MINNEAPOLIS, MN (April 5, 2012) – Some 250 teenagers and youth workers from throughout the Northwest Conference who participated in M.O.V.E. 2012 this past weekend engaged in activities designed to give them a better understanding of how Christians can make a difference by being different.

The conference, which is held annually, was hosted Friday and Saturday at First Covenant Church in Minneapolis. The conference involves teaching, worship, service, and experiential learning. This year’s theme was “TRU: Faith. Justice. Love.”

“There should be something about us as Christians that makes us different,” Chris Brooks, vice president of GoodCities, told the young people during one of the worship services. “Do you have a passion for the lost? Do you have a passion for those people you come into contact with every single day?”

Brooks asked students to consider their responsibility to others and to think about who comprise the orphans and widows of today.

On Saturday morning, youth groups fanned out to 17 agencies and ministry sites across the Twin Cities for three hours of service. Among the activities were playing with children at a homeless shelter, doing lawn care, and restocking supplies at thrift centers and distribution centers.

On Saturday afternoon, participants embarked on a light rail tour of Minneapolis. Students and leaders were divided into eight groups and boarded the train near the Metrodome. At each of the five stops between downtown and the Mall of America, groups got off the train and listened to presentations about issues facing that part of the city, including immigration, urban development and gentrification, the historical treatment of Native Americans, human trafficking, and homelessness.