though every congregation has a mission and a vision, at the same time, it shares a basic common mission. (43) This reminds me of my home church The First Church of Evanston and my Field Site, The Evanston Vineyard Church. Both churches have a common mission of welcoming people to the church, irrespective of their ethnic, cultural, racial, and economic and, gender backgrounds. The mission is to help people be received in the house of God with due and deserved Christian love so that they feel loved and welcomed. Both these churches encourage church attendees to attend the service and receive the Eucharist.

The following week, we spent most of our time in the poorest parts of the city. There we went door-to-door sharing the love of God and had Vacation Bible Schools for the kids. This is when I realized how blessed I truly was. For the first time, I got to see the privations and penury environment that the citizens of Third World countries had to endure. The unpaved streets were covered in trash. Many houses, made of tin sheets, had collapsed on themselves. The people had to share wells, where they drew their parasitic water. Men, women, and children sat on the sides of the roads begging for money, because they were sick, hungry, and needed money for food and proper medication. The site of these atrocious states of living broke my heart, and showed me how blessed I really was for not having to face these problems.

As you can understand we were in quite a bind, after the six adults talked amongst them self’s they informed us that they had decided to call for help from Colorado Springs, after all, that’s where we were headed any ways. The next call that was made was to get the help of a church youth group we knew up there and see if we could use their two fifteen passenger vans to get us all to our hotel we had reservations for in Colorado Springs.

For this assignment, we had to attend a meeting of a spiritual tradition that is not our own. As this assignment's due date approached, I became very anxious! I didn’t quite know where I wanted to go. In my sewing class one day my friend, Kelly Jorgensen, had asked if I had finished the assignment. I had not. “Me and Karlie Mortensen are going to the Baptist church over by Riverton Hospital this Sunday at 6:00 PM if you want to join us” she offered. I found this rather funny. The day before, as I was driving home from work, the Harvest Valley Baptist Church sign had caught my eye. I thought to myself that I should

The shelter was at capacity within 45 min that night and there was at least 20-30 people who didn’t make it in, who would be sleeping outside on the sidewalk or grassy area; so after dinner was served, Michael and I, and one of the police officers went outside and handed out sandwiches and hot coffee to the people who were turned away. This was the breaking point for me. It broke my heart to hear these people who were going to sleep outside say, “god bless you” or tell me they were going to pray for me.

It’s 5:30 in the morning, my alarm is ringing. I get up quickly, my hearts racing. I think to myself, “Today is the day I’m leaving for Fresno, for WBA Championships (Western Band Association).” I eat breakfast, pack my things and say goodbye to my family. I arrive at Logan to meet up with the rest of the band. Walking into the band room was like walking into a cemetery, everyone looks dead. We all load our luggages and suitcases on the bus, we are all seated now and roll is taken to make sure everyone is here. The bus driver, who to me was one of the most hilarious people I have met, began the turn on the engine and I feel the bus rumble as the engine started. My eyes felt heavy, so I close my eyes to begin to sleep and this is the beginning of my exhilarating and hilarious 2-day journey.

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS (June 26th and 27th)—Evangelists Reinhard Bonnke and his ministry, Christ for All Nations (CfaN), along with Evangelist Daniel Kolenda, recently held a two-day crusade at the Allstate Arena in Chicago, Illiniois. The crusade hosted more than 18,000 people despite rain and various other obstacles. The Planetshakers worship team from Australia fired up the crowd to kick off the crusade, and at the end of each night, Bonnke appealed to the multitude to “Say YES to Jesus!” to which over 2000 individuals responded, accepting Christ as their Lord. Shortly following the altar call, Evangelist Daniel Kolenda prayed for

As I mentioned, event number one occurred this past summer when my church youth group traveled to New Orleans, Louisiana, for a national Lutheran youth gathering. We departure on July 15th and arrived in New Orleans to meet and worship for a week with 25,000 other Lutheran youths from different states and across the world. Much had traveled from Germany, Hungary, and Canada. The lyrics ¨Every Sunday I see people filling in through those front doors, got a cross up on that steeple, yeah itś time to praise the Lord,” from The Saltwater Gospel by The Eli Young Band relates to my time in New Orleans, especially for a mass event at the Superdome, when 25,000 people came together. Each night, we would enjoy personal stories, skits, and songs about

During my time at the drop-in center I had the opportunity to be the key-note speaker for numerous churches at various youth nights and numerous youth retreats. I was also asked to represent the drop-in center at many of the churches in Winkler by giving a mission update/sermon on many of the church’s Sunday morning services throughout my tenure. In 2011, I was asked to give the message at our community’s annual summer festival where all the churches gather for a joint Sunday morning service (unsolicited, someone so was kind to video tape it and provide me with a copy).

Smashed in the backseat of my uncle’s van which was already overcrowded with kids from throughout the community of Uniontown, the first thing I noticed was the girl’s ungroomed hair and the boy’s flip flops. Despite being the beginning of winter in this rural town of Kansas, the kids seemed unfazed by their lack of grooming or clothing; their faces said it all. Pure contentment and excitement, the kind of a child who has just been told he is going to Disneyland, spread across their faces as they scampered toward this 2008 Honda Odyssey. Tonight was Bible Impact Ministries (BIM) night, where about 50 kids go each week to receive one on one adult attention, enjoy much needed food, and learn the word of the Lord. BIM is only offered in this community

This event taught us as media professionals to always listen to the whole story., In the beginning of the segment the broadcast stated that this was a theatre production. Not only did this encouraged active listening, this also encouraged us as media professionals to be more detailed with all the stories that we present to the public. When presenting stories, we want the audience to actually care and maybe not have the exact reaction they did but to have a level of

Looking in the mirror the night before, I found myself absolutely terrified and completely devoid of self-confidence. "You can't do this! You don't speak Spanish. What do you know about glasses?" Of course, what an irony, the biggest concern before going on a trip to serve thousands who are in need, is myself. After a good cry, I popped my Malaria pill and got my full 45 minutes of sleep. Being surrounded by other people going on the trip, my father and his coworkers, made it easier to hide the emotion, no one wants to make a scene in public. Alas, after getting off that bus in Chiapa Corzo, the next ten days of my life made me realize something, hard work can not only satisfy my own little soul but if used correctly, it can greatly impact

Adel Adler, 6, was hung last Sunday after he was caught throwing bread to prisoners who were starving in a camp in Auschwitz. Janka and her three daughters were one of the very few people who he threw bread too. Once the officer turned around not knowing there was another officer on duty, he threw bread over the fence. The officer who witnessed this happen called for backup as they chased the little boy. Adler made it all the way home, later on he got a knock on the door where Adler was forced out of his home. No matter how hard Adel's parents tried their was nothing that they could do to save him now. Janka and her daughter's sent prays to god praying that the little boy escaped and would not be found. At lunchtime they found out the truth

My story begins a day before it happened. In hindsight, I remember that day vividly. The baby blue sky was filled with rolling mountains of white. Birds chirped and butterflies flapped their wings. However, off in the distance, the white turned to grayish-black and the sky, rather than the serene feeling around Temple B’nai Jehudah, was eerie. In hindsight, this was an omen of things to come. But at the moment, I wasn’t worried about any of that. I was just worried about getting to my youth group on time.