T-shirt ministry begun
LONGVILLE - Longville's Salem Lutheran Church youth group - including students from Pine River-Backus, Walker and Northland high schools - has created a T-shirt ministry. The front of the shirt reads: "4:20 God's got your back!"
So what's the story on 4:20? Historically, April 20, or 4/20, has been a date used to invoke evil. It happens to be the birth date of Adolf Hitler. The Columbine school shootings of 12 students and one teacher took place on April 20, 1999. Four-twenty is also a term referring to the consumption of marijuana.
For the Salem Lutheran youth group , that was enough evidence to believe dark powers seem to revel in that day and time.
Besides thinking through these sobering but relevant issues, the youth group decided to wear T-shirts to pass on their faith by encouraging their peers to look to God.
Members of Longville's Salem Lutheran Church youth group posed in T-shirts they designed to spread the gospel to their peers. The shirts are for sale and the proceeds will benefit the youth group's summer mission trip.
Two girls thought the T-shirts should have 4/20 on it. They explained they looked up chapter 4, verse 20 in every book of the Bible. They found in God's 4:20, the power to debunk evil with good. They took something they didn't like in their world - school shootings, drug culture and bullying - and turned it into something positive.
While the negative message of 4:20 has spread, Salem's youths hope their message, too, will spread.
The back of the shirts feature twelve 4:20 verses from the Bible.
To purchase a T-shirt, call the church at 363-2011, or e-mail godsgotyourback@arvig.net. Proceeds from shirt sales go to the youth group's mission trip to Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.