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| Rock 2002 |

When: March 8-10
Where: Ocean City Convention Center
Who: For youth grades 6 through 12
Cost: $33 per person (includes all sessions and lunch on Saturday)
Hotel reservations are to be made separately.

Contact: Tom Price at (800) 492-2525 Ext. 472, or

Youth retreat to rock Ocean City

BY KATHRYN LEIGHT
UMConnection Correspondent

During the past few years, attendance at the conference Rock retreats has grown from 900 to more than 2,000 youth. Will it keep growing over the years? Organizers believe it will. They think the sky is the limit.

This years Rock 2002 is already surpassing peoples expectations as they make plans for youth in grades six to 12 to hear the Gospel message at the Ocean City Convention Center on March 8-10. The event is sponsored by the Baltimore-Washington Conference Council on Youth Ministries.

According to Tom Price, director of conference youth ministries, the attendance limit of the convention center is about 2,500. Organizers are hopeful that it will be filled to capacity.
Due to consistent increases in retreat attendance over the past three years, Price and the planning team recognized the importance of making the retreat more dramatic and technologically savvy. Price told his team, God has shown us that the roof is already blown off.

Last year the council brought in Good News TV from Georgia to coordinate the sound and video. Price described them as professionals who knew their stuff. They were there doing a job, but they were also there doing a ministry, he said. Evangelist Reggie Dabbs was the guest speaker.

To keep the momentum going, Good News TV will be back again this year, and the guest speaker will be Lori Salierno. She is the founder of Celebrate Life International, an organization dedicated to developing leaders. Salierno is the author of three books and has 15 years of speaking experience. She is one of the top-rated speakers in the country, Price said. Rock 2002s music will be led by Urban Street Level.

As up-to-date as the retreat has become, one thing has remained the same. From the very beginning, the focus of the event has been on God and on the relationship of young people with God through Jesus Christ, Price said.