In April, over 400 high school students and youth group leaders from North America gathered in Hillsdale, Michigan for the annual Kairos YES! Retreat. Young people came from Michigan, Ohio, Maryland, New Jersey, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, California, Florida, Quebec, Ontario, and from far away Bri sh Columbia; to be part of this amazing weekend. YES stands for Youth Equipped to Stand and the retreat is an annual event for high school students in Kairos outreaches. The theme this year was Light in the Storm. Talks centered on our call in Kairos and The Sword of the Spirit to be a light to the world, to stand as a refuge in the storms of life, and to embrace the blessing and obliga on of discipleship. The youth were challenged to join the team and live radically as Chris ans in community.
DC Summer Adventure In July, Jeanne Smith and the Triumph of the Cross Community in Middletown, MD (with help from volunteer staff from Maryland, Florida, Michigan, and Minnesota) hosted two DC Summer Adventures for junior high girls. The DC Summer Adventures brought together girls from Sword of the Spirit communi es in New Jersey, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Ontario, to grow in the Lord, to build closer rela onships, learn prac cal skills, and see the sights of the Washington DC area. Morning ac vi es included cooking for one another (with minimal supervision), praying together (using the Kairos ipray program), and learning CPR. Then, off to see the sights of the DC area: Mount Vernon, Harpers Ferry, Cunningham Falls and a lazy a ernoon on the water, the Newseum, and the US Capitol. In the evening, the girls would return to the Smith home near DC for swimming, bonfires, movies and lots of laughter. Each day ended with night prayers. Saturday morning was filled with cleaning, hugs and email address exchanges. Each week was full of blessings, some that the girls may not appreciate un l they are older. The community these girls built was loving, fun, and centered on serving Christ and each other. The DC Summer Adventures were a complete success! Top Row: Howard Zipf, Tom Benson, Eleanor Benson, Paul Giegerich, Mary Alice Giegerich, Cathy Forman, Len Forman, Dick Birmingham; Bo om Row: Ginny Zipf, Frank Helfrich, Rose Helfrich, Bob McCabe, Claire Birmingham; Not Pictured: Walt & Joanne Quense, Ray & Rose Molnar, Emma Militante, Lee & Kathy Ravaioli, Chuck & Jane Calarco, Howie & Rita Myers Fighting The Good Fight The People of Hope Community in Plainfield, New Jersey, is blessed to have eight couples who have celebrated their golden (50 year) anniversaries and five couples who have celebrated their diamond (60 year) wedding anniversaries. Recently the Warren District celebrated with many of these couples. When asked how they were able to weather the storms that over these many years, all gave glory to the Lord Jesus and his love and care. They thanked God for their spouse, the support of brothers and sisters in the community, and the community teaching on marriage and family life. These brothers and sisters are great examples of those who set their hand to the plow and have not looked back. Dave Touhill 2
Work of Christ Summer Camp The Work of Christ Community in Lansing, Michigan, held its 34th annual summer camp this past August. About 100 3 6th grade children par cipated, coming from Lansing, Grand Rapids, Ann Arbor, South east Michigan, Detroit, and several other ci es. Over 100 adults served at the camp as counselors, cooks, Bible study leaders, doing cleaning and maintenance, and organizing camp cra s. Dozens more drove up Monday evening to lead the camp s game night. The most important ac vity at summer camp is the Wednesday Night Gathering for Christ, at which the children are prayed with to receive gi s of the Holy Spirit. The theme for this year s camp was All Hail King Jesus (you can see the kingly crown on the t shirts worn by the campers) and this theme was developed through skits at breakfast and in the daily Bible studies and prayer mes. 3 Kairos Benefit Breakfast In June, Kairos North America held its first Breakfast Benefit in Lansing, Michigan. (Kairos is the youth outreach of the Sword of the Spirit.) The event included compelling tes monies from Deacon Vince Richardson, Tessa Vance, and Molly Annala. They shared about the impact of Kairos retreats, mission trips, college outreaches, and youth groups in transforming them into mature Chris an adults. A video was presented illustra ng the need for youth to have a support system from adolescence to adulthood and how Kairos provides just that. Twenty seven table captains were recruited and asked to invite ten other people to join them for the event. The captains were surprised at the how willing people were to a end an event they knew was a fundraiser. The breakfast was a huge success! Kairos achieved its goal by having well over 200 guests in a endance. Guests were invited to become members of the Kairos Sustainable Support Team and provide long term support for Kairos. Many donors made a five year pledge of support. In addi on to dona ons, there have been many follow up conversa ons with guests who expressed interest in Chris an community life.
