Biennial Festival of Faith and Writing gathers 2 , 000 writers and readers

For senior Carlos Erazo, an average week is not only occupied with college papers, readings and projects, but also with filming and producing a weekly video for his Youtube channel — one with more than 62,000 active followers. When he was a sophomore at Calvin, Erazo decided to combine a lifelong interest in video creation and editing with a growing desire to connect spiritually with Spanish-speaking friends and family in his home country of El Salvador. “I became a Christian in high school and grew up with mostly non-Christians,” he recalled. “When I left El Salvador for the United States, I felt a burden for my friends at home who weren’t Christian. I wanted to speak with them about what it means to be a Jesus-follower.” “At Calvin I read theology as a hobby, but for a lot of teenagers, theology isn’t something they choose to go to. The church at home in El Salvador wasn’t reaching my friends,” he said, because his friends “didn’t understand the religious talk and theological language used.” The disconnection between Christianity and young people inspired Erazo to put his beliefs into action and create weekly Spanish Youtube videos which discuss Christianity in today’s world. He published his first episode in 2011, calling his channel Proyecto GTG, meaning Project Glory to God. More v ideos followed e ach week , filmed across Calvin’s campus, highlighting topics ranging from pornography to dating to tattoos to homosexuality to evangelism: issues which Erazo knows are relevant to teenagers curious about living a Christlike life. Over time, this vision began to resonate with Youtube audiences beyond Erazo’s friends. Proyecto GTG now has 62,974 followers. The most popular videos have more than 100,000 views, and the channel only continues to grow. During the fourth weekend in April, Erazo and two fellow Youtube speakers will f ly to El Salvador to put on a show focusing on the intersection of the Gospel and social media, and they expect a large audience. Despite this success, however,