Youth Encounter Weekend: Preparing Students for the Journey

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Hi, my name is Emily Trapnell.

I am a Wesleyan fellow here at Christ Methodist Church, and I'm a communications intern.

I'm here with Ava Parks, who is our high school director in student ministry.

Ava, how's your day going so far?

Hello.

My day is going well.

Been a good day.

How about you?

Awesome.

It's been so good.

Good.

Well, we just got done with Youth Encounter Weekend.

We got to lead Six Fair Girls together, which was so fun.

I just wanted to bring you on to talk a little bit about the weekend.

And, you know, you get to have the whole behind-the-scenes view.

Can you just explain the heart behind Youth Encounter Weekend, what it is, schedule, all the fun stuff?

Oh, yeah.

So Youth Encounter Weekend is like the Refuge's Fall Retreat.

It's where we prepare our students for the upcoming school year, just kind of getting our students on fire and ready for what we're going to talk about in the fall, ready for fellowship, establishing those relationships.

Like I think of, you know, all of our new sixth grade students that are coming in.

You know, it's it this is a really vital weekend.

Like it's so fun and silly and just really impactful, like spiritually and just in fellowship too.

And always it's just a really, really sweet weekend.

And so basically what we did this weekend, we switched it up every year, but this this past weekend, we went to the zoo and we played Where's Waldo.

We took a hundred kids to the zoo, if you can believe it.

A hundred and twenty around 123 people, including our volunteers.

And so basically we had a few volunteers dress up as like as characters, like, and basically we took teams of students to go find them in the zoo.

And we had to have our students take a picture with the character and send it to William Merriman.

And how sorry, there was about seven people hiding, and whoever found them first won the game and could leave the zoo and go do whatever they wanted with their free time with their leader.

And so it was super fun.

And then we had our first night, we did gross food games.

A classic.

Girl, gross food games was real gross on the menu Friday night was canned haggis.

I don't even think I want to know what that is.

It just smelled terrible.

And just it just sounds awful.

Yep.

Yeah, thank you so much, Amazon Prime.

Shout up.

Not sponsored.

And then we also blended up some albacore tuna with some ice cream.

Ice cream was not, I uh that was not me.

That was somebody feeling real gracious with the students, but our albacore tuna and then a happy meal, and then I think it was like just regular berries, but it was pretty gross.

And then we had them eat like sour pickle candy that's just heinous, it's awful.

And then finally we did a raw onion eating challenge.

Um real real great, like community building and yeah, really yeah, awesome time.

Yep.

A class a classic student mission.

Yes.

And then can you talk a little bit about the Renaissance Rave?

That was my personal favorite part.

Oh my gosh, yes.

The Renaissance Rave.

So we we'll get into this in a little bit, but like the theme for the weekend was the hero's journey and basically just like overall like stories, fairy tales, superheroes, all things like that.

But like we did a main kind of focus around like medieval theme in the refuge.

And so we as a student ministry team were talking about and we were like, let's have a Ren rave, let's have a Renaissance rave.

They all dress up as medieval villagers or whatever they want to.

I had one of our girls dressed up as a little dragon, it was so cute.

And we just threw glow sticks and glow-up beach balls and had uh awesome lights and awesome fun music playing, and it just was so much fun.

Like I I gotta say, one of that was one of the most beautiful like moments of the weekend, just like looking around, watching like senior boys dressed up as knights and having a blast, and also like looking to the my right and seeing sixth-grade girls dancing and having fun, just all just innocent, just so sweet and just so much fun.

It was a lot of fun.

Yeah.

Well, I think that's a great segue into talking a little bit about what the theme was.

You said it was a hero's journey.

Yes.

Yes.

Okay, so the hero's journey.

So basically, we had it split between three talks.

We had the first one was the call, the second the quest, and the third was like the invitation or like the the return, like the moving forward factor.

And so basically, the hero's journey is just about the the story that's written upon our lives.

Like we all are, we all have a calling, we all have a purpose that is placed upon our lives that is written in our makeup of how God designed us.

We are, we have a calling to go out to be like Christ, to evangelize.

And then we go on a quest.

We we accept that call, we go on a quest, a journey, and that is life.

And there, and with that, there are challenges, there are things that we experience that are hard.

And how do we do that?

How do we go about our journey?

How do we go about our quests?

Obviously with the Lord, but we have to do that with community as well.

We do that with community, we do that alongside one another.

And the journey is beautiful, the quest is beautiful.

And so we talked a lot about that.

And then finally, there's the last night, like the invitation, like how moving forward, like what does this look like?

