Whitefield Academy students are always doing things that surprise me. Whether it’s an entire class finding old photos of their teacher and dressing up as each photo for Spirit Week or students leaving encouraging notes in the teacher workroom, Whitefield students go above and beyond in all areas of their lives.

So I really shouldn’t have been surprised when I saw that three of our upper school girls helped to put on a How to Life event this past weekend outside at Leawood Presbyterian Church’s parking lot.

How to Life is a global student-led ministry where high schoolers reach out to their peers and share the gospel. Our students, Maddie, Olivia, and Mary Grace, worked together with students from 15 other area schools to create the event complete with student-led worship, games, a panel discussion, testimonies, and a gospel presentation. 

The goal of the event was to reach teens who aren’t Christian so that they can hear the gospel and then get them plugged in to a church afterward. The girls were pleased to see over 120 kids show up to the event, kids from all different schools and backgrounds, many who weren’t believers. 

When I talked to the girls and asked them what they loved about the event, Mary Grace said that she loved the prep work for it. She thought it was really neat to be in a community of believers who weren’t necessarily all from your school or your church. Maddie loved the idea of empowering kids to reach their peers rather than relying on adults to do it. Olivia loved being able to take the hard questions people were asking and encouraging them to go deeper. She saw that she was turning kids to Scripture for answers when maybe they hadn’t been challenged to think that way about their questions before.

The girls were all pleased with how the event went and mentioned they were grateful for the help of some other Whitefield students, Aaron, Quin, and Kevin, who helped with running the event the evening of.

Of course pulling off a large event like this is a triumph in and of itself, but as a parent of younger kids at Whitefield, I look at these upper schoolers and think, “Yes.” This is what I want my kids to strive for. Courage in sharing the Gospel. Strength to pursue hard questions. Encouragement for others. Glorifying God in the in-between moments. Great job, ladies.

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