The local Fellowship of Christian Athletes chapter will hold a rally at the Mancos High School stadium Oct. 12 at 6:30 p.m. as part of a national Field of Faiths event.
Students from Mancos, Dolores and Cortez will join thousands of other youths on athletic fields across the nation in the interdenominational outreach event, said Dolores FCA ambassador Brook Elder.
FCA provides a free dinner for all who attend. Worship music is by Todd Erlandson, and athlete Shelly Small is the guest speaker.
Small is the former volleyball coach from Colorado College and shares her experiences with the Christian faith and her lifetime of sports involvement. She was a four-year starter in volleyball at Baylor University, was named Rookie of the Year and served as the USA Volleyball Head of Coaching Education.
While most Christian events are held by adult speakers or sponsors, FCA’s Fields of Faith is a student-to-student ministry, which means that the students themselves meet and organize the whole event, Elder said.
Peers invite their own classmates and teammates to meet on their school’s athletic field to hear fellow students share their testimonies and discuss the Bible.
“This is a powerful annual event that has changed many lives for the better,” Elder said in a news release. “In fact, this has become one of the most significant faith-related gathering of students in a single day.”
Fields of Faith began with an idea from Jeff Martin, FCA’s executive director of Campus Sport Ministry, who longed to help today’s generation of students face spiritual battles and temptations.
He realized the answer lay in the students themselves, that they had the power to lead the way for their peers as well as their communities.
“What started out as a thought and a prayer has turned into a huge national event,” Martin states in the news release. “It’s amazing that Fields of Faith has grown to welcome nearly a quarter of a million people to athletic fields where they can pray and worship together.”
This will be the sixth Fields of Faith event for schools in the Mancos, Dolores and Cortez area, Elder said.
About 200 students and supporters attended at the Montezuma County Fairgrounds the last two years and three previous years at Dolores High School.
The event is hosted by FCA groups from Mancos Middle School, Mancos High School, Dolores Middle School, Dolores High School, Cortez Middle School, and Cortez High School FCA.
More information about the 2022 Fields of Faith event is available at FieldsofFaith.com. To learn more about the event in Mancos, contact Brooke Elder at Belder@fca.org.
