last night was our one life revolution variety show — called one night revolution. last year, the middle school ministry at my church really caught a vision for doing something for AIDS orphans and widows in africa, and set a goal of raising $3200 to build a home for a family. the kids themselves gave $1000, and by the end of the event, we saw god multiply it into $26,000. blew us all away. i talked to the kids about the impact of clean water wells on a community, and they loved the idea. so we were able to put in two clean water wells into a remote village in zambia.
roll forward to this year. we didn’t know what to expect. we’d included high school this year, but still, the excitement didn’t seem to be quite as high — maybe a result of it not being a new thing. we had 18 acts again, and promoted it in church last weekend. and the kids gave $1450 of their own money ahead of time this year.
anyhow — by the end of the night last night, we had $18369! once again, we were blown away. we gathered together all the kids who were involved in the show (in addition to acts, others did tech jobs, stage roles, ushering, snack sales, etc), and looked through the OLR gift catalog together. i noticed the medical center ($25,800) and mentioned it, and suggested that we could consider giving 4/5 of one, and other groups could add their money to it. we prayed about it, and it was unanimous. we knew we were going to be able to set out a display an an offering bowl this morning in the lobby though — and we prayed that someone the rest of the money would come in.
well — this morning, the teaching pastor invited me on stage, and we talked about the goal. the church was moved. and now we have almost $32,000!
all of us — kids, staff, volunteers, pastors — we’re just bowled over by this. what a cool thing to be a part of god’s movement. i think our church is pumped about this enough now that it will likely become a regular fixture — that our church does something annually for zambia. and it all started because of our middle school kids!
i know i harp on the mega churches but they can fundraise like nobodies business!! very cool indeed! your kids must be so psyched. good to see that the young are leading the way! and that is because of your leadership on this, they can sense your passion for it. great work!
That is awesome! When our church last did 1LR we raised enough for a few houses but I think our next one is going to have a bigger goal like that!
Dude, That is awesome! I’m new to reading your blog…only know about you through the YS Conference.
Is One Night Revolution something your students came up with? Sounds really neat…and something that the entire church/community can get behind. Either way…your teens are awesome for doing that and having such a great heart for others.
Thanks for sharing.
That goes to show you that youth are the church of TODAY not the church of tomorrow! Amen!