Summer Youth Missions

Justin Blizard – Senior
 
My name is Justin Blizard and I am a senior at West Forsyth High School. This is my seventh year in Gooth as well as my fourth year visiting the Montreat Youth Conference. Out of all the years I have gone, this has been the most meaningful for me.
 
For those who do not know much about the conference, we go as a Youth Group and do things such as rock hopping, hiking, visiting Black Mountain, and sharing meals together. Outside of this we go into these small groups made up of kids across the conference who come from all around the country. Here we discuss what we learned in keynote speaker sessions and worship and life in general.
 
This conference was the most meaningful for a multitude of reasons. The conference’s theme was “A Missing Peace” with peace not spelled like piece. With this we talked about the importance of understanding how everyone comes from different backgrounds and has a different identity. From this idea we spoke how it is important to keep this in mind as we interact with others within our world, for the most important concept to live in one’s own life is God’s love.

Samantha Ingraham – Freshman
 
Hi, my name is Samantha Ingraham. I'm a ninth grader at West Forsyth High School and this summer I went on the middle school mission trip and conference at Massanetta in Massanetta Springs, VA. On the trip we did two days of mission work and the other four days were for the conference.
 
We did two mission projects. The first one was sorting and packing clothes for Equipping the Saints, who support mission work around the world. The second one was packing sweet potatoes for the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank.
 
After that we had the Massanetta conference where middle schoolers from North Carolina, Virginia, and surrounding areas come to join together and learn about Christ. At Massanetta we played games, went down a water slide, and did the best hair don'ts ever (for those of you who don't know, hair don'ts are the most ridiculous hairstyles you could see on a person).
 
I also learned some important things on the trip. The theme of the conference was “Alltogethernow” and I learned that we should all join and live together in Christ despite our differences and backgrounds. I think that is very important and that we should always remember to live that way.