Search, Discover retreats help youth grow in faith
By Renee Webb, Globe diocesan news editor
Posted January 10, 2002

Overnight retreats for high school students provide the time and atmosphere conducive for faith development and moving spiritual experiences that few other types of ministry can duplicate, according the diocesan youth minister.

The Diocese of Sioux City sponsors two such retreats. Search Weekend, designed for juniors and seniors, will be held Feb. 1-3 at Holy Family Parish in Emmetsburg and April 19-21 at Kuemper High School in Carroll. Discover, designed for freshmen and sophomores, will be held Jan. 26-27 at Immaculate Conception Church in Cherokee and April 27-28 in Nativity Church in Sioux City.

"What is part of these retreat experiences that you won't find in an afternoon of reflection is a depth in community building in which people begin to open up and share how they really feel about matters of faith, their relationship with God and the needs in their life," said Pat Rinker, director of youth and young adult ministry.

The retreats come at a time in the lives of teens when they may be questioning their faith and when they may be struggling between the conflict of adapting to today's culture and the values given to them by their parents. High school years may also be a time when they wonder about where God is, especially when there are difficult family situations such as job losses or divorces.

"This creates - what we call in Search - hungers, times in our lives when we feel an emptiness or a great need," said Rinker. "In that search, we often come to points where we make choices. Amongst those choices there is Christ who we believe is the only one who can feel the hungers."

The Search Weekend is built around the cycle of conversion - hungers, search to fill the hungers, Christ filling the hungers/needs and the response to Christ.

Various dynamics are used in during the weekend such as witness talks, role-playing, small group discussion, large group community building activities, private reflection, journaling and a variety of prayer experiences.

To ensure the highest quality retreat the Search Board continually evaluates and updates it as needed. New members of the board are John and Marie Washburn of Kingsley, Nicole Kreber of Sioux City, Tom Clark and Todd Clark of Kingsley. Other members include Father Ed Girres of Fort Dodge, Mike and Anita Gaspers of Danbury, Bill Black of Algona, Stephanie Tiefenthaler of Sioux City, and Barb Kuebler of Jefferson.

The Discover retreat is built around what Christ calls the youth to in their relationships with God, family and friends.

"Our hope is that through Discover they go back to their friendships with a healthier sense of what it means to be a friend and what to look for in Christian friendship, that they go back to their family better able to be a healthy participant and they will go back to their relationship with God with a deeper sense of the friendship that Christ offers them and the kind of friendship that we need to in turn offer back to him," said Rinker.

Similar dynamics are offered in Discover as in the Search Weekend.

Both retreats also feature reconciliation and a Eucharistic celebration. Rinker pointed out that time and again the sacraments rate very high in the retreat evaluations. The retreats set the tone for these powerful experiences.

"It is paramount for our sacramental experiences to be directly related to the significant experiences in our lives," he said. "If we are going to be sacramental people, then our experience of the sacraments should be profound."

Cost of the Search Weekend is $50 and Discover is $25. Check in your parish or school for a registration form or call the Office of Youth Ministry at (712) 233-7520.