“Momentum West has been more exciting than we anticipated,” reported Ed Lewis, director of CE National, the sponsoring organization for the youth conference.
More than 400 students and adults were present for the Monday evening opening session at the Bellflower (Calif.) Brethren Church. Chairs had to be put in the aisles on the main floor and the balcony was full. He says that it was an incredible evening as Francis Chan shared a strong and powerful message. Todd Proctor also led worship in a very powerful and moving way.
Later that evening, all three Operation Barnabas teams participated in the service and held separate concerts. On Tuesday morning, students had another challenging time, as Chan spoke again.
“We had to delay programming because of what God was doing as a result of the morning,” Ed went on to say. “There were an incredible number of students making commitments, with some pledging to going into full-time Christian service.”
A training time was held following the morning service with two guest speakers. Dr. Cheryl Fawcett told students why she is living “on mission,” along with tips for living a focused life. Don Shoemaker, head of the Social Concerns Committee for the Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches, shared on the theme verse, Micah 6:8.
On Tuesday evening, Mike Yankoski told about being homeless for five months. “You could have heard a pin drop,” said Ed. Mike told the conference how God allowed him to see a whole new world from the perspective of being homeless.
Speechless, the mime group from Grace Church, a Grace Brethren church in Orange, Calif., encouraged the conference during the evening session.
Today (Wednesday), some conference participants were scheduled to go to skid row to minister to 3,000 homeless people as a part of WowJam, while others headed for ministry opportunities in Mexico.
“Please pray in expectation of hundreds, if not thousands, of people in the community being impacted for Christ,” Ed concluded.
This is the first of two Momentum conferences this summer. Momentum East will be held July 21 to 27 at Cedarville College in Ohio. The conference was formerly known as Brethren National Youth Conference.