2013 provided another summer full of service and leadership opportuni es for high school students involved with the Kairos mission trips program. It also marked the first year in which Kairos mission trips provided several trips for youth outside of the Sword of the Spirit. In the month of May, eleven sophomores from The Po er s House High School in Wyoming, Michigan joined our Kairos team in order to serve disadvantaged families and orphans across the Arizona border in Agua Prieta, Mexico. The trips provided many opportuni es to assist in home construc on and significant social work. Two more Kairos teams, comprised primarily of Sword of the Spirit youth, followed the earlier teams con nuing the good work that had begun earlier in May. These nineteen youth worked on several homes and spent considerable me with orphans from the neighboring town of Naco. All four teams had the chance to see some of the surrounding landscapes while hiking in American na onal parks. A team of eight girls descended on the city of Detroit, Michigan in July and teamed up with Youthworks Detroit to serve a family in Highland Park doing home repairs and landscaping the property. The team also visited a local soup kitchen, helped young people with special needs in a morning art project, and helped with a neighborhood pain ng project. All told, the team was thoroughly blessed to be together and to reach out to our neighbors in Detroit. To close out the summer, a Ranch Challenge group of eight boys and three staff traveled to central and western Nebraska to work on ca le ranches. There, the team cut an es mated 3,000 4,000 trees, built barbed wire fences, and repaired or replaced several windmill watering tanks. A combina on of hard work, beau ful weather, awesome cloudscapes, good prayer mes, and excellent camaraderie made this service and character forming experience a memorable one. All told, 46 youth represen ng ten North American Sword of the Spirit communi es par cipated on the Kairos mission trips. May God bless them richly for their many stellar efforts. (Mike Kramer, Mission Trips director) 4
University Christian Outreach, Grand Rapids, MI The Lord is at work among the students of UCO Grand Valley! He con nues to help our chapter grow in commitment to Chris an community and to radical discipleship. Over the summer, the men s and women s summer households helped our students to gain a deeper understanding of the blessing of inten onal community life and of brotherhood and sisterhood. It was a privilege to watch the Lord work powerfully in our student s lives through their commitment to him in daily prayer and household life. A highlight was winning the SOS soccer tournament for the first me (photo above). The Lord has also been shaping our students through service and leadership. Four of our students had the opportunity to par cipate in Detroit Summer Outreach this summer, two will be serving on GAP years, and thirteen of our students and four staff, a ended the Summer Academy. Our chapter is experiencing deeper faith and new grace and opportunity for mission. We pray that the Lord would increase our courage for outreach this next year and con nue to build up new leaders among our students. University Christian Outreach Staff Training In August, 38 University Chris an Outreach (UCO) staff workers gathered for three days of training. Staff came from UCO chapters in Lansing, Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids, Hillsdale, Pi sburgh, Maryland, Vancouver, and Montreal. The training, given by former UCO staff workers Dave Quintana and Ken Noecker, focused on overall vision and helpful methods for planning programs, working with students, and personally engaging the work. The me ended with a prayer mee ng where the Lord reaffirmed his sovereignty and his love, reminding us that we are, above all else, his people, and as such called to manifest his unity, hope, and glorious love. Missionary-In-Residence Saint Paul s Outreach (SPO) in New Jersey, a ministry affiliated with the Sword of the Spirit, con nues to seize evangelis c rich opportuni es! This year, three of our five SPO mission leaders will par cipate in Seton Hall University s Missionary In Residence Program. The program is in its inaugural year and serves as a way for young leaders to have a more natural way of reaching out to and sharing their faith with students. SPO New Jersey was approached by the university to take the lead in supplying missionaries for this program. Mission leaders, Peter DeMarais, Jason Dudziak, and Rebecca Shrake will take part in the day to day life of the residence hall and share their faith with the freshman students. This program also creates opportuni es for the SPO mission leaders to invite students to a end SPO retreats and to take part in the SPO Forma on Program. Photo above: Jason Dudziak, Kimi Bulter, Rita Buganski, Rebecca Shrake, and Peter DeMarais; SPO New Jersey Mission Leaders Learn more about the Sword of the Spirit in North America and its outreaches on the internet: sos nar.com taborpub.com ucoweb.org kairos na.org 5
