I'm too thrilled to NOT post again! Tonight, Pastor Jim Brown from Goshen, IN shared some staggering statistics of what is going on in the world: children being abused; people dying of curable diseases and hunger; families selling their children to provide for the rest of their family...and the list goes on. It was a message that was impossible to walk away from without responding. And the opportunity was given to respond.
Teenagers, yes TEENAGERS, gave over $92,000 tonight to go towards dying people in other parts of the world. The goal was $15,000. As students came forward to give, a "live" number continued to be flashed up on the screen to show people how much was coming in. After 30 minutes or so, the number had climbed just short of $100,000. (Although, if you add in the $21,000 that was given LAST NIGHT as part of the national youth project offering, this conference has given well into 6-digits)!
The first $15,000 will go to provide clean water and food for a year for 100,000 people in Africa! The next chunk will go to build an orphanage in Asia and will pay for the building, food, supplies and education for these orphans for 2 years! Think about the math - if there are 2,000 people here, the average giving was approximately $45 per person tonight alone. Teens sacrificed buying t-shirts, cd's - some even lunch on the trip home -because they were given a challenge, and they responded!
What did you spend your last $45 on?
Following tonight's session we had an incredible hour of sharing together as a youth group all that God is doing. You know things are going well when the entire hour is taken by students, one right after another, sharing what God is teaching them with their peers. We continue to ask the question "so what"? challenging students to think about how these lessons will transfer home.
Thank you for praying! IT IS EVIDENT THAT YOU ARE!
