Explosion of young faith this holidays

 

Most kids can’t wait to get out of school when holidays roll around. And some kids volunteer to head back into the classrooms.

But not for typical school activity.

During the first week of the October School holidays, a group of more than 65 children from Year 7 through to Year 12 took part in the Explosion Youth Conference, at St Clare’s College, Canberra.

“We’ve been running for about 12 years now,” said co-ordinator Anna Jeffery.

“The participants are just high school students that voluntarily chose to take part. Many have participated before and about a third are new.”

Anna explained that the purpose of Explosion is to give young people an encounter with the person of Christ and give them the opportunity to experience a personal relationship with Jesus.

“We understand a lot of the kids come from Catholic schools and may go to Mass semi–regularly but may not have actually encountered Jesus in a personal way,” she said.

“So the main overall aim of this conference is to give them that opportunity, to draw them into a relationship with the person of Christ and to understand that He’s actually invested in their lives personally and not just in a general Catholic Church sort of way… that He loves them individually for who they are.”

What’s the problem?

This year, Explosion has run from the evening of Tuesday October 2 through until Friday evening, October 5.

This year’s theme has been “What is the problem”… encompassing the question “what’s the problem with the world and how can god’s love fix it. Organisers aim to encourage participants to question and discuss and arrive at a place of understanding that they are loved, rather than attempt to provide them with answers.

Key activities have included:

• main sessions, where guest speakers address the whole group about their own journey through God’s love, salvation and reconciliation and what that means in their lives
• seminars where participants sign up for different topics that appeal to them or that they want to learn more about
• sharing sessions in smaller groups where participants debrief on the event; and
• lots of free time

“The free time is incredibly useful in making friendships and relationships and building networks with students here from other schools, other grades and other cities including from Sydney and Bega,” Anna said.

Explosion is an outreach of the Disciples of Jesus Community in Canberra and the Fusion Youth Group, with assistance from other groups including YMT in Sydney and CSYMA, and Anna believes that that outreach doesn’t stop at the end of the week.

“At the end, we try and ensure that we follow up the young people… see how they are going, plug them into youth groups and activities if that helps,” she said.

“If they’ve had an experience at Explosion, we don’t want them to think it ends there, or leave them hanging. We want to show them that there are heaps of cool groups out there, and encourage them and give them the tools to continue living out and strengthening their faith.”

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In this Year of Youth, here are some other articles you might be interested in:

• Bishops to lead a new youth focus for universal Church
• Youth rally inspires Canberra students
• Voice of Youth – Senior Q&A
• Voice of Youth speaks up on what God wants
• Adoration cultivates culture of prayer
• Young faith from across Archdiocese shines