Guiding Our Youth

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” He called a child, whom he put among them, and said, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me. Matthew 18:1-5 Guiding Our Youth 81 | Texas Episcopalian 2021

SPIRITUALLY TOGETHER, PHYSICALLY APART

By Jenny Campbell

In 2018, in response to the devastation of Hurricane Harvey, Episcopal youth ministers Suzy Spencer and Alex Hillis started Episcopal Strong (ES), a ministry of the Episcopal Diocese of Texas. Episcopal Strong brings together Episcopal youth and adults from throughout our diocese and the country. Participants represent a wide assortment of churches, from small rural congregations to large urban parishes. In 2019, Suzy and Alex formed the Episcopal Strong Leadership Team with youth ministers and youth volunteers: Meghan Hillis, Jenny Campbell, Margaret Martin, and Jordan Dietz. Each team member took on a role in Program, Communications, Meal Prep, and Worship, respectively.

In 2018 and 2019, Episcopal Strong relief work included home repair and service projects around Houston. In typical mission trip fashion, our missioners sweat in the sun and slept in a gym at night. In 2020, our new leadership team (John and Lisa Lewis, Meghan and Alex Hillis, Suzy Spencer, Jenny Campbell, and Margaret Martin) started gearing up for the same. When the COVID-19 crisis began, we knew there was work to be done. We couldn’t safely travel from different cities and stay in close quarters, but could we serve our respective communities together? Our 2020 Leadership team got to work.

Episcopal Strong took place online during the month of July. This new format brought us some unexpected joys. A number of youth sang, recorded and edited videos of themselves leading songs for Sunday worship. One youth even joined the calls while he was in Colorado on vacation!

Each Sunday night, missioners prayed Compline together, sang songs, and explored faith, hope, and love in a time of pandemic. Discussions began in our hour-long Sunday night meetings and then carried over to a service project of the same length on Wednesdays. Missioners were encouraged to do projects on their own time or to join Wednesday night zoom calls to create and serve together. We were delighted when almost every missioner who attended on Sunday came back for Wednesdays.

COVID-19 challenged our team to plan activities for any sized group. Service projects needed to be easily adaptable to changing circumstances, and to use materials available in the home or contactfree at a local grocery store. We created kits for our homeless neighbors, including things such as protein bars, hand sanitizer, toothbrushes and toothpaste, as well as other hygieneproducts.Missioners wrote letters of encouragement and included them in the bags. They also created no-sew masks for those in need, wrote letters to essential workers, and created “hope signs” to encourage neighbors and individuals who needed a little love. Our motto this year was “however we serve, we serve together. Spiritually together, physically apart.”