Youth struggle with Christianity at CrossTrainers

By Michael Wacht

LEESBURG — Inflatable obstacles courses, jousting with giant Q-Tips, crowd surfing and wall-shaking music aren’t normally associated with a spiritual retreat. But for the approximately 600 Florida Conference youth attending the annual CrossTrainers youth weekend Nov. 20-22, it was an ideal environment for struggling with the faith issues they face.

Nicole Goodrich, a 14-year-old from United Methodist Temple in Lakeland, said she attended last year’s event “to get away and get closer to God.” She said it inspired her to pray every day since.

“This year, they’re [event leaders] telling us to search yourself and see what you’re missing and what you need,” Goodrich said. “I’m missing a part of me. It’s hard for me to…live life to the fullest and enjoy what I have instead of wishing I was this or that.”

She said the retreat helped her be more comfortable with herself.

Although the message by featured speaker Bart Campolo inspired 15-year-old Juan De Marco from Perrine-Peters United Methodist Church in Miami, he said it was the delivery that got his attention. “I liked the preaching,” he said. “Bart Campolo preached in a way that’s different than I’ve ever heard.”

He said Campolo introduced an aspect of Christianity he had never considered. “He [Campolo] put a new idea in my head — that Jesus was in love with me,” De Marco said. “I knew he loved me, but never thought about it in that way. I thought God was mad at us and could do whatever he wants, but I never thought he wants to be in my life in every way.”

Mike Standifer, the Florida Conference’s director of Youth and Events ministries, said helping youth with their faith struggles was the weekend’s goal. “It’s all about talking to them at their level about their Christian faith,” he said. “We try to teach them about sharing their faith at their schools, with their families and friends, in a way they can understand.”

Top of this page

 © 1998 Florida United Methodist Review Online