Marcellus Casey received a message from a youth pastor a few nights ago. The pastor wanted Casey, FCA’s Multi-Area Director for the Greater Kansas City Area, to know about one life that was changed at Fields of Faith in Overland Park, Kan., on Oct. 10.
“One of our students brought a friend who is not a Christian to Fields of Faith. He is a middle school student, whose mother committed suicide earlier this year. He gave his life to the Lord on Wednesday night after Andy’s talk.”
Now, a young man who lost a parent will know the never-ending love of a heavenly Father who will never leave him nor forsake him.
That’s one story about one young man.
That’s one life transformed because God used Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Andy Studebaker and a host of students with their own challenges and their own issues to share the love of Jesus Christ at Fields of Faith.
For Casey, that’s the most exciting thing about Fields of Faith. He loves the fact that God uses the work of students, coaches and volunteers to speak into the hearts of the people they come into contact with every day.
“When you have the athletes and the coaches excited about something, and it’s driven more by them than a staff person who is being paid to do it, their connections and relationships – when they look their friends in the eye and say, ‘I want you to come to this’ – it means so much more to an outsider than it would if a staff person or a parent or someone else were to invite them,” Casey said.
“In Kansas City, we’ve had tons of people paint their cars and wear their Fields of Faith t-shirts the day before, and there is so much excitement and momentum that the peers get to see from their friends, that it just creates a ton of momentum,” he continued. “The athletes that are leaders can pull in their friends. They can pull in the non-believers and they can pull in the people that may not show up to an early morning or evening huddle event. But when they are able to pull in their peers, they have a whole new level of momentum when their peers are able to hear the gospel, are able to receive Christ and then, hopefully, start going to the huddle consistently throughout the year.
“It’s just really cool just to see the student leaders stepping up and impacting their peers and pulling together an event that is driven by their passion to make Jesus known,” Casey said.
That passion was evident at six different Fields of Faith events in the Greater Kansas City area. Each one had a similar program, featuring an MC who helped keep the crowd fired up, worship music, student testimonies and a featured speaker. At each event, the gospel was presented and those in attendees were presented with the challenge and adventure of accepting Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.
Casey said over 1,500 people attended various Fields of Faith events in the Greater Kansas City area.
That’s 1,500 stories. Fifteen hundred lives that were touched by the Holy Spirit in some way.
And somewhere among those 1,500 is one young man whose mom is no longer with him, but is now being comforted by a heavenly Father who will never let him go.
Video
Fields of Faith 2012 Highlight from FCA on Vimeo.
This is awesome. These kids are our future. If they can share the love of Jesus with their friends it will start a fire that will spread across this nation! God Bless the youth of this world. Help them to be strong and share the love of Jesus with others.