New England Youth “encounter God in new and fresh ways” through YEC retreat and Quest training
Worship at YEC in Sturbridge, MA
It’s never been easy to be a teenager and today it’s never been more challenging. More than 550 teens and their ministry leaders from 39 churches found solace from the pressures of life when they took part in the Youth Encountering Christ (YEC) retreat January 26-28 in Sturbridge, Massachusetts, and in the twenty-fifth annual Quest discipleship experiences.
Author and communicator Rebecca McLaughlin told the students how they might respond from a biblical perspective to popular ideas such as “Love is Love.” In her book, 10 Questions Every Teen Should Ask (and Answer) about Christianity (2021), she “doesn’t dodge tough questions. Instead, [she] invites teenagers to ask their hardest questions about Christianity and to find surprising, life-giving answers.”
Students at YEC packing potatoes for people in need
The book addresses tough topics that include mental and physical health, gender and feminism, transgender and non-binary identities, God’s sovereignty and care in suffering, racism and slavery, and Christianity “as the most diverse movement in history.” Some, but certainly not all, of those topics are not often mentioned in sermons or Bible study groups.
Jody Jennings, the vice president for student life at Charleston Southern University in South Carolina, amplified the theme of “Treasure,” which was drawn from the Bible passage: “I have treasured your word in my heart so that I may not sin against you” (Psalm 119:11, CSB).
Renée Ghobrial, the BCNE’s Next Generation Ministries-Youth Director, a Massachusetts native, said she chose “Treasure” as the retreat theme because “over the past couple of years I started noticing pretty significant biblical illiteracy among our students. Many of them do not know the Bible even though they grew up in church.”
The Puerto Rico Quest team with Rosa in front of her home which they renovated.
“I remind students that the more of God’s word that you get in your heart and your mind, the more you are able to guard against temptation, walk with him closely, and better display Jesus to people,” says Ghobrial, an alumna of every youth ministry and missions experience the BCNE offered during her youth (including YEC).
Ghobrial, on January 1, 2024, commenced her first year as the youth ministries leader after the yearlong phased retirement of Allyson Clark who, in 1999, was invited to join the Northborough team as its first full-time youth leadership development director. Now retired from a lifetime of dynamic youth ministry, Clark continues to advise her successor as needed.
The students spent much of Saturday repackaging 42,000 pounds of donated Maine potatoes that were later distributed to food banks, churches, community kitchens, and food pantries that serve those in need.
The Scotland Quest team partnered with Dennistoun Baptist Church to help with many outreach activities to reach their community.
A YEC participant, Celiona Alteme of First Baptist Church in Manchester, Connecticut, was asked about the “potato drop” by a reporter for Spectrum News 1, “It feels great to me because at my home we are not able to give what we should, and to be able to help out is not only helping them but it improves how I view the world and how I can help in the future.”
Clark told the television reporter that, “For us who are Christ followers, this is a way for us to incorporate into our DNA that we are to be servants, just as Jesus was a servant.”
YEC and Quest are financially subsidized by the Baptist Churches of New England. Your gift to the Youth Fund helps these ministries remain affordable for all students. Go online to: https://bit.ly/NewEnglandYouth
The Dominican Republic Quest team played and worked with children in the village.
YEC 2024 participants gave $6,162 to help fund the “Quest 25” program, so called because Quest organizers are commemorating the twenty-fifth anniversary of its founding. High school juniors and their volunteer faculty visited three countries over ten days in February. The experience, according to the web page “helps teens deepen their spiritual walks through working as a ministry team, learning about spiritual gifts, sharing their personal faith stories and growing as servant leaders.”
Quest involves more than the mission travel. In October, the “Questies,” as they are called, spend a school holiday weekend working on group-building and cross-cultural learning. The teams travel to their selected destinations in February and later debrief and are challenged to apply their experience.
Seven students and three faculty went to Scotland to partner with Dennistoun Baptist Church in Glasgow. Another six students and three faculty visited Ponce, Puerto Rico, where they comforted a grieving woman who had lost her two sons and husband by repairing her hurricane- damaged home. The Dominican Republic team served with Ina York, a longtime missionary and formerly a New England Baptist mission volunteer. The teams also prayer walked where they served and, as one team reported, had “many gospel conversations.” All the teams were, as another team wrote in an online blog, “challenged in many ways to live more faithfully as believers in Christ.” The blogs feature detailed reports and many colorful photos.
A Massachusetts native and a New England Baptist since 1970, Dan Nicholas is the BCNE managing editor.
