Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Are you familiar with the Great Banquet?

The Awakening is simply the teenager’s version of this event.
The Awakening is an event in which students are introduced to who Jesus is, how God loves us, and how we can trust that the Holy Spirit will help us in our daily lives.  The best place to go to get more information would be: http://www.hcgb.net/awakening/ .  There you can find a more detailed explanation of the event, forms, etc.  

The Awakening is open to all denominations and is open to teens age 15-19 who have completed their freshman year through their senior year of high school. I don’t believe that there is technically a deadline for registration, but the sooner the better.  The boys weekend is July 22-24 and the girls weekend is July 29-31. To be held at Cicero Christian Church.  I think we only stop taking registrations within a few days of the weekends themselves.  I don’t have any idea how many sleepers we have signed up right now, but don’t let that discourage you from inviting anyone to attend.  The information for where to send the registrations is located on the registration form itself.  There is no charge for the event itself.  We do; however, ask for $10 registration fee. 

There is an itinerary for the weekend and we follow the same schedule every time we do the event.  Everything is time tested and consistent.  The weekend starts at 11:00am Friday and ends sometime around 5:00pm on Sunday afternoon.  There is an emergency contact person for the weekends, but I don’t know who that is right now.  It may be the same person each weekend, but I’m not sure.  Parents can certainly get a hold of their kids if there is an emergency.

As far as what to bring: air mattresses are provided for each student.  They should bring whatever bedding items that they would need as well as toiletry items, etc.  They should NOT bring cell phones, electronics, etc.  The idea is to completely separate themselves from their current environment to focus on their relationship with Christ.  If they absolutely have to have cell phones we will simply ask that they leave them in their bags. 

Each student that plans to attend will need someone to “sponsor” them.  The sponsor needs to be someone who has attended a Great Banquet, Walk to Emmaus, Awakening, etc.  If they do not have someone to sponsor them we can certainly find someone in the community to do this. 

2 comments:

Bob said...

Our son Chris went to the adult version of this and was sponsored by his boss. He said it was life changing for him and he has never forgot the experience. It's a great thing from all I hear about it! It's awesome they have this for teens.

Kelly Haemmerle said...

oh yes, I am very excited about this opportunity for our teens and so close to home!