Undone

My name is Phil Cannon and I have been the youth pastor at First Covenant Church in Anchorage, Alaska since 2005. Our church (and our state actually) has a long tradition of literally going the distance and bringing our students to CHIC. As you can imagine however, there is only one way for us to get to these events and that is by airplane. If we were to drive, it would be about a one-week trip each way. In 2006, we paid about $551 per person to travel to CHIC. For CHIC 2009, our travel costs from Anchorage to Knoxville will be double that amount. Our plane tickets are going to be between $1000.00 and $1100.00 each in addition to our registration costs for CHIC. This means that each student from Alaska that goes to CHIC will be paying almost $1,600.00! And that’s just the cost from Anchorage. Every CHIC, we have about 30-50 students who travel from a village in a remote part of Alaska who are responsible to get themselves to Anchorage, which means an additional plane ticket for them that will cost about $500.00 more.

As you can see, we are obviously committed to this important ministry if we are willing to spend so much just to get there. Unfortunately though, there are just some students who simply cannot foot a bill that size and we are no longer able to get the scholarships we once got for most of our students. In the past, most of our students received individual scholarships for CHIC to help them get there, but this year each registering church in the Covenant gets one full scholarship to use however they wish. Some churches will use it to help get one student or staff person to CHIC (or split it among a few) and others will donate theirs to another church in need. If you are considering donating your scholarship, please consider an Alaskan church. This could be a really cool way for your youth group to give and there are actually a number of ways you could take it even further. If you would like to donate your scholarship to a particular church, that would be great. If you would simply like to donate to whatever church has the most need, we can make sure that it gets to someone in need as well. But if you want to go the next step, consider partnering with an Alaskan church and helping them with more than just your scholarship. Most Covenant churches do fund-raising to help pay for CHIC – maybe your group could choose a church and tithe from your fundraising proceeds to that church to assist in their fund-raising. Or perhaps you want to hold one special fund-raising event from which all your proceeds go to assist an Alaskan church. There is any number of ways that this sort of thing can work and frankly, it’d be a lot of fun to establish connections between churches from so far away and then be able to connect face to face when we go to CHIC together.

For more information on how to set up a connection for your group, contact me at phil.cannon@chic2009.org.

When I reflect on the time I had at CHIC a few things immediately come to mind. Throughout the week I formed closer friendships with members of Trinity Covenant’s youth group, a different perspective on worship, and most importantly a personal relationship with Jesus.

Before CHIC I was familiar with everyone in the youth group. I have been on a few retreats now and participated in various activities in the church with them which have allowed me to become friends with most of the members. However, this week for many reasons brought me much closer to many people. The experiences we shared and the 6000 strangers all around on the large campus made the group come together. This resulted in me getting to know everyone a lot better.

CHIC ‘06 encouraged diversity and that caused us to experience different types of worship. I learned Punk Rock and Rap can both be forms of worship. Honestly I had heard things like this before, but seeing a live performance and the passion of the performers reinforced the idea in my head that just about any kind of singing and dancing can be done for the Lord. As I returned to Trinity Covenant Church I was reminded our church prefers to retain traditional methods, which is not a bad thing, however the experience at CHIC was a nice refreshing worship experience.

I have heard the term “a personal relationship with Jesus” thousands of times in my life. So many times that whenever I heard the phrase it was just blurred together. Arriving at CHIC this phrase was repeated many times within the first hour of arrival at worship. It took me a few days of hearing it until I finally stopped and thought about what they were really saying. It took me back to a much simpler time when I was first learning about Jesus. Separating the words of the phrase and remembering what my first experience with Jesus was like brought me to understand again what a personal relationship with Jesus is. This time however, I felt I was more mature and I understand that relationships involve a certain amount of “give and take” and communication is a very important component in any relationship. CHIC was exactly what I needed to take another step in my walk with Christ.

Reflecting on CHIC reminded me that it was an awesome experience and one that I will remember for the rest of my life.

–Erik

Help make more stories like Erik’s possible by donating to the CHIC Legacy Fund through The Covenant Bookstore.

CHIC was an amazing experience. Everything about it was fun: the small groups in the morning, then focus sessions, chilling in the pool, winning the hula hoop contest at the luau, the main stage bands and speakers were all amazing. One of my favorite parts though was most definitely going to main stage. The first time I walked into that arena I was just awe struck by all the people. I knew CHIC was big and everyone told me about how amazing it was but their words were not enough to express that feeling you feel when you walk into the arena. Even though I had heard so much about how big and amazing it was I was still awe struck at its enormity. I loved being there with so many kids my age who go through the same struggles I go through and knowing that many of them were Christians just like me. It’s good to know that there are people out there my age who do believe strongly in their faith because at school there seems to be so few.

–Lisa

Help make more stories like Lisa’s possible by donating to the CHIC Legacy Fund through The Covenant Bookstore.

CHIC. Whenever people mention it, I am overwhelmed with so many feelings and memories. I went as a student to CHIC in 1997. I got on the plane, headed out to Colorado, and when I came back I wasn’t the same. I know each student interacts with the experience differently and takes something unique from it. I point to CHIC as one of the touchstones in my walk with Jesus – so it was very exciting for me to be on staff, ‘on the other side,’ and take a group of kids into this experience. It was really neat for me to watch everything: new friendships form within the youth group, students ROCKING OUT during worship, listening to how speakers were challenging them. I loved watching it all happen. But, equally exciting for me, was to be invited into it all. Being allowed to be a part of the new friendships, freely worshipping with the students, being challenged myself by the speakers’ words…this was really special for me. I didn’t feel like an outside observer – I felt like a participant. How I LOVED hanging out with our group! Hanging out in the pool every day yelling “belly flooooooop!,” laughing at myself when I got so tired at the end of every day and just enjoying our time together. CHIC continues to shape my life in significant ways. Thanks to everyone at Trinity for all of your willing support – we were blessed by the experience!

–Christy

Help make more stories like Christy’s possible by donating to the CHIC Legacy Fund through The Covenant Bookstore.

Having been at CHIC in 1964, 68, 72, and 76 it was great to be back in 2003 and 2006 with grand children present. We sat at lunch one day having a great time with some kids and a photographer came by and said, “Can I take your picture? I guess I should tell you why I want it—because you are old!” My wife and I both had a good laugh and thoroughly enjoyed the conversations as well as the week. Wonderfully uplifting. At the close of the week we went out past the stage and very big policeman, with Bible in hand said, “This has been the greatest week I have ever had in this job!” He and others sat in the exit areas and followed along in the scriptures as the speakers gave their messages. The kids were wonderful! Ever see 6000 kids getting out of a long meeting and not jay walking? Nobody did and it was unbelievable.

Lloyd and Anne Ahlem

Help make more stories like this possible by donating to the CHIC Legacy Fund through The Covenant Bookstore.