Middle school rally - Students encouraged to be themselves

By KATIE LEFEBVRE, Globe staff reporter
Oct. 11, 2007

A chance to learn about God and meet other students from the diocese was what one attendee of the middle school rally liked best.

"I liked doing all the activities with the other students," said Nic Steffes, a sixth grader from Carroll Kuemper. "I learned to always do what you want to do and not what everyone else wants."

The middle school rally was held Oct. 6 at St. Mary's School in Storm Lake. There were about 230 attendees.

Designed for students in sixth through eighth grade, the rally provided a balance of spiritual, educational and social elements.

"Middle school kids are at a point of transition," said La Fleur. "It is time for them to be thinking a little more seriously about their faith. This is an age where questions start to arise - good questions and challenging questions. It becomes meaningful to them."

The standing theme for all of the middle school rallies was and will be Exodus.

"Exodus is a time of wandering in the desert. It was a transitional time for our forefathers," said Jessica La Fleur Malm, director of youth and young adult ministry for the Diocese of Sioux City. "Faith was always a part of their history, however, it took a different meaning during the Exodus time frame. It leads to where we are today. For middle school youth, faith has probably always been apart of their lives. In middle school, it is time to take things more seriously. It is a turning point of deeper significance."

The day began with prayer and the introduction of the keynote speaker, Chris Weber, a youth minister in Muscatine, Iowa. During his presentation, the students did a series of icebreakers to get to know one another and work together. One of the highlights was playing Simon Says.

He then talked about things that remind him of middle school - Brute cologne, French rolled jeans, etc. Those were things that were cool in 1992, so he asked the students what is cool now. They said sports, band, etc.

"Our job is to find a way to be comfortable with ourselves and be proud of who we are before we try to worry about anyone else," said Weber.

He came up with an acronym for Exodus that he shared with the students. E stands for Eucharist; X is for xtreme; O is for open; D stands for do it; U is for united; and S is for service.

"I thought to myself about Exodus," said Weber. "What does Exodus mean? Eucharist is where we get our strength from. We are called to have extreme faith. We don't have a weak faith. We have a faith that comes from a God that loved us so much he became one of us. If you make the decision to have a relationship with Christ, to have that kind of faith where you do what God calls you to do, you are going to need to be open."

He explained that "do it" means to go out, live faith and do something. Weber said that God gave the church so the people could be united.

"At the heart of it all, we are called to service," said the keynote. "At the end of Mass we get the mission to go out and serve the Lord. We have got to be servant people. That to me is what Exodus is about - waking up to the fact that we have a God who loves us, calls us by name and wants us. If you put those six things together, that is the kind of faith that will carry you through."

He concluded the first session of the day with a prayer.

"The message was good. He took his own spin on the theme of Exodus," said La Fleur. "The keynote speaker did a good job of energizing the kids, not just having them sitting and listening. He had them doing activities that led to something meaningful."

Remedy Drive, an independent Christian rock band from Lincoln, Neb., performed after the keynote. Four brothers - David, Daniel, Philip and Paul Zach - make up the group and each plays an instrument and offers vocals.

The group describes their music as a call to new life and a new heart. The band has been touring nationally playing around 200 shows a year for the past three years.

For some of the middle schoolers, including Cierra Boyer, Maloree Gaspers, Jessica Ingram and Meri Kestel, the band was their favorite part of the day.

Following the concert, Father William Vit, parochial vicar at St. Mary's in Storm Lake. Students and adults from the diocese were part of the Mass as singers, guitar players, lectors, Eucharistic ministers and gift bearers.

"All of the wonderful things we have already encountered today - meeting other people, listening to music, listening to the speaker - is built around one thing, our relationship with God," said Father Vit during the homily. "As we come to this church to celebrate this Mass it is that relationship with God that we are focusing on. The sacrifice of this Mass goes out and encompasses everything we have done today."

He said that Mass was the most important part of the day.

"We are on this experience called Exodus," said the priest. "It comes from the early parts of the Bible when the Jews who were living in Egypt left and went to the promise land. The importance of the story is as the Jews left Egypt, they didn't know where to go. They could go north, south, east or west, but they decided to go in the direction that the Lord was calling them."

The Jews walked 40 years in the desert because they knew at the end of the journey the Lord was waiting for them, explained Father Vit.

"Each and every one of us are at a moment in our lives when we are making that first step towards magnificent, wonderful journey to find God in a world that is sometimes crazy," he said.

Father Vit also talked about the story of the mustard seed and how it grows strong.

The rally continued after Mass with a final activity involving the adults and students. The students were asked questions that the adults would know and the adults were asked questions the students would know.

"I do this to get you thinking about the fact that we are all from different generations," said Weber. "We do things a little differently."

He related a story about cell phones now and when he was in middle school - things have changed.

Another message Weber relayed to the students was "you were bought with the blood of Christ. You were paid for on the cross. We just celebrated that at Mass."

He took a $10 bill out of his pocket, crumpled it up, stepped on it and asked if anyone still wanted it. Several students raised their hand.

"No matter how many times you get kicked around, knocked down, pushed around, excluded, not invited, God loves you so much more than any of us would ever want that $10 bill," said Weber. "That blows my mind. I can never earn the love God has for me. There is nothing I am ever going to do to deserve that kind of love, but God is going to love me anyway."

Boyer, a seventh grade student from St. Joseph's in Anthon, said she liked the keynote speaker. She learned how to "survive middle school" and what Exodus stands for.

"I liked the whole thing," said Gaspers, an eighth grader from St. Mary's in Danbury. "It was really fun. From the speaker I learned that you don't have to be someone else to be accepted. You can just be yourself."

Kestel from Schaller St. Joseph's liked everything about the day and also learned that people should just be themselves.

Ingram, a sixth grader from St. Mary's in Oto, met a lot of new people during the day.

"I learned that you don't have to do different things to fit in," she said.

La Fleur noted that overall the day went very well and that St. Mary's was an "excellent" host.

"I hope the students were able to hear a message that was unique to their experience," she said. "I hope they were able to connect with their peers from across the diocese."