PTI on Conversion Leaders of Sword of the Spirit communi es throughout North America a ended Pastoral Teaching Ins tutes (PTI) Held in Ypsilan, Michigan and in Plainfield, New Jersey. The topic of this year s PTI was conversion and examined how people come to the Lord Jesus and into mature discipleship. Par cipants reviewed the scriptures rela ng to the topic, examined basic spiritual truths, and discussed the pastoral task of Chris an Ini a ons. Photos above: PTI speakers: Paul Dinolfo, Jon Wilson, Dave Hughes, Steve Clark, and Dan Kea ng. At le : PTI session in Ypsilan. International Women s Conference 238 women leaders from 25 countries, represen ng 63 Sword of the Spirit communi es, came to Santa Domingo, Dominican Republic, during the week of April 8 14, for the quadrennial Interna onal Women s Conference. The sessions were held in either Spanish or English, so for some of the women, it was a valiant effort to comprehend everything (for some of the Arabic, German, Polish, Armenian, French, or Flemish speakers, these were third or even fourth languages!). Our theme was Arise, Shine Out! Much of the conference teaching was geared to helping us thrive in a very secular new reality. The modern world assaults every front: spiritual, moral, marriage, family and single life, and so on. We heard much about modern youth culture and new media. As leaders, we need to resist fear and work to build and strengthen the women in our communi es. The Lord called us to recommit to our call and mission as the Sword of the Spirit, to stand firm even in face the spiritual tsunami assailing us, to be prepared to give more and sacrifice more, and to con nue the building of the Bulwark. Instead of fear, the Lord called us to faith and confidence, both for us and for the youth He is raising up. The brothers and sisters in the Cuerpo de Cristo Community in Santa Domingo were our hosts for the conference. They demonstrated sacrificial hospitality in the way they served and welcomed us. From the wonderful DR welcome as we arrived, to deligh ul entertainment, and to the glorious me of prayer and worship together, we were well cared for. It was a week to remember! 6
Family of Faith Community, New Jersey Family of Faith Community offered the Paren ng Young Children Minicourse in may. The two day course was a ended by the parents of the community with some invited guests. Speakers included Jeff Smith, senior coordinator of Triumph of the Cross community in Middletown, MD, Bob Tedesco, former president of Sword of the Spirit NAR, and Cecil Penson, senior coordinator of the Family of Faith. Four talks were presented: Introduc on to Chris an Paren ng, Prac cal Issues in Paren ng Young Children, Discipline of Children, and Establishing Family Pa erns. The course was concluded with a Lord's Day celebra on on Saturday a ernoon. In august, parents and children gathered to a end a Bridge Retreat, with the goal of closing that gap and strengthening the communica on between parents and their teens. Rex Poyaoan, Family of Faith s youth leader and Ray Rutz (our guest speaker from the People of Hope community) spoke to parents and youth during the half day retreat. They gave parents wisdom and prac cal applica ons for how to be er listen to, understand, and encourage their children and teens. City on the Hill Los Angeles, CA City on the Hill s District D had the opportunity to serve as living extension of Jesus hands last June. Members of the district spent the day at Isaiah House, a shelter run by the Catholic Worker Movement for the needy and homeless in the city of Santa Ana, California. The brothers and sisters of District D prepared a meal for 80 homeless people, provided an entertainment program, shared friendship and fellowship with the residents, and have an ongoing commitment to pray for the people living at Isaiah