One of the reasons why I love my vocation as a minister to young people is that they always are capable of surprising me.

Fortunately, the surprises are mostly the good ones.

For example, in June Christina Powell, Patrick Owensby, Alix Powell, and myself, took a huge leap out of our comfort zone. We joined 12 other youth and 3 adults from the southern part of our diocese to be delegates and representatives for the Diocese of Western Louisiana at the national Episcopal Youth Event (EYE).

EYE is an event put on by the national church every three years. It allows youth and adults, who work with youth, to gather, worship, sing, dance, trade notes, and just be together.

It allows our youth to see how big our church is and to see, that in spite of small differences, how similar we all are.

It was a great experience and leadership opportunity for our three attendees.

And that’s where the good surprise comes into play.

St. Mark’s three were amazing! The four of us joined a group from other parts of our diocese that, for the most part we didn’t know, and then went on to join a larger group of 1,100 + people in community and communion.

“So, why is this so amazing?” you may ask.

It is because great steps were made by our whole group. We were not just our individual parishes and geographical locations, but we were a community that really bonded on a deeper level than just “camp friends” and “retreat buddies”.

We made the first steps at bringing the youth of this diocese together for a greater Diocesan EYC. In addition, we made friends that we will do much more with. Be it retreats, outreach, or just fun, we now have more of a partner group that will ultimately expand and improve both our groups.

But most importantly, our youth took great strides at being the leaders of this diocese.

Peace