Over Thanksgiving weekend, Sarah Stephens, a young member of St Philip's, attended the BCYAYM Fall Conference in Merritt, BC along with youth and youth leaders from across the province (and beyond). The following is her reflection on her time there.
When asked to summarize the BCYAYM Fall
Conference, the first thing that came to mind was “life changing”. On the
morning of Friday October 5th I was sitting in my history class
wondering why on earth I was going to Merritt for Thanksgiving weekend with a
bunch of strangers; and on Monday October 8th I was wondering why I
had to leave all of my amazing friends behind and go home.
I met so many incredible
people that weekend and I have so many amazing memories although the one memory
that stands out for me would be the healing service. The healing service took
place on the Saturday in the evening and it is a time where everyone sits in
the church and they can talk about troubles they are having, cry freely and
pray without feeling judged. As soon as one person started to cry, the church
was filled with young adults who were crying due to so many reasons yet they
were being comforted by people they had met just the day before. It was truly
incredible to see boys who weren’t afraid to cry, girls who weren’t afraid of
messing up their makeup when they were crying, as well as boys comforting and
not being afraid of girls who were crying.
The friendships created over this
weekend are as true and real as they can be because no one was hiding anything.
Most young people feel the need to hide something about them at school whether
it be their religion, they sing in 3 choirs or that sometimes it just feels
good to cry. At BCYAYM nobody hides anything because as one person put it “we
are all crazy yet that’s why we are one big BCYAYM family”. We met real people
this weekend not fake people; we met people like us who hadn’t showered in
days, slept on the hard ground, woke up cold in the middle of the night and who
just wanted to be loved and accepted for who we were. I felt truly accepted and
part of the family even though I was brand new and just hours earlier knew
nobody.
The bus ride home, although it was 4 hours, felt like it was over in
the blink of an eye because nobody wanted to say goodbye. Even though we all
live either in B.C. or Alberta, and we will most likely see each other soon, it
felt like we were saying goodbye forever to a friend we had known for a
lifetime. This was a truly unforgettable experience and I will cherish the
memory of my first but certainly not last BCYAYM Fall Conference for the rest
of my life.
Next year, Sarah and I hope more of the youth will join us at the Fall Conference. If you have questions about the BCYAYM just check out their website.
No comments:
Post a Comment