Print Issue: July 4, 2002

Adoration Experience Strengthens Teens' Faith

Feeling God's love is a desire that is shared by most of the teens that come to Sonfest and it is a desire that is realized in the pivotal moment of the week, eucharistic adoration on the beach. For the teens that return year after year, it is the moment they look for when they can really open up to God, pour out their hearts and ask him to move in their life. Justin Estes from St. Lawrence Church, Lawrenceville, says that adoration puts him in awe of God and that his heart is open to the real presence of Jesus. "Adoration time gives me insight into where I need to go and what I need to work on in my spiritual life. each time I come into His presence here I have felt like I didn't need anything, but each time Jesus showed me that I did," he said.

For teens that have never experienced eucharistic adoration, the time is truly powerful. "For the first time I really prayed and talked to God," said Anne Hedges from St. Oliver Plunkett Church, Snellville.

This year the magnitude of 500 teenagers along with their adult chaperones and youth ministers gathered around the Blessed Sacrament under a moonlit sky was breathtaking to the participants and to others that simply came across the devotion. Residents of neighboring hotels came out of their rooms to watch and witness the power of the Holy Spirit moving and transforming lives. Todd Magee, who came to handle sound for Kevin Wyglad's band, has been away from the church for nearly seven years. This was not what even he expected. "These teens have evangelized me more in these five days than I have been in my whole life," he said. With his own recommitment to christ in his life, he is eager to rejoin this faith community and return to the sacraments.

A powerful living witness of the work of the Holy Spirit in an entire youth group was seen through the relationships of the youth members of Prince of Peace Church, Buford. Their group was responsible for the session on 'Stirring the Spirit" and the group led a devotional time in which teens were given the opportunity to be prayed over. Sarah Storbeck gave a witness talk about the power of community in being led by faith in Jesus Christ. She honestly spoke about how there are times when your faith is not strong, but that there is hope when you have a community of believers who are there to lift you up and help you understand why you are loved. Tandy Krajec shared how through adoration she felt part of a greater family. "I saw my group...it was like the parting of the Red Sea," she said. "I felt like I was going home and God was speaking to me and telling me that this was where I belonged." Mike Coker echoed the feelings of his youth group and brought it together when he acknowledged who was the master of this perfect plan. "It amazes me how God can bring us closer as a group and that we have to have something - that part that is greater than all of us." Their youth minister, Gloria Whidby, was also amazed by the depth of this retreat experience. In summing up the week, she said, "I think that the teens really went deeper. They are really empowered. It is incredible and awesome that there are over 500 teens going back to their parishes all throughout the Archdiocese of Atlanta. If they are as empowered as I think they are, there are going to be some incredible changes."