"GO into all the world and preach the gospel to everyone."
Last Saturday around 40 high school Bible club leaders and members from schools throughout the Orange and LA County area gathered for CSP Biola's annual GO Conference. High school leaders received training on CSP's outreach strategies, practiced evangelizing in a witnessing simulation, and had the opportunity to coordinate with their mentors and present their plans for the semester to all of the other high school groups.
Initially GO Conference was planned to be at two separate locations simultaneously - one at Southland Christian Church in Bell and the other at The Rock in Anaheim. Unfortunately the Bell conference was cancelled at the last minute and any students that came were consolidated into the one conference in Anaheim.
Ryan Tucker, cluster leader and primary coordinator of the event, reflected on God's faithfulness even in this setback. "Despite my disappointment and high stress, God still showed up," he said. "Students walked out with awesome plans to advance the Kingdom and anticipation of how much their schools are going to be changed for the Lord."
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| Ryan Tucker served as the primary coordinator of this year's training conference |
For Christy Clarke, co-president of the club at Segerstrom High School, this year marks her third CSP training conference, yet she continues to learn new things each year that motivate and encourage her in her campus outreach.
"The thing that I've found kind of shocking is just the number of people willing to talk to you about the gospel at school. They're just ready and they'll listen and ask questions," she said. "When you look around, you feel like no one really wants it but underneath they do. You just have to break through that shell."
When asked about her overall impression of this year's conference, Christy smiled, nodded her head and said, "I think it might be the best one yet."
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| Christy [pictured 2nd on the left] with the rest of the Segerstrom leadership team and their CSP mentors, Nathan and Kaitlyn |
Similarly, Trey Soto, co-president of Campus Light Christian Club at Cal High, felt he benefitted from the training he received, the witnessing simulation in particular. "I feel I have grown stronger in just one day because it's really helped me in a weak area that I need to work on," he said.
Despite the difficulties the leadership faced in putting this conference on, students left more prepared to impact their high schools and excited to execute their plans for the semester. "This conference had to be God's way of reminding us that He always works things out for His glory, no matter our shortcomings," Ryan said.
