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| Courses offer teens a Biblical grounding |
| Education |
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The conference is designed to help tens of thousands of teens, parents and youth leaders in hundreds of churches across North America gain a firmer grounding in their faith. “We’ll do it with an eye toward equipping people to actually talk about those things,” Leon Wirth, Focus’ director of youth outreach, told Today’s Family News, “to engage with a culture that is skeptical, and yet hungry and thirsty for this at the same time.” Six well-known speakers have been lined up for the event, and each session will allow time for questions and answers. The date for the simulcast – Saturday, August 8 – was chosen with the upcoming school year in mind. “Whatever academic stage these youth are at, we want these truths to be ringing in their ears as they go on campus,” Wirth said. While this is the first time Focus has offered this type of event, another significant event for youth will soon be available for the fourth year running: the week-long Christian Youth Worldview and Leadership (CYWAL) camp for Christian youth aged 15 to 19. This year’s camp will be held July 26 to 31 at Crieff Hills near Cambridge, Ontario. Executive director Giselle Baribeau is anticipating about 25 students this year. “I wouldn’t want to go a whole lot more than that, because that is really a nice size for the instructors to work with,” she said. Baribeau urges cash-strapped parents who want to enroll their kids to not let the recession keep them from applying. “Sometimes there are scholarship opportunities. Occasionally, somebody is willing to sponsor a student,” she said. “We also have a fundraising guide available online, because we’d like students to ask people they know to invest in them.” Registration is also now open for a Biblical world view seminar that Summit Ministries will be offering in the Metro Vancouver area. It can be taken for course credits through Liberty University in Virginia that can be transferred to any other accredited institution. Darrell Furgason, Summit’s international ministry director, said students taking the course for credit would “get a very, very reduced rate” compared to other universities. It would be even less expensive for people not seeking credit. The course is designed to help post-secondary students guard their faith in a secular humanist setting. “We’re concerned,” said Furgason, “for young people heading off to university with no critical thinking skills, no Biblical world view reference points. I’ve heard many testimonies, believe me, from even pastors whose kids came back with a very, very liberal view of Scripture and became inundated with ‘isms.’ ” The course will run from August 17 through 22. A location has still to be chosen. Furgason, who is an adjunct professor at Liberty, will teach the course that includes presentations by other speakers on DVD. People seeking more information can contact Darrell Furgason at 604-575-3257 or 778-227-6253, or at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . |
