This year's Peace it Together youth conference brings it all back to the centre of our faith. What does Jesus' story tell us about peacemaking? Over the course of the next three days, our speakers will be asking what topics like food, politics, and power have to do with how Jesus lived.
We are hosting nearly a hundred youth from across Canada right here on campus for the weekend. I say "we" because CMU students help in crucial ways. Some of us help with the creation of the schedules, we help present PIT small group sessions, we run events, and we host students in our dorm rooms. We are intensely involved.
Our guests started arriving at 3 pm. Many of them are related or friends with current students, giving the afternoon the feeling of a family reunion. Care packages from home were brought by younger siblings. The noise was loud at times as our guests arrived full of energy after travelling for hours. We welcomed PIT students with music (and dancing!)
Nothing welcomes students like a PIT version of "I need a Hero". Nothing.
After supper everyone went to Chapel for our first session. The PIT series concerns the three temptations Jesus endured after he fasted for 40 days in the desert. The first was for Jesus to turn stones into loaves of bread. The second was for Jesus to jump off the temple and let his angels save him. And in the third temptation, Satan offered Jesus control over all the nations of the world if Jesus would worship him.
The room was packed, and as we sang with the worship band it was incredibly loud. Kenton Lobe, a current CMU professor, spoke on food issues. Today, he said, we have almost a billion people in the world who experience hunger every day, and another billion people who struggle with chronic obesity. We watched a video of struggle set to frantic piano music that symbolized many of our busy, frantic lives. Why do we feel such a need to be busy all the time? And finally, is there a connection between our busy lives and the way we eat our food? Do we need to pay more heed to Jesus' response to this temptation, that people need the word of God as well as bread?
In the evening, PIT students went on the walk-a-mile to meet each other, and then chilled out around campus until late into the night. But not too late. Tomorrow is going to be very busy!
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