Spanning across the entire North American continent, students of all ages bundled up in their fleece hats and fuzzy blankets on the second Wednesday of the month, October twelfth.  Frozen metal stands overlooking the Cannon Falls John Burch Park football field became flooded with students at approximately 7 o’clock pm; nevertheless, it wasn’t even to watch a good ol’ football game. Another ‘game’ that was in play that night is called Fields of Faith, a time in which students challenge others to seek God and to study the bible. Fields of Faith began in 2002, when Oklahoma FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes) Area Director, Jeff Martin, prayed about how to resolve his frustration towards the temptations of the youth. God led Martin to King Josiah’s challenge, an influential teenager who gathered his people and challenged them to read God’s word in biblical times. Some highlights from the event include: the overall message to follow the word of God, how involved the crowd was, and the touching life story from the guest speaker.

Ben Villarreal, Carlton Lindow, Dan Trost, Payton Cooper, Erlyn Strelow, Hannah Delk, James Watson, and Sophie Epps stood before a crowd of more than 100 students under the luminous stadium lights, and it wasn’t just because they wanted to freeze their hands off. All eight of these Cannon Falls FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes) leaders chose to stand out in 43°F weather because they wanted to encourage others to follow the word of God. In other terms, “Fields of Faith is a student led event. Students invite, pray for, share with, and challenge their peers to read the bible and follow Jesus Christ. An athletic field provides a neutral, rally point where a community can come together,” as described by the Fields of Faith website. To explain in further depth why people should do everything in the name of Christ, FCA leader Dan Trost read the Competitor’s Creed. Afterwards, the bible verse Joshua 1:9 which is also this year’s FCA theme, was read and interpreted by Sophie Epps. Not only did several uplifting songs make the crowd feel obligated to join in, but a friendly game of Rock-Paper-Scissors-Cheer got everyone pumped up. Erlyn Strelow, an FCA leader observed, “I was surprised by how many people came to Fields of Faith. It took a little while to ease up and get comfortable in front of that big of a crowd but eventually everyone started to have fun!”

List of Songs sung at Fields of Faith for anyone interested in looking them up:

• My Lighthouse by Rend Collective
• Eye of the Storm by Ryan Stevenson
• Guilty by Newsboys
• Taste and See by Peder Eide
• We Believe by Newsboys