Like, how are you going to accept the call?

What does this look like in your life?

How are you gonna go out and and evangelize and and what is this quest gonna look like moving forward with the Lord?

Yeah.

Yeah, does that make sense?

Yes, yeah.

Are there any like cool moments that come to mind through like stories you heard from students or anything like that?

Absolutely.

You know, one thing that immediately comes to mind on on the last day on Sunday during our during Sunday school, we had we had like a recap of the weekend and just offered up an open mic to students to come up and just see how or tell how they the Lord was moving in their lives and in their heart this past weekend.

And a bunch of our seniors got up during yes, it was.

It was beautiful, and and and use like use the application of the journey of the quest and and applied it to like what's next for them.

Like, hey, I'm a senior in high school, I'm about to go into college, and this is my quest.

Like I'm on a quest and I accept the call and and I feel like this weekend really was able to help me recognize that so that I can move forward and move forward with hope and excitement that I'm on a journey and I have the Lord with me and I'm I'm excited for what's next.

And so that's exactly what we want is for for students to feel the presence and movement of the Lord and know that they have a that God has a plan and a purpose for their life, and He's walking alongside them and He's gone before them as well.

And so that was a really beautiful thing.

Also, like it was really sweet.

We had like we had we had taken communion the night before and just like watching the students kneeling and praying and like bringing all of their things, all of their needs, all of their anxieties, just everything to to the Lord that night was just a beautiful thing.

Students of all ages just coming to Christ, kneeling before, kneeling before him.

It just was beautiful.

It was a beautiful night.

It was a beautiful weekend.

So lots of things come to mind, but those those things especially.

I'll say one more thing.

Emily and I had the sixth grade girls, and it's true.

It was it I I I work with all of the girls.

I I feel like recently I starting out in the refuge, I was centered more with the high school girls.

But as I've entered more into the role, I've gotten to experience more of the middle school girls as well and spending time with them.

But this retreat just really uplifted my soul, just being with the sixth grade girls and just just giggling with them, laughing with them, talking about, you know, things that it that they love and and that make them laugh, but also seeing the the seeds that have been planted in them and the curiosity and wonder they have for Christ.

Like the in their small group time, they had the some of the most profound answers to the questions.

And I just thought that was so beautiful, like truly a childlike faith, and just something that that would really refreshed my soul, really blessed me.

And so that that really comes to mind as well.

Yeah.

Yeah, that was like some of the best moments.

We're even just like at our host's home, yes, sitting with them and like giggling with them about like skincare and like their celebrity crushes, just like random stuff.

It was so sweet.

They're celebrity crushes, they're they're glass skincare.

Yes.

Okay, well, we're gonna pivot a little bit and talk about just kind of the behind the scenes because a weekend like this obviously just happen.

Oh yeah.

So can you tell us a little bit about like the preparation that goes into it?

Yes, a lot a lot of prep goes into this.

So William Daniel and I, we we spent months trying to find the right the volunteers is is, I mean, one of the most important, if not the most important th thing about things like this.

Like you need good people that love the Lord, that love Christ, and that like have a have a heart for the youth and and for students.

And like we were just, we really it took us a long time to find like a really great group of people, but God really brought it together.

Like, glory be to God.

We had an incre incredible group of volunteers pouring into our students, and and that was that that really is honestly one of the things that makes the weekend, just like watching these leaders love on the students and watching the students really like cling to them.

It just was awesome.

And so that that takes a long time finding people to to drive to host our students.

I mean, like at William's not here today, but I know that he would have shared this.

There was host home that we needed for about like 15 girls, like like 20 girls almost, our freshman girl group.

And it took us a long time, like literally up until the last minute to find a host home for that group.

And wow, all of us were kind of feeling pretty anxious about it and like praying about it, giving it to the Lord, and just came to a point where we were like, you know what?

God's gonna, God's gonna provide.

He's going to provide a host home for these girls.

And he did the day of, the day that we said that, we were like, He's gonna, he's got it.

He does.

The day of a wonderful family offered to host our students.

It was a family of one of our girls, one of our freshman girls, and they had an incredible weekend.

And that was a huge highlight, I think, for all of us, just seeing like, wow, like it really does it's all it always comes together.

All of the hard work, all of the time spent, God always brings it together.

Glory be to God.

And so, yeah, host homes, volunteers, pl planning like the gross food games.

I mean, that that doesn't take a long.

That doesn't that does not take a long time.

Minus obviously the hag is from.

Yeah, we gotta we gotta wait for the shipping on that, but that's about it for that.

A theme, the theme takes a while.

