Every Friday morning at Hardee Junior High School in Wauchula, Fla., more than 750 students can be found crammed into the auditorium for an FCA Huddle meeting. In a little more than half an hour, school will begin for the day. But for now, in the junior high auditorium amid the backpacks, textbooks and hundreds of sixth, seventh and eighth graders, praise music blares, and the message of Christ's redeeming love is preached.
Almost 200 students have given their lives to Christ during the morning meetings.
"We are seeing lives change," said Clint Hendry, current pastor of Celebration Church's Hardee County Campus. "Kids that the teachers had trouble with discipline-wise the previous year are no problem this year. The discipline referrals have gone down tremendously. Teachers can't believe the change in their students."