HELP WANTED: Our Youth Are All Saints
November 2005
article for the Collect, publication for St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Medina, WA

From September 30 to October 2, Carly Cahill, Jon Lee, Victoria Stukas and I represented St. Thomas at HYC, a gathering of 75 high-schoolers from all over Western Washington.

The traffic was pretty bad on the long ride to Longview. As people slowly arrived at St. Stephen’s, we tried to guess the job titles that had been taped to our backs: “youth group leader,” “rescue diver,” “soil removal specialist,” and “Supreme Court justice,” to name a few.

Once we were all present, we sang upbeat songs and then split into groups of ten to dig into our theme, “Help Wanted.” Our small groups met throughout the weekend to develop the theme and to learn from each other. The youth in my group dreamt of being superheroes, but they were also developing practical ideas for adult careers. Many had a notion of how God might already be using them to further the Kingdom.

We closed Friday night with a brief Compline service and were sent off to spend the night with host families from St. Stephen’s. In the morning, we began our long day, which involved games, discussions, and a dance. During our Saturday Eucharist, youth from Bellevue and Kent talked about mission work they had done, both abroad and locally. They helped us realize that we are all missionaries every day.

Next came immediate opportunities for Christian mission. We made sock puppets and stuffed dolls for hurricane-displaced children, sewed prayer shawls, baked and packaged cookies for the Kairos prison ministry, created a Gospel-based skit for Sunday morning worship, and went on a scavenger hunt around Longview collecting food for Northwest Harvest. We also folded origami cranes that will decorate the altar at the Diocesan Convention and will eventually become part of the maritime ministry in our diocese.

By the time we reached Sunday morning, our exhaustion was dwarfed by our joy to share the Eucharist with the entire St. Stephen’s congregation. I came away from HYC feeling that the youth of our diocese are, indeed, Christ’s hands and heart in the world. They are worthy to be called saints.

Spiritual Reflections Archive