Et cetera : Fields of Faith: VS students join many from other schools for prayer, sharing of faith at Union

Several girls from Vinton-Shellsburg try to untangle a human knot at the beginning of the Fields of Faith event in La Porte City, Wednesday. A group of VS guys listens to the speaker during Fields of Faith. Several high school students from a variety of area schools shared testimonies of their journeys of faith at the annual Fields of Faith event at the Union High School football field in La Porte City. The local event is part of the national Fields of Faith movement, a project of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Union student Grace Walker shared her goal of being a missionary, and told about her trip to Haiti last summer. She also spoke about how her faith has helped her through difficult times including her brother's stroke at age 25. Other students spoke about overcoming the challenges of abuse, the challenge of being born to parents in jail, as well as the challenges that athletes face. Adult speaker Mike DeJong told the audience how that despite being raised by parents who had sent him to a Christian school in western Iowa, he eventually chose a life that included smoking, alcohol and drugs. He shared his story of how faith helped him to replace those choices with more positive ones. Union has had an FCA huddle for the past several years. A few students and staff at Vinton-Shellsburg are working to organize one at VS. Participants included several students and a few adults. Student Lauren Harrigan of Union sang a few songs as the students gathered near midfield. Along with Grace Walker, UHS student Carlie Hoppe also spoke, sharing the story of how losing everything in a fire recently affected her faith, and how she overcame the challenges of recovering from the fire, and the depression that followed it. Several Center Point-Urbana students, along with many from Linn-Mar and North Tama's BASIC group, also spoke. NT BASIC leader Craig Greiner served as MC. See some videos of the speakers at the Union FCA Huddle Facebook page HERE. See more photos HERE.