February 16-17, 2024, youth from throughout the Gulf States Conference gathered at Bass Memorial Academy for the annual Youth Rally with the theme of Fearless. The weekend was packed with inspirational music, preaching, workshops, activities and sports, as well as opportunities for the Bass Memorial Academy students, along with the visitors, to gather together and have fun as a community of Christian young people.
For Chaplain Jim Stewart, this is one of the most important parts of a weekend like this. “At Bass Memorial Academy, we have a portion or segment of our youth here in the Gulf States Conference, but we also understand that there are youth that are not here at Bass.
I think it's important that we have events like this where we bring both of those groups together, and we gather together and have these epic weekends where you can have that mountaintop experience with God and you can experience God in a way you don't normally get to experience God.”
He continued by saying, “whether you stay here at Bass and you have a rekindling here or when you go back to your home church, I think it's just beneficial to everybody. I think it's good for our young people to get around people that they're not normally around, whether that's in their church or whether that's here at school to realize there are more kids like me, and I'm not alone in this”
For the young people in attendance, this aspect of the weekend was one of the highlights as well. Bass Memorial Academy student, Milena, shared that she enjoyed the preaching, the music and the new people. “It’s always good to see new people.”
In addition to meeting new people, attendees were challenged and encouraged by the Fearless theme. Youth Rally speaker, James Mello, described the concept of the theme by saying, “the idea of fearless is that God is not giving us a spirit of fear. As we experience God's love, it allows us to live fearless lives, which set us free to live whatever type of life that God really has called us to live. And we can have more exciting adventures because we are fearless.”
Another standout for the students in attendance was the activities that were provided over the weekend. One of the most engaging aspects was the worship music, which was provided by Engage Worship ministry from Southern Adventist University. In addition to leading attendees in musical praise, Engage Worship also presented a workshop for musicians on Sabbath afternoon. At the same time as this workshop took place, other students attended a workshop on social media and audio/visual skills. On Saturday evening, students rallied together for a 3-on-3 basketball tournament that had everyone cheering on the basketball players and basking in the energy of the weekend.
To sum up the weekend, student Sofia Espinosa, hit all the high points saying, “This weekend we had the Youth Rally – it’s where a bunch of young people come to worship and have fun and celebrate God.”
For the organizers that’s everything they wished for the students to take away from their months of planning and preparation – a weekend of fun for the students where they started or renewed their relationship with Jesus while making friends and learning how to be fearless in Christ.