Finding a good finding sorry, not a good speaker.

Finding the the just the right speaker for for a weekend like that is something that we really pray about.

And in this year we had Jacob Llewellyn shout out.

He did incredible, though that was really the Lord moving in that because Jacob is now gonna go into student ministry in Alabama.

It's really exciting.

And so, like, that's like one of the last things he's doing with our church is was you think counterweekend with our students, anyways.

That's just the Lord, but yeah, finding the right speaker for a weekend like this and also I'm trying to think, like our activities, the car wash.

Like we we usually try to have a missions moment for this.

Yeah, tell us a little bit about the car wash because that was a really cool moment.

Oh my gosh, huge.

So the car wash, we partnered with Stephanie Powell, um, who works in our missions department here at church, and she has really just wrapped around this this family, the Nakalala family, who are a refugee family from the Republic of Congo.

And then they were in Ken.

And then yes, they were in Kenya.

And so she's really just loved on them and just been close with them, and and they are in need of a car.

And so Stephanie and and the refugee and sorry, student ministry and Stephanie partnered together.

And just after a lot of thinking and praying about it, we wanted to raise money for the Nakalala's to get a car.

They that family worked so hard to get their people where they need to be, their their family.

And so, I mean, it was a gift for us to to be able to partner with them on that.

And so basically we put together a car wash somehow with 125 people.

And so basically we had different like stations stations for that.

We had people outside waving signs on Poplar, and then we had some people washing cars, we had some people drying them, and then we had people inside that were writing prayer cards for the Nakalala family, just saying that they were praying for them, a blessing over them, scripture, whatever they wanted the students w could write.

And then we also were writing prayer cards for some foster children that was Stephanie works with as well.

And so that was just an incredible experience.

I I it it was beautiful to see our students coming together as a body to raise money and and for this family.

But yeah, it just was incredible.

I mean, literally, Poplar was backed up before we could even like where we had before we even had the hose ready, yeah, the water ready.

And so it just was cool to like watch our students lead that together with us, obviously, and our city give back and like be, I mean, participating in that.

It just was all the Lord.

And so that was a really beautiful moving part of the weekend.

I was really thankful that we got to do that.

And the Nakalalas are just, I mean, bless them, they're just a precious family.

And then we even got to spend a lot of time with them this weekend too.

They came in, they told our students their story, and that was a beautiful moment.

There's a lot of questions from our students after a lot of prayer, and like they even end up joining us at the zoo later, and that was so much fun.

And so, yeah, that is awesome.

That c did I cover everything?

Yes.

Okay, yeah, cool.

Did you have a personal favorite moment from the weekend, like a moment where you were like, okay, this this weekend, all the preparation was well worth it?

Honestly, I think my favorite moment was the Ren Rave.

And I know that that sounds so so like, what?

But I mean, just sitting in the you know, the final thing that we did that weekend, that which was the Ren Rave, just sitting and standing and watching all of our students have innocent fun, dancing together, students of all ages, just goofing off being themselves.

It just felt like a really sweet moment to me.

I was tearing off.

I was one of those people.

I was just standing there like with the music playing, and I just was taking it all in, like dancing with my high school girls, goofing off with them, walking over to my to my sixth grade ladies, like all in their renaissance outfits.

Like it just was so sweet.

And that's not a sight that you get to see a lot.

Like just people letting their guard down.

Like that, that is what what this ministry, that is one of the biggest things that this is about, is just people like these students letting their guard down, being themselves and just being being a body.

And that was so much, that was so sweet, and and just a memory that I'll never forget.

I've I've like gone back on my phone and watched the video a few times, just being like, wow, like I'm just so thankful that I get to do this.

I'm thankful for these students, and I'm just so glad that they had that they're having fun and that they can have innocent fun.

And, you know, anyways, it just was awesome.

And so that's a that's definitely a high for me.

Also, just like the testimonies that were shared, like I shared at the beginning, the testimonies of our of our seniors already feeling real, really emotional about that and it being their last year, and just like, you know, I thought it was a beautiful thing that they got on stage and in front of their peers and talked about how God was moving in their life.

Like, what an example that sets to the younger group.

Like, wow, look at how God's moving in their life.

And it just, it just is amazing.

And so that was that was really cool too.

I mean, literally the whole weekend was just beautiful.

Yeah, it really was.

I agree.

It was so awesome.

Yeah.

For any students who are listening, how would you encourage them to like bring this weekend into their everyday lives?

You talked about that's the heart behind the weekend, setting them on fire for God and then going into the school year and keeping that.

