Spain: 700 teenagers thought through Christianity’s big questions

About 700 young people aged 12-18 from all over Spain attended the first edition of Reboot in Madrid, on Saturday 30th September, to reflect on the "big questions" of life.

Reboot is an apologetics event organised by Fundacion RZ (Ravi Zacharias Ministries in Spain) which began five years ago in London to create a space where young people from any background could ask questions about God and the Christian faith.

ANSWERING BIG QUESTIONS

There were different talks in which the attendees could send their questions live through a web platform.
Gerson Mercadal, coordinator of Reboot, and Andy Wickham, Director of RZIM Spain, presented dynamics such as "Fire at will", where the questions that are more repeated in Reboot editions all over the world, were answered; or "Apologetics in the day to day" in which they reproduced daily conversations that can be given in any context.
There were two foreign speakers: Amy Orr-Ewing, creator of Reboot, who gave the workshop of "Relations and identity" and participated in forums, and David Bennett, associate lecturer at RZIM, who told the story of his encounter with Jesus as an anti-Christian gay activist at the university.

PLENARIES, WORKSHOPS, AND MORE
Speaker and songwriter Alex Sampedro was the presenter of the event, which also included worship times, led by the musician Sammy Planes; workshops on various apologetic topics; the opportunity to personally chat with team members; mini-contests and prizes; and a competition of dance that surely was the crowdest in the history of Reboot.
In the plenary sessions, international author Pablo Martínez Vila, President of RZIM Spain, presented three reasons why he is not an atheist, from his perspective as a psychiatrist, and Wickham ended the day with the talk "The most important question", in which he explained the central message of the cross and challenged the youth to give everything in their life to Jesus.

“I WILL NOT BE ASHAMED”
About 200 young people responded to the invitation, moving forward to pray with a member of the Reboot team. Dozens of them recognized that it was their first time.
"I have participated in other editions of Reboot, but I have not seen such an intense response and interest as I have seen today", said Bennett at the end of the event.
"I loved it. As soon as the next date comes out, I'll put it on the calendar. It has answered many of my questions", said Ana, a Reboot participant.
"I'll try everything. I'll talk at school and I will not be ashamed of being Christian", said Rut, another young girl who attended Reboot.

“MANY HAVE KNOWN JESUS BETTER”
"Without a doubt part of the goal of the day was to provide teenagers with tools and training, but perhaps the best way to measure effectiveness was the tremendous response from young people", said Mercadal.

According to the Reebot coordinator, "many found answers and many knew Jesus better. And, thank God, many went away knowing that having questions is normal, it is part of knowing something or someone better, and that there are possible answers”.

“Knowing that truth can be the decisive element in not throwing away a faith 'inherited' after the first doubt, and it can be the incentive to investigate, and to personally know the God who offers rest for the soul” , Mercadal concluded.