King Field at Brookhaven High School is usually the home turf for Ole Brook Panther football, but this Wednesday it will be a place for students to gather and share their Christian faith.

Students from Southwest Mississippi will join thousands of other youths on athletic fields across the nation Wednesday to share testimony with their peers during the 16th annual national Fellowship of Christian Athletes’ Fields of Faith event. The interdenominational outreach will be held at more than 500 locations throughout the nation.

Fields of Faith is structured as a student-to-student ministry. Peers invite their own classmates and teammates to meet on their school’s athletic field to hear fellow students share their testimonies, challenge them to read the Bible and to come to faith in Jesus Christ, said Chris Huffman, the FCA area representative who is over eight counties in Southwest Mississippi.

The event begins at 6:30 p.m. and is expected to last about 90 minutes. It will include testimony from students from Bogue Chitto Attendance Center, Franklin County High School, Copiah-Lincoln Community College, Brookhaven Academy and Southwest Mississippi Community College and a worship and praise team led by a 14-year-old student from Bogue Chitto.

Those giving their testimony will talk about their life before Christ and what it’s like now as a Christ follower.

“Maybe they’ve been battling depression, brokenness, feeling unloved. Now they’re loved by the king,” he said.

The focus on the event is peer-to-peer relationships.

“They challenge each other to go deeper in the faith journey,” he said. “We’re not born winners or losers, but we’re born choosers. As long as we’re choosing to engage in our faith and we’re choosing to live a life that glorifies God and live our life safely defined by the promises of God, that’s going to help us to overcome.”

Huffman said it’s amazing watching 16-year-olds lead their peers to Christ.

“And now they’ve developed a relationship and they can hold each other accountable and challenge each other and grow. That’s the heart behind it,” he said. “They don’t have to be 30 and 40 years old to do something great and mighty for the kingdom. Look at the disciples. They changed the world and they were all of them except one, teenagers.”

The event is free and open to the public. While it is student-led, adults are welcome to attend, he said.