On Friday, November 18, Martin First Assembly of God’s youth group, Reflections of Christ or R.O.C., will be heading to Nashville, Tenn., for their annual trip to Tennessee Youth Convention.
Normally, there is a long worship service Friday night and then a couple of services on Saturday before the youth groups are dismissed to return home. This year it will be slightly different. Instead of doing a service on Saturday, all the youth groups of Tennessee will be helping out in two forms of community service.
On Saturday, all the youth groups that will gather in Nashville will feed 1,000 families of four a decent Thanksgiving meal. Five distribution sites will be given 166 boxes to feed the same amount of families. After all the meals are given out, the youth groups will then clean up specified areas of Nashville as a city-wide community service.
“The FeedTheHope outreach event is a supreme effort from students, churches, and partners to simply help people,” Terry Allen said.
Allen, the forerunner behind the FeedTheHope outreach, has been the Tennessee Youth Director for over ten years.
Two UTM students will be accompanying R.O.C. to Nashville.
“I hope we can show people love in action through service. Jesus said how you love one another will show people we’re disciples of him,” said Andres Cedeno, a sophomore in Health and Human Performance, who will be taking his first trip to the convention.
Elise Jones is a sixth year UTM student majoring in Animal Science. Both she and Cedeno have been attending MFA for a couple of years. Recently, they have been working with the youth at the church.
“This is my first year going with MFA to Tennessee Youth Convention. I’m expecting to see a lot of Tennessee youth making a difference by reaching out to the community and showing God’s love,” Jones said.
Students from Weakley, Obion and Gibson Counties will be attending youth convention with Martin First Assembly. Even though they are a small group going compared to groups in the past, they are excited.
“I expect to be awakened, because I get what I want. It’s going to be different to see people who don’t have a lot. It should be an eye opening experience,” said Hayley Pilcher, a junior at South Fulton High School.
Adam Reinhard, a senior at Westview High School, is going to his final youth convention before he heads off to college.
“I’m excited to meet with God, grow closer to the youth, and to serve those in need,” Reinhard said.
Pastor Dave Reinhard, Adam Reinhard’s father, has been pastor at MFA for 15 years. He has seen the youth grow from a small group of four or five to its max of about 20.
“I’m excited they have the opportunity to serve and not only to be ministered to but to do ministry,” Dave Reinhard said.
Also, going to Nashville with them will be their youth pastor and his wife. Daniel and Vanessa Hill have been serving the Martin First Assembly youth for two years. This will be their first youth convention as well. They would love “for God to move in a mighty way.”
“We are thankful to God for our blessings and we are thankful for our students, leaders, and partners who are making it possible to share the love of Jesus Christ in a practical way with our state,” Allen said about the students of Tennessee and their leaders.
Instead of the normal services on Saturday, it will be a good change of pace for the youth of Martin First Assembly.
They will get a chance to show how their church and youth group has helped them by helping others during this holiday season.
For donations, visit FeedTheHope.com.
