As the entire world pivots to virtual versions of well-established events, Kairos North America seeks to provide a spiritual encounter for teens, in spite of distance. Read on to hear our teens share their experience of the virtual retreat.
Overview:
Due to the Pandemic, this year's annual Kairos YES Retreat was cancelled. However, the YES team was able to host a webinar for two hours on Saturday, March 28th where teens from all over the country joined in to hear a talk & witness, entered into worship and interacted with each other teens virtually. The theme of this virtual retreat was "Behold to Become", speaking on what we focus all of our attention on is ultimately what we worship.
The talk was a great reminder to us to make sure that during this difficult time, we must focus our attention on God and pray to Him. That’s definitely something that I haven’t been doing the best job with personally, and I didn’t even realize it.
Ignite Teens Experience:
"Hello! Hope everyone is doing well and staying healthy! During this hard time, I was able to have a positive experience and was asked to share a little bit about it. So, as some of you may know, last weekend was supposed to be this year's YES Retreat for us high schoolers. But due to everything that’s going on, we were unable to attend it in Michigan, so it was instead an online video chat using the app Zoom. When I heard we were doing this, I was a little bit confused as to how this would all play out. Luckily, everything went well. We heard a witness, got a talk, and were able to participate in some prayer. It was all definitely a differentexperience being in the comfort of my own home, rather than going on a fun bus ride and staying in cabins out in Michigan. I think all of us who were supposed to attend could say that we wished we could have been together, but we’re still grateful for the fact that we at least got to have some kind of YES Retreat experience.
Something else they did this year was show videos that included clips of high schoolers and youth workers from all over talking about where they were watching the livestream, how they were coping with being inside, and some of their difficulties.
Personally, I thought this was a great idea as I saw many familiar faces of my friends from here in New Jersey, and we got to see that there are so many others around us going through the same things.
The talk was a great reminder to us to make sure that during this difficult time, we must focus our attention on God and pray to Him. That’s definitely something that I haven’t been doing the best job with personally, and I didn’t even realize it. Being a senior during all of this has been very discouraging as many of our big events have been cancelled and we’re missing so many of our last days of high school. So hearing what they had to say last Saturday definitely helped me remember that my focus during this time should always be on the Lord, and that His plan is greater than anything I could have ever hoped for this year."
- Isabella, Ignite Senior
"Despite not being able attend this year's YES retreat in person, I had the chance to experience community and prayer virtually! The YES team did an incredible job with what they had to work with and the online experience far exceeded my expectation.I am truly grateful that all us high schoolers had this opportunity especially in these trying times. Relating and praying with others is a gift right now. The talks and witnesses were inspiring and it was so cool seeing many different faces telling us where they were from and how they are holding up. Although this was a much different experience, I thoroughly enjoyed what was given to us!"
- Chris, Ignite Senior