Mom, Daughter Share CHIC2K3 Experience

KNOXVILLE, TN (August 5, 2003) - It has been nearly three decades since Bonnie Sparrman attended a CHIC event sponsored by the Evangelical Covenant Church.

Apart from the technological advances incorporated into this event and the thousands of students who now participate, Sparrman sees many similarities between the CHIC she attended as a high school student and the one her 15-year-old daughter, Johanna, is currently enjoying. Best of all, mom also is involved in this week's CHIC2K3 - she is serving on the medical staff - and she is pleased to support something that is so near and dear to her.

"I'm here because I believe CHIC is a fantastic opportunity for kids to see the movement of Christ and the fellowship of Covenant students," said Bonnie, who teaches cooking at a culinary school. "I knew that CHIC needed help on the medical team and I'm a registered nurse."

Bonnie Bladel was 16 years old when she and her youth group from the Evangelical Covenant Church in Hinsdale, Illinois, traveled on a Greyhound bus to Estes Park, Colorado, for the 1976 CHIC event. At that time, CHIC was known as Covenant High Congress and approximately 2,700 students and staff listened to key speakers Wesley Nelson and Lloyd Ahlem and enjoyed the music and mime performances of Bob Stromberg.

Bonnie did more than just enjoy the mountain scenery at her CHIC. She spotted a guitar-playing high school student named Eric Sparrman, who had come from Bowie, Maryland, with youth from the Church of the Redeemer. By the end of the week, the two had become friends. A few years later, in 1982, after dating at North Park College, they married. Eric is now the pastor at Harvest Ridge Covenant Church in Shawnee, Kansas.

"I walked into Alpen Lodge and Eric was playing his guitar and he was leading about 25 kids in singing," said Bonnie, a mother of three. "I joined in the singing and the crowd dwindled to just Eric and me. We had supper together and I remember my youth pastor giving me the eye. When I got home, I was wondering if I was going to get a letter from him.

"I left CHIC wanting to be bolder in my faith," she continued. "And I wanted to try to explain to my friends who didn't go to CHIC about what I had experienced, but it was difficult. But I was really pumped up and wanted to study God's word. It was inspiring."

Many things have changed from the time Bonnie experienced CHIC as a teenager, among them the broader scope of the event, the huge increase in the number of people participating (2,600 in 1980 compared to 6,000-plus this year) and the computerization and related technology. "I remember that the registration materials were held in a shoe box. I still have the CHIC record and the group photo - even to this day I find people I know in the photo."

"The style of our worship is so fantastic and the staging - they've gone all out. But as I'm walking around, the needs are the same - we all need friends, we all need to find our way - and the messages and topics from our Focus groups are the same. Three girls came to me before the Focus groups and they couldn't get into a seminar on dating. I remember the same topic being the hot topic in 1976 - it was called "You're 16, You're Beautiful and Your Mine."

For Bonnie's daughter, the feeling of anticipation also was the same as 1976 - no surprise given the fact she has heard about CHIC and her mother's experience for most of her life. "When the time came to head to CHIC2K3, she (Johanna ) could hardly contain herself," Bonnie said. "She's just one of those kids who loves to go to camp and she's on fire for Christ. She knew that this was the mountaintop of spiritual experiences. When she got on the plane to go to Knoxville she said, 'I've been waiting 10 years for this.'"

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