V20 Conference

V20 was held in Ngaruwahia, New Zealand.  Good luck pronouncing that name.  Or any name of any place in New Zealand for that matter.  I learned that a very small percentage of the population in New Zealand speaks Maori (the native language and people group of New Zealand) yet almost every place is named in some Maori word.

Anyway, New Zealand was a lot of fun.  We took 28 students and staff from Fiji to this conference.  Over 40 nations were represented there.  We listened to great speakers, great music and were challenged to make commitments and fulfill them by the year 2020.

Sleeping Arrangements in the Camper Van

Proud to be American on the 4th of July

Day of Outreach on Facebook!

As with any conference that Campus Crusade for Christ puts on, we held a day of outreach in which we got out to share our faith.  A lot of the students at the conference didn't speak English as their first language, so they created a Facebook outreach.  I was skeptical at first but I was blown away by the results.  Students simply posted a short anime video on the last day of Jesus life on their friends wall.  Then left a message that essentially said watch and let me know what you think.  There were hundreds of Facebook chat conversations going on in a matter of minutes.  All discussing the gospel after watching this short video.  All in all, over 10,000 people watched this video in just a couple hours.  It was incredible to see our students share their faith through a totally different medium.  Never underestimate the power of Facebook!

Chip

Another great aspect of the conference was getting to see our friend Chip.  Chip is on staff in New Zealand.  We met him in Fiji six months ago when we took classes together for staff training.  He and his wife were on the conference leadership team.  It was great to see him and we'll see him again soon because he's leading a team of Kiwi students to Fiji in August.

We had a great time in New Zealand.  We got to explore the beautiful sights of New Zealand after the conference.  Post-conference pictures are soon to come.