CHiC 2006

I hesitated to even put CHiC as the heading of this entry knowing that there are some out there not familiar with the term in this context. CHiC stands for Covenant Hi in Christ, the triennial high school conference of the Evangelical Covenant Church. The name has been around since the 50’s and yes, we have discussed changing it, but tradition has won out over political correctness and the name stands.

A conference like CHiC always raises a number of theological questions for me. Is it good stewardship for several thousand youth and adults to spend hundreds of dollars to attend such a conference? Is it good stewardship to spend thousands of dollars on lighting and stage equipment, big name musicians, and afternoon excursions to the mountains for river rafting, mountain biking, and paintball? What do I do when I disagree with some of the theology of the speakers or of the music?

For all the questions CHiC raises for me, I am still amazed at how God uses such an event. I know from reading application essays for North Park Theological Seminary the number of students who have made commitments to ministry at CHiC and now serve in Covenant churches today. I know that if even a fraction of the students who stood up to give their lives to Christ or to full-time ministry follow through on those commitments the world will be changed for the good. I know that God will use the $100,000 given in the offering and the 590,000 meals packaged through Feed My Starving Children to make a difference in the Sudan. I try not to think too hard about the fact that 5,000 youth and adult leaders had $100,000 to give.

I missed most of what went on at CHiC. I served on the team that ran excursions. We spent our days down at the arena loading buses with lunches and students, waiting for them to return, and tracking down those who somehow got misplaced in the process. The students are a tremendous witness to the bus drivers and those who manage the sites of our excursions. They are full of joy, deal well with unexpected delays, pick up their garbage, and make friends with the drivers. It is amazing how the little things can speak volumes about the kingdom.

In addition, though, this year we had the privilege of working with the Feed My Starving Children service project. For years CHiC has been trying to develop a service component, but the logistics and the cost had been prohibitive. This year we found FMSC and a donor graciously bought the food that the students would then pack to ship off to starving children around the world. As we arrived, huge bags of rice (think large white bean bag chair big enough for an elephant), canisters of soy, vats of dried vegetables and a vitamin mixture filled the warehouse area under the bleachers at the back of the arena. Information on the project went out late and only 75 or so students were pre-registered to help package all the food. We spent the Welcome Party sitting at a table out in the sun trying to gather names and commitments from those who would help throughout the week. We had little success and all we could do was pray. At the first session almost 300 people showed up. We had room for about 250 and found odd jobs for the rest. The next two sessions were just as full. The room was filled with the silence of purpose and a sense of God’s presence. Our mid-week sessions dropped off significantly, but when we put the word out that we might not make our goal, students came streaming in for the last session with youth groups committing to stay as long as it took to finish it all. In the end we finished almost 30 minutes early packaging over 2,000 boxes of food to feed over 1,600 children one meal a day for year. Robert, the head of event planning for UT, was so moved by the project that he donated dinner to the students who worked the late afternoon shift each day. When we decided to substitute a sample of the meals we were preparing for the cafeteria lunch one day, Aramark, the food services company decided to donate $10,000 to FMSC. In the end over a third of the students at the conference participated in the project. On an afternoon when they could be rafting, swimming in the pool, going to mall, listening to concerts, playing in basketball tournaments, or learning guitar, these students opted to bag food for hungry children in Sudan. And they did so with joy and enthusiasm. For all the questions that a conference like CHiC raises for me, I am still amazed at how God works.

For more information on CHiC 2006 go to www.chic2006.org
For more information on Feed My Starving Children go to
www.fmsc.org