Seeing thousands of college students gathered together could lead one to wonder if it’s for a sports event, or perhaps a concert. However, over 65,000 college students had lit the fire within their hearts at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, not for selfish reasons or entertainment, but to raise money for a Bible translation project.
The three-day campaign called “Shine the Light” was organized by Passion, and welcomed the new year with 8 speakers and 12 Christian bands, speaking the same message: That it is only God’s Word that fills and satisfies us. The event wrapped up on the morning of Jan 2nd.
This is one of the largest Christian events for a cause that gathers students, ages from 18 to 25 years old, from all 50 states, 80 countries, and 1,680 schools. As a result, the successful event had raised $1.2 million, exceeding their goal by $200,000.
Passion Conference’s mission is for every person in the world to have Bible translated in their own language. That is about 6,000 known languages of this generation’s lifetime.
“How do you know that Jesus rose from the grave? How do you know the truth?” Passion founder and host, Louie Giglio, asked students.
“You know because you hold a miracle in your hands,” he said. “It’s called the Word of God. That’s how you know.”
As of today, only about a third of the world has access to the Bible that they can read in their own language. With the gathering of millennials’ and Generation Z’s hearts to bring many to the knowledge of Jesus, we have the hope that every single person will have the opportunity to draw closer to God with a Bible in their hands.