January 12, 2000

Hawaiian teens hurdle
Y2K to hula in Houston
___By Dan Martin
___Texas Baptist Communications
___HOUSTON--The high costs of travel, fears of calamity, anxiety about terrorism and predictions of "doom and gloom" at the turn of the 21st century did not deter 64 residents of Hawaii from participating in YouthLink 2000 in Houston.

YOUTH FROM HAWAII perform in Houston. (BP photo by Denise McGill)

___Twenty-six of the Hawaiians performed a hula at the opening session, which was linked from Houston via satellite to six other sites around the nation.?
___Another eight students--the Hawaiian surf band called Jah Ska--performed later on one of the secondary stages.
___Andrew Large, minister to students at Miliani Baptist Church in Miliani, a suburb of Honolulu, was the driving force behind bringing the Hawaiians to the event.
___"I first heard about YouthLink in 1992 when I was a youth minister in Jacksonville, Fla.," Large said. "I knew from the first time I heard about it that I would be a part of YouthLink somehow."
___About five years ago, Large relocated to Hawaii as youth pastor at the 500-member multicultural congregation. His commitment was renewed when leaders of the celebration came to Hawaii to make presentations.
___Large, who served on the Houston committee on local arrangements, began to lay the

Youth ring in new era loudly, lovingly 6,000 youth hit the streets of Houston to witness,minister Shape up spiritually to shape the world, teens told Be cool, but share a simple witness, teens taught Wedgwood teens testify in Tampa to feeling God's care

groundwork to bring the Hawaiian students to YouthLink.
___"We had a dinner where we presented the information we had. Then we had an event at the state convention," he explained.
___About a year and a half ago, predictions of "doom and gloom" about the calamities waiting when the clock ticked past 11:59 p.m. Dec. 31, 1999, began to rumble.
___"Some of our pastors were preaching 'doom and gloom,' and I decided to do my homework. I read the books they were reading and went on the Internet to find out about Y2K. Then I talked to a member of my church who is a pilot who has been flying for 20 years. He had made a commitment to send his own son to YouthLink.
___"I thought he would not be willing to send his son if he thought anything was going to happen. I got him to write a letter to the pastors of the Hawaii Baptist Convention."
___Students and adults from six of the 70 churches of the HBC participated. Large and members of five of the churches attended the Houston event, and one other church decided to go to Anaheim.
___The fact the Hawaii group got to come to Houston and was invited to appear on the main stage at the opening event has been "a God thing all the way through," Large said. That is especially true of the opportunity for the hula dancers to perform for all of the participants at all of the sites via satellite link at the opening main session.
___"We were asked to perform, but we did not know it would be broadcast live via satellite to all of the other sites," he said.
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