| Who is YOUR Biggest Influence? |
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Friday Night Youth Rally (4.13.07)
This past Friday night, our very own Stapleton Salvation Squad Youth Group took a trip down to the South End of Staten Island. Gateway Cathedral, which in the past has already done so much for the Salvation Army in our Kettle Season, has once again opened its doors - this time for the youth.
At about 7:30 pm, the music began. 300 or so young people, from Youth Groups all over Staten Island and New Jersey came together for a time of Praise to God, and fellowship with each other.
The night began with a great Praise and Worship team from Gateway, leading the crowd in almost a full hours worth of Praise songs.
The band was fantastic, the music was great, and the praising was whole hearted throughout the crowd. Then, all of a sudden, the band stopped playing. Each member of the band moved off stage and this incredible Hip-Hop beat began. And then the dance.
Gateway Cathedral's own Hip-Hop dance group was now on stage, and they were dancing over Kirk Franklin's "Awesome God", and it sure was awesome.
Then they did something quite cool. Now, we had shown up with 12 in total. Myself and Wanessa, and then 10 of our teenagers. And instead of saying "get with your own youth groups and fellowship", they had signs of each of the schools here on Staten Island made up. The signs had been handed out and at once, 30 some-odd signs were raised into the air. So all 300 of the youth in the place took off looking for their school's name. This was a great sight to see! And what a great idea! The factor was to get kids, from different youth groups, to see who else from their school were Christians. This way, they could connect and hold each other accountable while even at school. It sure was a great thing to do. I know that our teenagers came away from this saying "wow, I didn't know so-and-so went to Church!" It was a blessing knowing that the teenagers now have Christian friends within their own school.
Then to the meat of the meeting (get it?! HA! - ok, sorry, bad joke.) The youth pastor from Gateway got up and began to talk about influences.
Some of the statistics and facts that he threw out blew the young peoples minds. For instance, did you know that the same company that owns MTV also owns Nickelodeon? Yeah, Viacom owns both. And what they do is set Nickelodeon up so that the young kids transition straight from Nick to MTV as they grow up.... Sad!
And on the Youth Pastor went about how everywhere we turn in life, we are being influenced or influencing others in how we live, in what we watch, in what we listen to, and in what we say. This message came through loud and clear. And the punch of it all: How strong is the influence of Jesus Christ in your life? Many of the young people took this to heart. It was a strong message, and soon the entire place was hushed in silent prayer. Then each of the groups got together and had group prayer, asking God to help them become an influence in a positive way to their friends, rather than being influenced by negative aspects.
The Spirit of the Lord was heavy in that place on Friday Night, and the youth sure enjoyed it! We all are looking forward to the next time that all the Church Youth Groups can gather together again for fellowship. It sure was a treat.
I'll leave you with these inspiring Bible Verses that hit home on Friday's message:
12:26 A righteous man turns away from evil, but the way of the wicked leads them astray.
27:17 Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another. |
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