I cannot believe Fall is here again; it seems like Summer just started! I feel like it is a true saying, “The days are long, but the years are short.” I also can’t believe that I am now in my third year as Youth Director; where did that time go? This past Summer, my biggest adventure with the Youth was Triennium 2019. I’d like to share with you the re-cap that I wrote for the West Jersey Presbytery Facebook page:

• B – Bags, Beverages, & Busses; oh my! We began our journey by loading all the luggage and snacks and by “Blessing the Busses” for our 13 hour road trip!
• L -“Let’s trade!” Upon our arrival to Purdue, we traded pins with the other delegations from all over the country & globe. Some pins are rare. Some are funny. But each is unique because it represents that delegation. Much like how each of us is seen by God.
• E – Energizers. We learned some new songs and dance moves to pump us up for worship, and revisited some crowd favorites as well!
• S – Sweat! With a heat index and temperatures in the 105-110 range, we sweat like we have never sweat before!
• S – Spirit filled. Throughout worship, small groups, prayer centers, and delegation meetings, we had our hearts tuned, learned how God will always seek us, why we are prone to wander, and how to take heart in times of uncertainty. All this so we can use our individual gifts and talents to offer God our whole hearts and say, “take my heart and seal it for thy courts above.”
• E – Ending worship. As we arrived at our final worship service, we learned that the pastor who was originally scheduled to preach had a death in his family and then had a personal injury. So the pastor they got to speak, had just days to prepare the final message. And what an amazing message it was! Proving that God is always in control and His plans are perfect! You could feel the buzz as she commissioned us all to “go out into the world!”
• D – Depart & Disperse. As we loaded up the busses and left Purdue for the last time, while we were grateful for all the wonderful things we got to experience this week, we left with a sense of sadness that such a powerful week was over. For many, it is a once in a lifetime experience. For some, they are fortunate to be able to attend twice. And if you’re crazy enough to become a youth leader, you can experience Triennium with several different groups over the years. While we are all sad to see this particular experience come to an end, we take heart and disperse into the world to continue to do the works God has called each of us to do!

Thank you from the bottom of all our hearts for allowing each of us to be BLESSED by the 2019 Presbyterian Youth Triennium!

I think that is the best representation I can give, without taking you all with us in 2022! As we look forward to the rest of 2019, the other area youth leaders and I have really made an effort to have more “Regional Events” on our calendars to afford the students more opportunities to get together and grow together in Christ. We have all adopted the name, “Teens Growing In Faith” and each church is its own chapter of that group, so to speak. Our first 2019 Regional TGIF event, will be a Fallback retreat, held at Woodbury Heights on September 20th-21st. We have 36 students registered in attendance for our very first fall retreat, and we couldn’t be more excited!

On a local level, I am looking forward to our Scarecrow event again this year and our new quarterly event – T.E.A. time. See the next page for all the details. As always, thank you all for your continued prayers and support for the youth, myself, and for our youth program. May God continue to bless our entire church family during the remainder of 2019 and into 2020.

Blessings,
Becky Schad
Youth Director