NEW MADRID, Mo. — Several students from various local schools and churches gathered Thursday, April 11 in the New Madrid County Central High School gym for the school’s first-ever Fields of Faith event.
Campbell, Portageville, Gideon, Malden, Risco, Matthews, Sikeston, Lilbourn, Marston, Howardville, Cape Girardeau and New Madrid schools came together for the evening event.
According to Gloria Houston, FCA sponsor for NMCC, 13 churches from the district came together to help with the event.
Tailgating took place in the high school gym from 5 p.m. to 6:15 p.m., and local churches provided barbecue, hot dogs, hamburgers, chips, desserts, drinks, candy bags, prayer cards, family activities and much more in the football field parking lot.
The event began at 6:30 p.m. with praise and worship, testimonies, a Q&A with teenagers, Thomas Naes’ poetry on God’s word and a message from Donnie Ray Brown.
Logan and Courtney Frazier, husband and wife, shared their stories of how God brought them through difficult times, emphasizing God’s love, saving grace and faithfulness.
Courtney Frazier began sharing her testimony and journey toward a saving relationship with Christ.
She told her story about being adopted and how she struggled with it throughout her childhood.
“It created a lot of behavioral issues in me,” Frazier said. “I tried to find my identity for a long time in things that weren’t glorifying to the Lord.”
She said she did well in school and was a cheerleader. At the age of 14, she was introduced to drugs, and her life began to change.
“I started seeking out relationships that were toxic and craving relationships that I didn’t need to have,” she said.
Frazier said she knew what was right and wrong, but she lacked the desire to do what was right.
She went on to explain how she dropped out of high school at the age of 17 and continued down a path of destruction until she felt the Lord pull on her heart to change.
“I was brought to the point eventually where I did the only thing I knew to do,” she said. “I prayed to God and said, ‘God just remove me from these situations and these people and I won’t ever turn back.’
She continued: “I had said this before but this time I meant it.”
Frazier said she went to a faith-based recovery house in Arkansas, and her life began to transform.
“The Lord can do wonderful things,” she said.
Frazier shared a Bible verse that she connected to her story of how the Lord gave her a new heart and new desires for his glory.
“Ezekiel 36:26 says, ‘I will give you a new heart, I will put a new spirit in you. I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh,” she said. “And that’s exactly what he did.”
Frazier said she fully surrendered her life to God and hasn’t looked back. She thanked God for blessing her with her husband and said had always prayed for God to send her a good man.
Her husband also gave his testimony.
“Growing up, my childhood years were a little rough,” Logan Frazier said.
He explained that he didn’t have the best relationship with his father, which caused a lot of problems at home.
Frazier said this caused him to have many issues as a child, including insecurities and doubts.
By high school, he began to discover his identity through sports and academics.
“I was able to find a little bit of peace in sports,” Frazier said. “But the things of the world are just temporary and can only fulfill you so much.”
Frazier said he began to drink, smoke and do anything that made him feel better about himself.
“At first it was just something I did temporarily, but then I started to do so often because it temporarily made me feel good,” Frazier said. “It became a habit, an addiction.”
Logan then graduated high school and received a small scholarship to the University of Missouri-Columbia. He said his dream had always been to attend Mizzou and become a nurse.
Frazier became depressed and struggled in college, so he transferred to Missouri State University in Springfield, Missouri, and joined a fraternity.
While at MSU, he eventually fell back into a deep depression, so he decided to return home, where things continued to deteriorate due to the lack of positive influences around him.
Frazier described fast-forwarding to July 20, 2017, when everything for him changed.
“That was the day I was sick and tired of being sick and tired and I cried out to God and I gave him everything,” Frazier said. “And since then, my life has been blessed. He gave me a purpose and took away my insecurities and shame.”
Frazier went on to explain that he met and married his wife in 2018, and he thanked God for providing him the opportunity to return to nursing school a couple years ago, and now he is a registered nurse in the intensive care unit.
The husband and wife both encouraged the youth to be examples for Christ rather than following the ways of the world.
Brown, a Fellowship of Christian Athletes alum at NMCC, also offered a message encouraging everyone to “get out of the boat” and fully follow Jesus, influencing those around them.
Brown began by asking everyone what their calling is and discussing the Apostle Peter from the Bible.
“The Apostle Peter, an individual in the Bible who had a calling,” Brown said. “One of Jesus’s closes follower and friend.”
Brown talked about the first time Peter was mentioned in the Bible as a fisherman, when he met Jesus.
Brown then began to read Matthew 4:18-22 and how Jesus told Peter, Simon, and Andrew to follow him and that he would make them fishers of men.
“Immediately, they left their nets and followed him,” Brown read in verse 20. “Jesus tells them to follow me and I will make you fishers of men, and the men respond by dropping everything.”
Brown went on to explain that the men understood they needed to follow Jesus.
“For us, today we usually want to know all the details when we are asked to do something,” Brown said. “We want to know how long its going to take, who’s all going, what are we going to do, or what’s in it for me,” Brown said. “We ask all these questions before we respond yes, but not these men in the Bible.”
Brown then encouraged the crowd to be willing and to fully commit to following Jesus.
“God doesn’t command us to know absolutely everything, or know all the scriptures,” Brown said. “But we have the same command that Jesus gave those men, to follow him and he will make us fishers of men and for us to commit to being fishers of men.”
Brown advised everyone to seek God’s will in whatever God is calling them to do, and he encouraged everyone to get out of the boat like Peter and follow Jesus.
The night concluded with worship and students meeting with local pastors who wanted to commit their lives to Christ.
Houston expressed gratitude to the school for the opportunity to host a Fields of Faith event.
“Watching teens make a decision to follow Jesus and no longer have to carry a heavy load alone was so powerful,” Houston said. “I know their stories and their pain. When I see them step out in faith and be so vulnerable, it impacts and strengthens my faith as well.”
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