Youth Leaders of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception, Avondale attended a very fruitful program that has given them a lot of tools for bringing Jesus to young people.

On the 12th of April 2019, youth leaders and myslef attended a program called ""Life Teen"; I must admit that because it was my first time to attend I had low expectations for the program.The program was held over 3 days and to my great surprise, these 3 days were the most life changing, inspirational days I have ever experienced! Life teen is a movement that is aimed at helping young people move closer to Christ. I was able to reflect and pick up core tips to help other young teens who are questioning their faith. The most useful of these were the ""6 C’s", a handy way of remembering tips for attracting and welcoming teenagrs to a new community.

1. Contact:Be yourself around all young people and not to have favourites.
2. Connect:Communicate with teens and encourage them to have confidence to step out of their comfort zones.
3. Care:Teens want to be heard so a way we can show them we care is if we allowed them to share their voice.
4. Challenge:Challenge the Teens to push themselves and when they fall let them fall then walk with them.
5. Commitment:Always acknowledge the presence of youngn people and commit to the cause at the same level you want the young people to be committed.
6. 6 Co-worker:To be a leader to teens be a friend of them; find out about their interests and share personal experiences.

These 6 C'S have taught me that if I want to have a strong relationship with God then I must be ready to listen and act out his call. Life teen has motivated me to prepare the search for whatever missing pieces there may be from my own personal faith journey, as I was able to feel a spiritual connection by God telling me to continue on my journey.

Life Teen has also given me a more confident understanding of my identity and my Faith, indeed i even felt my faith expand through the knowledge I received from others who shared their personal experiences. I came to the realization that because our generation were brought up with electronic devices we are sometimes too connected to them, meaning that we don’t realise that God comes to us many different forms. We can feel Him in through people or an event that happened. When we realize this, we can physically feel that God is there watching and journeying with us, as he calls our names spiritually.