The humidity and heat of a late July Saturday didn’t deter students from Momentum, the annual Grace Brethren youth conference, from participating in We Care – Dayton. It was the culmination of a week of challenging messages, purse-stretching giving, and opportunities to become the hands and feet of Jesus.
The conference was held July 21 – 27 at Cedarville University in southwestern Ohio.
That Saturday, young people delivered 5,000 bags of groceries provided by Convoy of Hope while others did manual labor at various sites. Some helped office workers. Others painted fences and a pavilion and cleared a trail at a camp. More were sent to refinish a tennis court while others cleaned houses.
“It was cool to see people’s hearts be filled with happiness as we talked with them and helped them with the simplest things,” said Alex from Iowa. At an outreach carnival at the West Milton Grace Brethren Church, outside of Dayton, students shared Christ wherever they went, with many people responding to the gospel message.
Several hundred students stayed on campus to provide prayer support for the outreach events and to help fill bags of food that will be sent to needy children around the world. Partnering with the organization Feed My Starving Children, the students bagged 106,920 meals which will feed 293 children, one meal a day for a year (at a cost of 17 cents a meal). Each meal contained chicken flavored but vegetarian powder with nutrients which are scientifically formulated to help rebuild a starving person’s body, dehydrated vegetables, and soy granules plus rice, the main staple for most of world.
The week was highlighted by two offerings totaling more than $94,000 after the students were challenged to give sacrificially to help the needy. Funds raised during the week will help provide a new roof at the Urban Hope facility in Philadelphia and will establish an orphanage for children in Southeast Asia (and maintain it for two years). In addition, it covered the costs for the supplies for the Feed My Starving Children project.
Speakers throughout the week followed the theme iCARE, based on Micah 6:8, “What does the Lord require of us, to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” Francis Chan, David Nasser, Jeff Bogue, and Jim Brown encouraged students to walk with God, but also to serve others.