Resonate Youth Conference a summer youth camp was held July 8th-12th in Des Moines. Attendance at Resonate 2019 more than doubled from last year with 74 students and leaders. There were 7 churches represented from cities around the state and from as far away as Mason City, Sheffield, and Leon.
Both of the guest speakers used Psalm 51 to teach students that God uses broken people to accomplish His purposes.
The evening speaker was Tom Coverly, (https://www.tomcoverly.com/) a national speaker, comedian, and illusionist. Cole Deike, lead pastor at Frontier Church in Des Moines was the morning Bible teacher. Worship was lead by Travis Tjemeland and a worship team from Redeemer Church in Cedar Falls.
In addition to biblical teaching, there were daily “training labs” lead by Winterset youth pastor Jay Safford and youth leader Emily Tucker. In these labs, students learned practical ways to share their faith.
Each afternoon, they were able to put this training into practice at a service and evangelism project. Resonate partnered with Friendship Center near downtown Des Moines to promote and host a Block Party. The students canvased the surrounding neighborhoods passed out flyers, prayed with people they met and shared the gospel whenever they had an opportunity.
At the end of the week, the students lead at the Block Party, running games, manning inflatables, serving food, and demonstrating the love of Christ to everyone that came. The event was a huge success with almost 300 people from the community coming out to visit the Friendship Center and enjoy the party. It was an excellent hands-on experience with evangelism and service intended to develop habits of ministry that will resonate for a lifetime.
