Together '09, 'The Perfect 'Pick-Me-Up''
"Together '09 Sustaining Momentum" was a weekend retreat, offered October 10 and 11, by Grace College and CE National. The purpose of the event was to encourage students to realize that the spiritual life is not meant to be lived alone-but with other believers, through accountability and mentoring relationships-in order to take a stand for God.
Dave Rank, Momentum Coordinator, Ed Lewis, CE National Executive Director, and TK (Timothy Kurtaneck), CE National Director of Church Relations and Youth Leadership Training were assisted by a committee from Grace College in organizing and coordinating the weekend. One hundred and forty-five attended the weekend from Indian, Ohio, Illinois, and western and eastern Pennsylvania.
Through the events, 47 decisions were made by students regarding the desire to have an accountability partner, a mentor, or that they wanted to talk to their youth leader more about these concepts!
The following is an edited article in the Grace College student newspaper regarding this excellent weekend:
By Ashlea Reinsch
Staff Writer, The Sounding Board
On October 10-11, 2009, CE National and Grace College partnered to sponsor Together '09, a follow-up to the annual youth conference, Momentum. There were 115 high school students and 30 adults who attended Together '09 at Grace College.
The conference had three main sessions: "Student Testimonies," led by CE National executive director Ed Lewis on Saturday morning; "Our Weakness," led by Kondo Simfukwe on Saturday evening; and "Discipleship" led by CE National ambassadors Stacie Fay and Sarah Knepper. All of the session leaders graduated from Grace College and participated in Momentum in the past. Six break-out groups from Freshman Foundations also helped throughout the weekend.
Jeremy Byng and his band from Grace Community Church in Goshen, Ind., led the worship music. Other events that weekend, led by the Student Affairs Office, included: tailgate lunch party at Miller Field, special group building games, "You Choose" activities--like art projects, drama workshop, science activity, sports, and a worship leading seminar.
“The intent was for students to have a ‘pick me up’ after the Momentum conference and be challenged to live for Jesus and take steps to become more like Him each day,” said TK (Timothy Kurtaneck), director of church relations and youth leadership training at CE National.
In addition to the main sessions, there were also training tracks on Sunday which included: "The Greatest Thing a Real Friend Could Ever Do" by Kurtaneck, "Urban Missions" by Brent Saba (Grace graduate and a director at Urban Hope Training Center in Philadelphia), "Prayer" by Roger Peugh (professor of world mission), "How to Be Your Best" by Rich Yauger (Grace Seminary graduate and youth pastor at Grace Community Church in Goshen).
"It was the perfect ‘pick-me-up.’ Unique events like this play a special role in our spiritual development,” said Scott Feather, who was one of the head planners for the event.
"Together '09 was a great experience for me," said Tyler Landis, a participant of Together '09. "It was a great way to make new friends and meet up with old ones and a great way to keep what we learned at Momentum alive. It reminded me of how important a discipleship relationship is and that we can’t run this race alone; we need others running with us to encourage us and keep us accountable."
Those involved with Together ’09 hope to have a similar event next year. "The plan is for this kind of an event to be scheduled each year during the fall semester," Kurtaneck said.
To find out more about Momentum Youth Conference, go to buildmomentum.org.