House. YouthWorks-Detroit A er three years of faithful service, Ellen Sellstrom has moved on from working with us, but we are thankful that she and her husband will con nue to live in our community here in Detroit. We hired Chad Shellabarger as our new program director. Chad and his wife Doris have moved to Detroit to live and serve among us. In Chad s words: God chooses the mid, fearful, and weak for His purposes. There is no earthly logic as to why I have the privilege of serving in Detroit, but here I am. As the new program director of YouthWorks Detroit, I am grateful to have an opportunity to serve the King of Kings on the front lines in this company of veterans. Among many other projects this summer, Detroit Summer Outreach, Bezelel Project, Street Team, and Live Coal Gallery (YW D programs) created four different outdoor murals to beau fy Detroit. Above, Chad Shellabarger (the new program director) examines the We are Detroit mural, which is almost ready to be mounted in Youth Works Detroit s community garden. For more informa on, please visit youthworks detroit.org. 7
School of New Evangelization In August, Saint Paul s Outreach (SPO), a Catholic university outreach affiliated with the Sword of the Spirit, hosted its largest ever School of New Evangeliza on in Saint Paul, Minnesota. 227 students and staff from SPO chapters all over the USA a ended the eight day training program. Par cipants were challenged first to become someone in Christ, before they seek to do something for Christ. Evangeliza on begins with disciples who are rooted in Christ. You cannot give something away that you do not yourself possess. Students were called to make decisions in life that have faith as their founda on. In addi on to the teaching presented at the SNE, par cipants served others by preparing 750 personal care kits for use in homeless shelters in and around the Twin Ci es. They also packed a year s worth of meals for 84 hungry kids: yes, that comes to more than 30,000 meals. In addi on, during the eight days of the SNE, par cipants raised over $6,000 to pay for the meals they packed. To learn more about the SNE and the work of SPO, visit the Saint Paul s Outreach website: spoweb.org Summer Academy 2013 This year the UCO Summer Academy was an anointed me of prayer, fellowship, learning, and gaining the vision that the Lord has for UCO in the coming year. The Summer Academy, formerly known as Campus Outreach Academy, is always a great me to connect and build rela onships with people from other UCO chapters, and it is a really great me for fostering that regional iden ty we have as UCO. This year our academy teachings were focused on The Makers of the Modern Mind, and were taught by Drs. Dan Kea ng and Tom Bergler. We learned about the men who helped to shape the worldviews and minds of people in the world, and how we can build bridges, rela onally and intellectually, to help lead people to faith. On top of that, we had a UCO series, in which we learned about the Lord s vision for UCO, and who we are as a holy people, set apart for him. The Lord really blessed us with a great week at Spring Arbor University this year, and it s one that will undoubtedly help shape our lives in each of our chapters this coming year. We look forward to what the Lord is going to do with this, and how we can apply what we ve learned to our campuses! 8 The Sword of the Spirit is dedicated to spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ and strengthening Christian people (Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox) through active evangelization and by forming Christian communities. In our youth outreach and community building work, we encourage men and women to give their lives fully to Jesus Christ, practice daily Christian disciple -ship, and to zealously proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ to others. The Sword of the Spirit is supported by charitable contributions. Your support is welcome! Contributions to The Sword of the Spirit are tax deductible in the United States. Jerry Munk, Newsletter Editor 2013 by The Sword of the Spirit 4828 S. Hagadorn Road East Lansing, Michigan 48823 Telephone: (517) 336-8530. With this issue we continue a change in the SOS-NAR Newsletter pattern. For many years the newsletter has been published in March and September. We will now publish in April and October; one month later than before. This change will allow us to better cover summer and fall activities.