First there was smoke, now there’s FIRE! The fire is now burning at www.SendTheFire.ca (STF).

Billed as ‘24/7 Fuel For Life’, the site went live to the world on Monday, January 29, 2007.

SendTheFire.ca will be a hub for our younger generation that connects them in community, forms them spiritually and inspires them to action. Using the fire metaphor, these focuses become the three necessary elements needed for fire to exist - Fuel (community), Oxygen (formation) and Heat (action).

“Our dream,” states STF point-person Clint Houlbrook, “is to be a catalyst that sparks a wildfire across Canada of young people leading the way in society in terms of their passion for life and faith and making a difference in the lives of others locally & globally.”

Young people led the way in The Salvation Army in Canada at the beginning. Eighteen-year-old Jack Addie was the spark in London, Ontario, 18-year-old Nellie Ryerson was fuel in Belleville as assistant corps officer and 24-year-old Thomas Combs was our first territorial commander and gave leadership to 40 churches and 100 pastors! It’s time to unleash our younger generation again!

Connection
The beauty of using the internet with this initiative is that no matter where they live across our territory and beyond, young people can get connected, ask questions, be encouraged, supported and cheered on as they walk out their faith journey. Like it or not, online connection and community is a new reality in the year 2006. Online relationships will never replace face-to-face ones, but are a significant part of how young people interact and form community. Already in the first week we’ve had people connect from as far north as Yellowknife, from coast-to-coast across Canada and Bermuda and around the world in such places as the USA, UK, Mexico, Latvia, Spain, India, Australia, New Zealand …

Conversation
SendTheFire.ca engages youth in conversation. Setup like a blog, youth can freely interact and share their thoughts on everything from the latest music/movie releases to faith and spiritual formation ideas to social and human justice issues. With regular content appearing weekly and contests to participate in, there is much to keep youth engaged, thinking and talking.

Contribution
Whether it’s sharing a comment on the site or contributing articles, reviews and graphics that youth themselves have created, everyone has a stake in shaping and creating SendTheFire.ca. Our dream is to have the web community themselves be driving the content of the website. All youth have gifts, talents and passions and SendTheFire.ca is a place that we can share, celebrate and bless one another being who God created us to be.

Come give the site a spin. Don’t forget to tell your children/grandchildren, nieces/nephews and any other 13-25 year olds you know about www.sendthefire.ca. Pray for our youth and cheer them on!
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Clint Houlbrook
P# 250-558-3516
clint_houlbrook@can.salvationarmy.org

24/7 FUEL FOR LIFE
www.SendTheFire.ca