So, how would you encourage them to carry out their hero's journey into their everyday lives?

I love this question.

For for our students that are listening and just anyone, just remember remember that that God has a plan and a purpose for your life.

You're you were on you were on an amazing journey.

You were on a quest.

Life is precious and beautiful.

And I feel like these days, like, and I've talked about this with a lot of our students, but especially with the phones and the technology.

I mean, I just feel like so much of of the wonder about our world and about this life gets really kind of washed out by our phone and by just the busyness and the hurry.

But I just want to encourage, you know, those listening that that there got us so much to offer.

Gosh, like don't miss it.

I mean, this students like it might y'all might be in school, y'all, y'all might be taking a test or in a class that you hate or, you know, nervous or anxious or thing things like that that we go through as as as humans, as people, but know that that you're on a journey and and and it's a great one.

And God has so much planned for you and a a future that he has in which he has gone before you.

My prayer for the students is just that they that they won't miss out on that, that they would not be distracted by the things of this world, but instead like look to what is important, which is Christ.

And God is is the best story writer and he's got a beautiful story that he's that he's writing for you in this moment.

And I just my prayer is that our students wouldn't miss out on that and that they just would would fully embrace that, embrace the call, embrace the journey and all of its challenges, and not be afraid because God, I mean, ultimately God's got you, He's He's got all of us.

There is some times where He feels really close, and there's some times where He feels far, but He is with us just along this journey, all the whole way.

I think of Psalm 23 specifically.

I've quoted that a few times today, actually, but he says Psalm 23 verse 4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me.

Psalms 23:4

And like I just that comes to mind because it's so true.

Like we will go through through challenges and and dark times in our quests, but God is with us.

And I just really pray that our students can take away from that this past weekend and know that there there is a bright future ahead for them and a God that loves them and is walking alongside them always.

Yeah, yeah.

That's really beautiful.

I love it.

For all the people listening who aren't students, how can they be uh supporting the students or praying for them just as we go into this new school year, new year of programming?

Yeah.

Just everything ahead.

Yeah.

Uh listeners, just just please be praying for just pray for the spiritual formation of our students.

Pray that that the Lord would provide fellowship, uh encouragement, pray that they would be uh disciplined and and you know, spending time with the Lord, spending time in his word.

There's just so there's so many distractions these days.

It's it just feels never ending.

Like even for us adults, like I mean, it it is just so easy to just just be in a hurry all the time.

Get on be in a hurry, get on your phone, just we just full our we fill our time with just I feel like things that are really important and things that really aren't important.

And I just I guess just please just pray for our students that they would be disciplined in in their w their spiritual disciplines, being with the Lord, spending time with him, developing a relationship with him outside of the refuge in their intimate time with him, and just pray also just that that God would continue to flourish their relationships with one another.

Because like I said, you can't go through a journey without companions.

Like we we we talked a little bit about this this week, but with Lord of the Rings, I mean, Frodo could not have dropped that ring off to Mordor without Samwise Gamge.

And I mean, everyone needs that.

And so just I just ask your prayer that our students, that you that God will provide community and fellowship for our students so that they they need that.

They need they need like-minded community to walk alongside them through it all.

So pray for that and just pray for this coming semester too.

Like we're what we're about to get into this fall in the refuge is is about spiritual disciplines.

We're gonna go through the curriculum that we're following is the common rule book by uh Justin Early.

And basically it it goes through things like kneeling prayer, scripture before phone, a com one hour conversation with a friend, like things like that that are to to bring us closer to the Lord, to enhance our spiritual life, our spiritual formation.

So really excited about that this fall, really excited about just seeing the fruits from that and just just just pray that that would touch our students and that would help them in their in their spiritual walk with the Lord.

And so yeah.

Yeah.

Well, I'm so excited for this next semester.

And yeah, just so we talk about the curriculum we're going through this semester.

I'm so excited.

I'm so excited to keep serving with you.

So yeah, thank you for coming on and talking about the weekend.

If this conversation has made anything stir in you, wanting to serve in students or support them in any way, you can go to our students page on our website or go to our students' Instagram.

And yeah, thank you, Ava, for chatting.

Oh my gosh, thanks for having me.

Thank y'all so much.

Thanks for tuning in to another episode of the podcast for Christ Methodist Church in Memphis, Tennessee.

We pray that today's message has inspired and encouraged you in your walk with Christ.

To stay connected with our church community, visit us online at Christchurchmemphis.org.

We hope to see you this upcoming Sunday for worship as we seek to glorify God and make disciples of Jesus Christ among all peoples.