Thursday, January 29, 2004
INDIANA STUDENT LEADERSHIP FORUM ON FAITH AND VALUES
This weekend Karon and I will participate in this Forum. As far as I know, it is patterned after the National Student Leadership Forum. Then-United States Senator Dan Coats began Indiana’s Forum several years ago. Currently United States Representative Mike Pence continues the effort with the assistance of a great crew of capable volunteers.
Students from every college in Indiana—public and private—are invited to attend. Usually the College will pay the registration cost. Typically 250 – 300 students attend. They spend a weekend in Indianapolis at the State House and are housed at a local hotel. There are general sessions where people who have demonstrated Christian Principles in their professions are invited to speak to the gathering. Some are successful businessmen; some politicians and some are from the sports world.
The students attending are divided into small groups of 10-12 members with a facilitator couple. In addition to the general sessions, there is time for sessions in the small groups. The groups spend Saturday afternoon doing various service projects in the Indianapolis metropolitan area. Saturday evening the groups go to various community homes for a meal and another small group session in the host home. It is a great time for host families to meet outstanding college students and vice-versa.
I don’t know how many years the Forum has been held. The past several years my wife and I have hosted a small group in our home on Saturday night.
We have met some terrific people this way.
This year we are going to be “Facilitators”. We will spend the entire weekend with a small group of students. We will attend their sessions; facilitate their small group discussions and go to the work project with them.
I am looking forward to it. It is good to be with such committed people. I have been so encouraged by my associations with this age group over the past several years. They are such terrific people. I have 13 people of this age group on my daily prayer list. They have each blessed my life so much in one way or another.
It will be a rich, rewarding, scary, challenging, exhausting (what other adjectives could I use?) experience. But I have been praying that Karon and I can be a real blessing to those with whom we interact this weekend. I would ask that you who are reading this would pray for the Indiana Student Leadership Forum meeting Friday afternoon through Sunday afternoon. Pray for good travel weather; for the speakers; for God to prepare the hearts of those who attend. Pray for Karon and me.
I’ll let you know next week how it went.
Jim
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