“My life, and the way I look at it, has definitely changed, thanks to TEY.” (Samantha Wood, Trinity, Pottsville)

Young people of Northeastern Pennsylvania Synod are changed because of the Spirit’s stirring in the two summer retreat events of Theological Education with Youth (TEY). Samantha Wood and 11 other high school juniors and seniors from Northeastern Pennsylvania Synod are changed — and are changing their congregations and the world.

The one week Crossroads Event, held June 18-24 and hosted at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, included Samantha Wood and five other youth from Northeastern Pennsylvania Synod: Arielle Bazulka (St. Paul, Easton), Danielle Boehm (St. John, Sinking Spring), Derek Price (Friedens, Oley), Kaiti Sippel (Trinity, Pottsville) and Chelsea Wertz (Trinity, Pottsville).

The event was centered in lively community on the Gettysburg campus, with worship, play, and shared meals as well as creative theological exploring of the baptismal calling to “do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with God” (Micah 6).

Then Crossroads hit the road to York, Pa., for an immersion day focused on advocacy; to Washington, DC, for an in-depth experience of homelessness and biblical hospitality; to Baltimore, Md., for eye-opening discoveries about the church’s ministries of international relief and development; and to a life-care facility in Gettysburg, Pa., to learn about ministries of compassion and community.

Commenting on the immersion experience at Luther Place in Washington, which included an evening meal with women in transition, Arielle marveled at how “people without homes or money were praying for me like I was the only thing that mattered.” Derek reported that Crossroads helped him discover that “the Church is more than just Sunday services and prayer — it’s about taking action, and serving and seeking social justice.” Danielle celebrated the way that the small group gatherings for reflection throughout the event “became like family, and a kind of safety net” for her.

The primary theme of the Crossroads Event is vocation — specifically, the baptismal calling to take part in God’s new creation by “striving for justice and peace in all the earth,” and the many ministries and roles through which that work is done. For Samantha, God’s voice was amazingly powerful: “I found myself being called in ways that I could never imagine.”

Synod Provides Grants

For the fourth consecutive year, Northeastern Pennsylvania Synod provided $100 scholarships for each of the 12 participants in the two TEY summer retreat events, the Crossroads Event and the Summer Theological Academy. The Rev. Bill Bixby, Director of TEY, celebrates this strong relationship as a cornerstone of the project’s mission. “Northeastern Pennsylvania Synod is deeply committed to nurturing the faith and leadership of teen disciples, and doing so in a way that takes theology and the powers of young people seriously,” he notes. “Northeastern Pennsylvania Synod and TEY are full partners in this ministry which transforms young people, congregations and youth ministries, and the world.”

Information and images of these TEY summer retreat events, including prospective dates for 2007, are available at the project website, http://tey.easterncluster.org. Also available there are descriptions and registration options for the one day Affirmation of Baptism Festivals in November for ninth grade youth.