Fast-forward to 2008, when Life Teen Camp Covecrest was entering their 2nd year with a missionary community and the Life Teen Mesa office welcomed their first missionary community. I continued to separate missionaries from staff, failing to connect that God had all of us on a mission. That mission had little to do with Life Teen but everything to do with my obedience to God’s will in my life.

Over this past year as the missionary model continues to unfold, I have finally embraced that I am a missionary. Being a missionary doesn’t look the way I previously envisioned it. I’m not living in a foreign country or traveling in a van around the united States. I have a roof over my head, a paycheck coming in and a supportive community surrounding me. nonetheless, the mission I have been commissioned for is the same mission God charged all christians with in Matthew 28:19-20, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and of the Son and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus didn’t commission the remaining 11 apostles; he commissioned all of us for a mission. “The mission of Christ the Redeemer, which is entrusted to the church, is still very far from completion,” declared Pope John Paul II in Redemptoris Missio. “It is the Spirit who impels us to proclaim the great words of God: ‘for if I preach the Gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. for necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel’” (1 Corinthians 9:16). our prayer should be that we, like Pope John Paul II,“sense an urgent duty to repeat this cry of St. Paul.”

Whether or not you see yourself as a missionary, God desires a relationship with you that is transparent and pure.your relationship with him, no matter how imperfect or perfect, broken or whole, is precious and protected by his Body and Blood.your relationship with christ is more important than any life night or retreat you’ll ever plan.your authenticity with God will allow your teens to encounter the person of christ within you. Your acknowledgement of sin and pride will allow you to seek reconciliation,“that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine like lights in the world” (Philippians 2:15). consider your relationship with God to be the foundational mission upon your soul, so you can clearly see and hear his primary mission for your life.

This training resource is a tool to evaluate your personal spirituality and allow your Core Team to support one another on mission.your Baptism empowers you with all the necessary gifts of the holy Spirit.“Whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these” (John 14:12). God has a plan for your core team community. using the Life Teen Missionary Rules of Life, I ask you to take time as a core team to honestly assess where you are in relationship with God and where you desire to be.

God Bless!

Tricia Tembreull
Western region director

The goal of this Life Night is to have the teens understand why the Church exists, to explain what evangelization is and to empower the teens to be missionaries in their schools and families.

About this Night

This Life Night breaks open the topic of evangelization and the Church. The Life Night begins with a group activity to create a 30 second advertisement for a sacrament. After a time of sharing the ads, the night will move into a teaching on the task of evangelization in the Church. The teaching will also look at how the Apostles were given the mission from Christ to make disciples at the Great Commission. After the teaching, the teens will have an opportunity to discuss what they think evangelization means and how they can live that out daily. The night will end with a prayer of blessing taken from the RCIA Rite of Welcoming.

Eucharistic Adoration at Steubenville West

Dear Friend,

Every television network has embraced the power of transformation. You cannot turn on your TV without seeing a show dedicated to transforming a car, chopper, person, room, restaurant or home in less than 30 minutes. It is amazing to watch the reaction of those being transformed as well as those orchestrating and witnessing the transformation. One of the most moving shows is ABC’s Extreme Home Makeover in which they transform a distressed family’s home in one week. It is amazing to hear the crowd gathered and the family scream, “Move That Bus” to reveal the finished product and watch as the family is overcome with gratitude as they jump, scream, and crumble to the ground in tears of joy.

That is exactly what Life Teen has been up to over the last 25 years. Each ministry interaction we have with teenagers, youth ministers, priests, Core Members, and parents provides a “Move That Bus” moment in which the participants & staff invite the Lord to move with more power in our lives. The reactions of joy are a constant reminder to me that Christ is still transforming lives today as much as He did when He walked the earth. We get to see teenagers lifting their hands to reach out to Christ in the Blessed Sacrament as He moves through the room in a Eucharistic Procession, or the bowed head of teenager or Core Member receiving absolution from the outstretched arm of the priest in Reconciliation. We are so blessed to witness Christ’s movement and transformation.

This ministry update is our simple way of sharing the thousands of “Move that Bus” moments that we have experienced this year because of your support. If the growth of Life Teen and Edge from one parish to 1600 or the hundreds of vocations to the priesthood and religious life are any indications of the Extreme Spiritual Makeover that has happened in the last 25 years, we can only imagine what the next 25 years will hold for Life Teen.

Overwhelmed with gratitude,

Randy Raus & Steve Allgeyer

2010-LT-MinistryUpdate

Eric Martin has served for the past few years at Covecrest as a summer camp director and now the director of the Covecrest missionaries. If you’ve been to Covecrest anytime in the past three years, you’ll remember Eric: shaved head, glasses, much stronger than you.  Eric joined youth ministers on a mission to Jamaica in 2007. He led the Life Teen Mission to Ghana for college students last summer. Plus he’s traveled to Mexico numerous times over the past few years.  He’s as hardcore of a Catholic dude as you can get.

Some of you know Stephen Smith a member of our Board of Directors, others may’ve seen him running about Camp Covecrest fixing buildings or praying in the chapel. Still others of you know him as a retired school principal who became a Life Teen youth minister. Me? I just call him Dad. He’s my hero.

The one thing these two men have in common is their love for God and their desire to serve. That is why it should not have been a surprise to me when my father called me from my hometown in Georgia to share with me what God put on his heart during prayer time–to travel to Haiti and help the broken. Dad has been in a “missionary mood” over the past several years. He served in Post-Katrina New Orleans and ventured to Mexico twice with the Life teen’s college-aged missionaries (scroll down for photos.)  After Dad explained that he’d spoken to Eric at Covecrest and the two were convinced they needed to travel to Haiti, I knew that this was a done deal. These guys are fearless.

Like many of you reading this, I’ve heard horror stories about how the lack of infrastructure in Haiti makes it difficult for well-intentioned relief workers to give proper care for the people whose lives are in ruin after last month’s earthquake. I love my father and do not want him to be in harms way. But through the several conversations that followed in the last few weeks, it became clear to me that Dad and Eric had no intention of staying put while brothers and sisters suffer in the aftermath of the earthquake. God called and they said yes.

So now the time has come. Tomorrow Eric and Stephen will board a plane that will touch down in Port-au-Prince. The two will not be in contact with us for the next two weeks. I am asking you to join me and the rest of the Life Teen staff in praying for Eric and Stephen. I look forward to sharing their stories with you all upon their return.

Below: Life Teen Missionary Eric Martin greets a new friend in Ghana, Summer 2009.

Below: Life Teen Missionary Pam Savoia (left) and Life Teen Board Member Stephen Smith (yellow shirt) work together on a 2009 mission to Mexico. Read more about Life Teen Missionaries

Below: Stephen Smith stands in front of a gift from his Life Teen group. They created a quilt from T-shirts from many youth conferences and summer camps they have attended together.