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Nazarene Youth International

10,000 CHRISTIAN YOUTH GATHER TO FEED, BUILD AND RESTORE
Nazarene High School Students Seek to Serve City of St. Louis

More than 9,600 high school students and youth workers from Canada and the United States will gather in St. Louis July 10-15 for Nazarene Youth Conference (NYC) 2007, a quadrennial gathering for North American young people, hosted by the Church of the Nazarene. It’s a week filled with world-class speakers, modern recording artists, dynamic worship sessions, workshops on living the Christian life and exhibits that will expose students to parts of their world they may not have considered before.

But it’s not all about the youth. It’s about St. Louis, too—and these young people are coming prepared to give to the city in several significant ways.

The Feeding of the 5,000 is a project that will collect, organize and distribute food to the hungry in St. Louis – enough to feed 5,000 families of four for a week. NYC participants have been invited to bring 50 lbs of food with them to the city, and will donate the supplies as part of an emphasis on urban hunger and need at the start of the conference. Throughout the week, students who have volunteered will box the food, which will be donated on Saturday, July 14 to St. Louis-area families through Operation Food Search, a food bank that works with more than 100 other food banks throughout St. Louis.

The Renovation of St. Louis’ Public Schools enables 1,200 young people to spend their afternoons at NYC serving the city in more than 24 St. Louis public schools. Students who have volunteered for this project will paint, move furniture, strip floors, lay carpet, etc.––tasks that are saving the school system $150,000 in labor and giving local schools a much-needed facelift before the 2007-08 academic year begins. NYC students will also be working with community services to paint a few homes in the neighborhoods where it’s needed.

Habitat for Humanity is closing all its other local projects during NYC so that students who have volunteered for this track will be able to build two houses in just three days.

These are just three of NYC’s “tracks”: each participant has chosen a focus for their afternoons, a range of workshops on using specific interests (athletics, art, social justice, drama, writing, ecology) to benefit the world. Each day, they’ll also take part in general sessions packed with worship music, speakers, drama and contemporary recording artists.

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For more information on NYC 2007, or to schedule interviews and photo opportunities, contact Simone Finney at 314.267.4857 or e-mail her at simone.finney@gmail.com.

last updated: 07.10.07 WaterFireWind@nazarene.org © 2007