Let God recycle your life

More than 3,000 teens gathered Wednesday night at the Muncie Fieldhouse to do some recycling.

Sort of.

“Let God recycle your life,” said Jeff Mosier, area Fellowship of Christian Athletes representative at the start of Fields of Faith. “All of us, if we are being honest, if we look inside our hearts, we would find something that needs recycled. Our God is a master recycler.”

The annual event, which drew students from six counties, had a recycling theme this year, complete with the three R’s. But these three R’s were “recognize,” “repent” and “restore.”

Fields of Faith is student-driven, student-led opportunity to share their Christian faith with fellow students. It’s also quite the party, with a rock band, colorful lights and lots of singing.

The students gathered here in Muncie joined thousands of other youth on more than 400 athletic fields and in fieldhouses all across the nation for the seventh annual event.

A group from Daleville High School arrived at 6 p.m. to get a prime spot in the gym floor.

“We love Jesus!” they chanted.

“This is our biggest FCA group ever,” said Jaime Roberts, 18, one of the Daleville “huddle” leaders. “We used to have eight at the most come to our meetings. Now we have at least 40 every week.”

This was Ashley Kinnick’s first year in the Daleville FCA and her first time at FOF.

“Everyone told me how much fun it was, so here I am,” she said as the FCA Worship Band played “Born Again.”

Twenty-three students made the trip from Anderson Preparatory Academy. This was their first time participating in the event.

“It’s so great to be able to come here and be with our friends as we learn more about God and have a really good time,” said Miranda Newland, 18.

Students speakers told stories that tied into one of the R’s.

Jackie Hernandez, a senior at Shenandoah High School, spoke of “restoring your life through Jesus Christ.”

Samantha Santini, a freshman at Central High School, asked students to “recognize your sins,” then “repent and give your all to Christ.”

Wapahani High School senior Brandon Williams spoke of how Jesus “restored” his relationship with his brother.

Isaac Miller, a freshman at Burris Laboratory School, said God helped him “recognize” the anger in his life.

Rossi Wingler, a senior at Central, spoke about her troubled life (a mother who left when she was 9, a battle with anorexia and bulimia, underage drinking).

“My life was restored by Jesus Christ,” she said.

Most of the teens agreed that their favorite part of the event were the worship songs, a chance, as Roberts put it, “to sing and praise and get closer to everyone here as you get closer to the Lord.”

During one of the songs, “White Flag,” students held up white tissues and small flags as they “surrendered” their lives to the Lord.

Tom Jarvis, principal at Central, stood away from the crowd and smiled.

“So many times people get down on this generation,” he said. “It’s things like this that really lift this generation up.”

Fields of Faith began in 2004. The first local event in 2009 drew 15 schools. In 2010, there were 22. Last year, 33 FCA “huddle groups” from area schools gathered at the fieldhouse.

This year, there were 43 schools represented.

The main speaker was Mark Shaner, the youth pastor at East Side Church of God in Anderson.

“Your first job is to recognize you aren’t perfect, that you don’t have it all together,” he told the crowd as they sat on the floor or in the bleachers, completely silent. “Your second job is to repent. Fix your eyes on Jesus and follow him. The last job isn’t your job. It’s not my job. It’s Jesus’ job.”

He then asked for students to come forward, to be restored. And one by one, they made their way to the stage.