“The entirety of Your word is truth, and every one of Your righteous judgments endures forever.” Psalm 119:160 NKJV
The need that drives TTT Christian Youth Ministries: “But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.” 2 Corinthians 4:3 NKJV
The plan to meet the need is: “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” Mark 16:15 NKJV
And the result: “And the word of the Lord was being spread throughout all the region.” Acts 13:49 NKJV
July 1969, several Tri-state teenagers accompanied my wife Mary and me to the Youth for Christ International Convention in Winona Lake, Indiana, where Billy Graham was the featured speaker. It was there that Mary and I met the Kandel triplets – Kris, Kathie, and Karen – students at Malone College in Ohio.
December 1969, we brought them, with their teenage sister Linda who accompanied them on piano, to the Tri-State for an outreach at Lawrenceville, Illinois High School Auditorium.
Because of the atrocities at Woodstock in New York State in August 1969 that had turned many youth in the wrong direction, Daryl Hale approached me about putting together a major Christian event Easter weekend 1970. Dave Schwambach was asked to serve as chairman of that first Faith Festival, and Daryl Hale, along with several other college and high school students, formed a task force to produce the first Faith Festival, Good Friday night and Easter Eve 1970. Special guests were Pat Boone, his wife Shirley, and their 4 daughters. Attendance totaled 3,000, and 500 responded to the invitation to “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ” or to dedicate their lives to serve the Lord.
The second Faith Festival, Easter weekend 1971, was co-chaired by Ray Harper and Dave Schwambach, with a volunteer staff of 18 college and career team members.
Following the Biblical formula in Romans 12: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them…” Romans 12:1-6 NKJV
We continued bringing the Kandel sisters for TTT-sponsored events in the Tri-state. Dave Schwambach and Kris Kandel began dating.
Faith Festivals continued at Evansville’s Roberts Stadium Easter weekends 1970, 1971, 1972, and 1973. The fifth Faith Festival Easter weekend 1974 was moved to the Civic Auditorium in downtown Evansville. When the announcement was made at Faith Festival that the Saturday night sessions were moving back home to TTT, the audience responded with a deafening cheer.
Beginning Saturday night, April 20, 1974, a big tent was placed on the TTT property at US 41 North and Boonville New Harmony Road. Featured guests were the New Life Singers from Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s Voice of Christian Youth (VCY). Led by Vic Eliason, VCY owned and operated a family-focused full-time radio station, WVCY-FM (their media ministry grew to what is now VCY America, including a network of 62 radio stations). In 1973, Vic Eliason was one of the five co-founders of Youth Evangelism Association.
The tent was filled to capacity the first night. TTT staff members were featured the following Saturdays. Dave Schwambach, then serving as youth pastor at Bethel Temple, was the speaker June 15.
David Schwambach and Kris Kandel married in 1972 and have continued in ministry together. They will be telling their story at TTT’s 58th birthday celebration February 3 – 13000 US Highway 41 North at Boonville New Harmony Road. Free pizza will be available after the rally for all attending in person.
TTT’s 2024 theme is “Telling The TRUTH, so that you may believe.” (John 19:35 NKJV). The first 58 people in attendance February 3 will receive a complimentary copy of the new book 12 Crucial Truths of the Christian Faith by Josh McDowell and Sean McDowell.
TTT is aggressively evangelistic, Bible believing, and connects with like-minded congregations and ministries. An invitation to “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ” is consistently presented, inviting those hearing to know God’s Word is truth.