Published: October 13, 2009 01:56 pm      

Faith much more with ‘Fields’ event

Faith will represent much more than a single word Wednesday when a group of Pauls Valley students joins students at area schools for a spiritual-based rally becoming a common sight in many parts of the country.

The big change for this year’s Fields of Faith event is a move from Pauls Valley to the football stadium in Wynnewood.

With the Fellowship of Christian Athletes at Wynnewood High School serving in the role of hosts, the gathering is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. Wednesday.

“We’re going to have it at the football field in Wynnewood,” said Kevin Foster, who serves as the FCA adviser at Pauls Valley High School.

Foster said a decision was made not to hold the event in Pauls Valley when it was learned about the one planned for Wynnewood.

“They wanted to have one,” he said about the event in Wynnewood. “I didn’t want to have one here and take away from the one there. We’re just going to combine it. “We’re probably going to take the bus down there and take however many kids that want to go.”

The event may be changing locations, but the focus is the same.

“We’ll have singing, scripture reading, things like that.”

“The previous three years we’ve had probably 300 to 400 kids,” Foster said about the Pauls Valley events, pointing out that students came from the surrounding area.

“Kids go to church camp in the summer and have a great time. This kind of rejuvenates them as far as being witnesses for Christ.”

Fields of Faith is a student-to-student event with peers inviting their own classmates and teammates to meet on a school athletic field to hear fellow students share their faith testimonies, challenge them to read the Bible and to come to faith in Jesus Christ.

It started in 2004 with 6,000 students participating on 23 fields in Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas. Last year those numbers ballooned to an estimated 100,000 students on 382 fields across the country.

The interdenominational outreach event is expected to be held this year at more than 400 locations.

Foster is also hoping to bring another spiritual-based event back to PV this spring. Two years ago the local FCA chapter hosted an event featuring athletes brought in to speak to students.

“This is an event meant to give them some positive role models led in a life of witnessing,” he said.

“We want to encourage our young people to do the same thing and be a positive influence on others.”