The Passion of How to Life

By Stephen Branum

On November 1 and 2, something amazing happened. With prayer for months beforehand and many hands at hard work, the event was finally starting to take shape. The details were flowing in, people were volunteering, and God was at work. I was personally getting myself ready to worship for God’s glory and really focusing on thanking God for the opportunity He had given me to lead worship. 

How to Life (HTL) was an event put on by Gen Z, for Gen Z to hear about the Gospel and experience Christ. It was from 7-9 in the evening at PIC or Penang International Church. There was a time of worship, testimonies, a question panel, a gospel presentation, and a reflection time. One of the main prayer points we repeated was the ability to plant seeds and to be servants for God’s will in this event. This led us to really try to emphasize a reflection time as we set up a prayer corner and a question corner and just made ourselves available however that looked. 

With many leaders, such as Ian Dobson (12), Nathan Johnson (12), and Aiden Boyd (11), a lot of preparation was able to take place. We had all split into several groups to tackle different parts of the event, such as worship, hospitality, prayer, speaking, and testimonies. I was on the worship team, and Sabrina Boyd (12) and I prepared to lead the worship on the first night. We had a couple of practices leading up to the event, and on the day of, we arrived at PIC at 2. If we weren’t doing anything, we were praying. We put so much time, energy, effort, prayer, and trust in God into this event, and it paid off. 

A good number of Dalat students showed up, and I met some people I had never met before. I had one particular great experience and time with a guy and was able to pray over him and give him encouragement. 

Dobson said, “My favorite part was the panel because people were able to get genuine answers to questions lots of Christians and non-Christians have.” 

Many people resonated with the panel as some of the questions were genuinely hard and made the speakers think deeply and apply their knowledge to answer. Some of the questions included, do people who never hear about Jesus go to hell, thoughts on LGBTQ, and if the Bible was reliable and trustworthy, provoking profound explanations and answers especially from Sam, who works for HTL. 

Overall, the event was a great success and it resonated really well with the students in attendance through worship, a panel, testimonies, gospel presentations, and a well-structured reflection time. God moved that weekend!