YOUTH RALLY DRAWS CHEERS

More than 1,000 people cheered for God at a Christian youth rally Saturday afternoon in Cape Girardeau.

Many of the participants at "The Joshua Generation: Taking America Back" rally were of high-school age and younger.

They came to the Holiday Inn Convention Center from Missouri, Kentucky, Illinois and Indiana.

They stood and clapped to Christian music performed by singer Kristin Swinford and a band from the Faith Evangelical Free Church in Cape Girardeau.

A standing ovation greeted eight students who are members of a Heath High School prayer group in Paducah, Ky.

Three members of the prayer group were gunned down last December by a 14-year-old student as the group prayed in the high school lobby.

"He has given me a passion for lost souls," said 16-year-old Shellie Adams. "God has just relit a passion in my life to go out and win the world for him."

Fellow student Ben Strong leads the prayer group. He grabbed the teen-age shooter after the shots were fired.

"Our relationship with God is so real," Strong told participants at Saturday's rally.

Amelia Galloway said one of her best friends died in the Dec. 1 shooting. "But she is going to heaven,' Galloway said.

She told those in attendance at the rally that they should form prayer groups in their schools.

Since the shooting, the Heath High School prayer group has grown from about 35 members to about 200.

Teresa LeGrand, who has been active in the anti-abortion movement locally, organized the youth rally.

LeGrand said she decided to organize the rally in conjunction with Saturday night's concert by Christian singer Rebecca St. James.

Area churches encouraged the venture, she said.

Christian motivational speaker Penny Lea told students it is time for Christian youth to take control of America.

She said God offers the nation's youth a path away from drugs, alcohol, suicide and teen-age sex.

"I'm sick of God being muzzled in this country," Lea said.

Lea likened today's Christian students to the Bible's Joshua. She referred to today's students as "The Joshua Generation."

Lea said students today must do more than talk about Jesus. "Christianity is not a club, kids," she said.

"Without God, we are spineless jellyfish," she said.

Lea urged the students to abstain from sex until they are married. "You can be a card-carrying virgin," she said.

Kevin Peeler, 14, of East Cape Girardeau, Ill., attended the rally with others in his Lynwood Baptist Church group.

Peeler said he enjoyed the rally and learned something too.

"It teaches younger kids not to get into trouble," he said.