Sorry
for the delay in posting. I know I left the last post in a suspenseful note, so
hopefully everybody made it over to the Facebook page to see what’s up!
However, now it’s time for an explanation:
TUFF
stands for Teens United For Faith. It’s a 2-day Catholic Conference that’s put
on in the Vicariate of Southern Arabia. Yes, you read correctly: Southern
Arabia. I’m in the Middle East! I bet you didn’t think we’d be putting on
retreats around the world, did you? It certainly didn’t cross my mind until I
found out I was on the road team. It's something I've been excited about since I found out it was a reality, but I've been holding it back to announce specially right now!!
Anyway,
our first TUFF took place in Muscat, Oman. It’s safe for us to be here, but
we’re not supposed to identify ourselves as missionaries. Evangelizing to a
Muslim here is actually a felony. Disclaimer: we’re not. We’re putting on
retreats for people who are already Catholic because that’s what the New
Evangelization is. The New Evangelization is when we step back and realize that
sometimes we Catholic need someone to tell us about Christ. So knowing that,
I’ll continue.
We had
a few days before our first retreat to prep and then it was time to go! I’ll
tell you, it was incredible just to seen the hundreds of teens come in and start
taking their seats. So far I think our biggest retreat has been 120, and there
were at least 350 here. I placed myself at the door and pretty much just
started saying hi to them as they all came in. It’s a pretty simple job, but it
was a good place for me to be. We started with our opening songs, which I love
and were cool but the teens were pretty quiet. The day continued and we had
several talks, dramas, testimonies, and just fun things. I finally got to give
my talk over Pope Francis, and it’s so incredible to give it to over 300 teens!
Even better, they were opening up more throughout the day. I distinctly
remember being backstage waiting for a drama and seeing teens dance to the
music onstage. That is something I have not seen since back in high school. It
made me so happy, partially for nostalgia and partially because you could see
the teens responding. It was all for Jesus!
That
was the first day. The second day was a little hectic with some scheduling
stuff, but the teens didn’t notice anything was up. They simply enjoyed the
day, and let everything coming their way sink in. I’ve had conversations with
some of them that I do not think I would have had in any part of the world. The
faith is already alive here, I’m just hoping in some small way we’re able to
make it more personal. I think that did happen. At the end of the retreat,
teens from each of the parishes involved came up and spoke about what happened
to them. A few teens during the course of the retreat talked about an internal
change, and how they felt a relief that was new. Then others had a whole new
perspective of what retreats would be. One young man in particular said that he
was expecting it to be a boring weekend and that they’d be sitting around doing
nothing most of the time. Just with my own experiences, I find it very sad that anybody would think a retreat would be sitting around and having a classroom-like atmosphere. For me, and this is what I learned in high school, retreats are a time where you get a little closer to Jesus. It's almost like a little extra charge to get through life.
That’s
one of the things that changed my own life as a teen. The first time I ever
went to a Catholic retreat, I was not looking forward to it. I thought it was
going to be dumb. But the second I walked through the doors and heard the
praise and worship music, I knew I was in for something good. Now, I feel
privileged to be a part of a team and community that does that for others. We
are able to do so much, but we’re doing it all for the love of Christ!
We
still have a lot of ministry to do, so keep praying for me and hopefully I’ll
be able to update soon!!!!!
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