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pentecost offering
When the pandemic shut down plans last year for the epic every-third-year event, its fearless and flexible organizers pivoted to take the theme, the swag, the funds and the fun to places where smaller groups of young people could gather safely and share where they saw God in their lives, their relationships and in their larger communities.
Yuriko Beltran doesn’t ask for much — just an opportunity to change the world.
Which is exactly why the 23-year-old entered the PC(USA)’s Young Adult Volunteer program.
Although 15-year-old Grace Reck usually can’t wait to try new things, when given the chance last year to attend her first churchwide youth conference at Montreat, she dragged her feet.
For a minute.
Ever since then, the first-year high school student has jumped at every opportunity to lean in — including “Belonging Together,” a fall youth retreat held in November 2022 at Camp Loucon in Leitchfield, Kentucky, by the state’s three presbyteries.
When Elizabeth Odom was just a baby, so was the Pentecost Offering.
Twenty-five years later, both are thriving.
Today, Elizabeth is a social worker and American Sign Language interpreter serving the Deaf community in Greensboro, North Carolina, and the Pentecost Offering helped her get there.
Everywhere he looked, the Rev. Allen Shelton saw tremendous gaps — gaps that were keeping high school-aged young people of color like Tariq Mayo from succeeding in life.
Everywhere he looked, the Rev. Allen Shelton saw tremendous gaps — gaps that were keeping high school-aged young people of color like Tariq Mayo from succeeding in life.
Shelton, a veteran educator, community advocate and pastor, was determined not to watch Tariq — and so many other promising youth — fall through the cracks of an increasingly broken educational system.
How many times have we seen a modern building, an historic landmark, a great cathedral or a monument and thought, “How did they do that?” Regardless of when it was built, the skill and craftsmanship needed to not only imagine it, but to make it sturdy enough to safely and securely withstand the test of time, boggles the mind.
Yuriko Beltran doesn’t ask for much — just an opportunity to change the world.
Which is exactly why the 23-year-old entered the PC(USA)’s Young Adult Volunteer program.
For Monday’s Between Two Pulpits broadcast, Dr. William McConnell, interim director of Special Offerings, celebrated the start of the Young Adult Volunteer program year by talking to two YAV alums who were equal parts passionate and practical about their own YAV experiences.
After sharing last month the free downloadable resources created to inform possibilities for Triennium-related celebrations in the local context, Gina Yeager-Buckley jumped at the chance Monday to bring along some of the talented people who created the resources related to group study, recreation, and worship and prayer — and are on the verge of creating even more resources in the weeks to come.
