J2A

One of the main differences between Rite-13 and J2A can be best described by some of the first activities in each program.  In Rite-13 the young people will begin with fun and games, be served donuts and juice, run around, and laugh.  One of the first events in J2A, the students go to a leader’s home and the youth are to prepare a meal for the leaders.  The young people prepare and serve the meal and they clean up without any assistance.  The dynamics have radically changed. 

          In J2A the young people begin to explore what different roles they assume in their community.  Do they play the part of teacher, servant, comforter, or facilitator?  Whatever their role, they explore how they can learn from it.  They begin the work of knowing themselves and how they relate to society and to God.

          At the end of the two years of J2A the young people make a holy pilgrimage.  The pilgrimage is not a sight-seeing expedition, nor a mission trip or a service opportunity.  It is a time set aside to seek Christ and to find Christ both in the world and within.  Our pilgrims have gone as far away as Italy, Greece, France, and England, as well as traveling to Montana, Wyoming, and Alaska.  It doesn’t matter where they go as long as they go in search of their own encounter with Jesus Christ.  These young adults are stepping out of their boxes and into unknown territory.  They are hoping to grow in faith and in their church community.   It is expected that when they return they will take a role in their community of faith that allows them to enact the ample opportunity they have had to develop so many skills.  They are ready to receive the new status of Young Adults in the Church.  To learn more about YAC click here