October 2023: Fall Worship Night at SIFATEditor’s Note: Each month, we mail an article with our contribution statements to the previous month’s donors. Click here to download a PDF version. Written by Kaitlyn Glenn, campus program assistant  On Oct. 8, 2023, 72 youth and their leaders came to SIFAT for our Fall Worship Night, where they enjoyed playing games, hayrides, worshiping together and a bonfire with s’mores!
It is important to cultivate community at home and abroad to effectively share God’s love to encourage and help one another. SIFAT’ s campus staff hosted a worship night to bring local youth groups together and to build community with churches in our area. Seventy-two youth and adults attended, and a wonderful time of fellowship was enjoyed together. Students enjoyed a meal, hayrides, games, a bonfire with s’mores and a worship service led by the staff. Josiah Corson gave a short sermon, while Shelby Dickey and Kaitlyn Glenn led the worship music. Intern Alex Angel has fit right in with our staff and was a great help assisting with the program, and local friends came to help out, as well. We also welcomed back some of our previous interns. Our Fall Worship Night was a success, and two youth leaders reported that their students cannot wait to come back. We look forward to hosting more worship nights and hope that events like this will continue to open doors to minister to local citizens, teaching others how to share God’s love with the community around them. Thank you to all who worked to make this event possible! Learn & Serve: Summer 2012 Worship, from Abstract to ConcreteLearn & Serve Summer 2013 Worship Leader Becca Griffin tells her perspective on how worship at Learn & Serve this past summer provided a bridge for students between concrete and abstract expressions of faith:
Many of the words that are used in singing/teaching/talking about faith tend to be abstract and make it difficult for youth to connect. There is no more lack of desire or devotion for them than anyone else, but a lack of concrete example when it comes to living out the faith that they sing about/learn about/profess. Perhaps connecting the ideas of faith with reality is not a struggle for youth alone, but abstract concepts like love, justice, and following Christ, when only spoken about and not experienced or lived out, make it hard for youth to really learn, practice, or live out those things that they affirm, or have been taught in word to do as Christians.  Learn & Serve students singing in worship at SIFAT’s Quonset Hut. |
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