Youth Make a Journey on the Road of Life

by Emily McDonald
South East Correspondent
Senior high students from St. Peter's Chattanooga who went on pilgrimage to Milwaukee came home with a new appreciation of their lives and faith.

"After we came back, we learned to be happy with what you have,'' said Betsy Beckham.

The youth and their adult chaperones participated in two ministires run by the Episcopal Diocese of Milwaukee. The first was Our Next Generation, a neighborhood reading program, and the second was The Gathering, a program for the homeless that served breakfast at three Episcopal churches.

A lot of people the group met believe in God, although they have such hard lives, said Morgan Andreae. "I thought that was really cool."

St. Peter's was using the J2A curriculum, which calls for a pilgrimage every two years, at the time a pilgrimage came under discussion. Plans to go to Jamaica and then South Dakota fell through and Tony Walter of the Diocese of Milwaukee, who had presented a Faith Alive youth program at St . Peter's, was contacted about ministry possibilities in his diocese.

At Our Next Generation the young people and adults organized a library, worked in the yard and did some painting. "When they got back from field trips, we read to them every day,'' Andreae said. "They were really cute."

The Gathering was "a food pantry kind of place," Beckham said. "We served food, cleaned up and everything."

The group stayed a week and were housed in a church where, according to Katie Harbison, "we slept on the floor in the basement and used one old creepy shower."

"We had a really good trip,'' said Matt Harbison, her husband. "I think everybody was forced to adjust." The Harbisons head the youth ministry at St. Peter's.

The St. Peter's group held fund-raising events like car washes and spaghetti suppers to raise money for the pilgrimage and received a lot of parish support.

The Harbisons hope that a pilgrimage can become an annual event for the young people of St. Peter's. The Milwaukee trip was "such a family builder," Mr. Harbison said. "The group has become cohesive."

St. Peter's Website: www.stpeter's.org