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Leaders from our ten partner parishes were asked to tell us about a ministry moment, an encounter with a young adult, or a place they experienced God this month. Here are their testimonies:

“This May, we tried ‘hosting’ a cooking class for 16 young adults (capacity of the venue) entitled ‘Ravioli 101.’ We had a great mix of single and married young adults show up, and, because some of the steps could all be done together and some required people to wait their turns, it created a nice dynamic of young adults having to rotate who they were talking with in a completely unintended and natural way. This was also nice because some of the attendees were also there for the opportunity to meet other people.”

“Brian is a young adult who moved into the area in the past year. He has come to several events, and I decided to take him out to lunch. He has a deep desire to serve and is now going to head up our efforts to serve once a month. It will begin as a young adult movement, but the ultimate goal is to get the entire parish involved.”

“There is a new young adult who has been coming into our community. He is interested in converting. It has been so awesome to see his faith journey. He came with me to my diocese’s ordination, and he told me afterward how cool it was to see how our priests are ordained similarly to priests in the Old Testament.”

“More and more of our elder parishioners are mentioning to me that young people are showing up here. I’m very happy about that. The increased numbers of people coming to Mass here is having a significant impact on the whole parish: bringing hope and joy.”

“We had our first annual International Food Festival hosted by our Youth and Young Adult Ministries for the Feast of Pentecost! It was an incredible evening of food, entertainment, and fellowship. We had somewhere between 600-700 people in attendance!”

“One of our young adults volunteered for Vacation Bible School this past week, and it was great to get to know her better! I got to hear her story and why she decided to become Catholic and how she is inspiring others around her to come back to the faith.”

“We are blessed to have hired our second young adult intern this summer, and there have been some incredible ministry moments having three young adults in internship and seminarian roles on staff.”

“St. Joe’s had the most beautiful Corpus Christi Eucharistic procession! It was beautiful to see our whole parish and its many cultures come together to adore Jesus and praise His Almighty Name!”

“We had a great celebration for graduates. It was great to just listen to their plans for the future and how the Church is part of that future!”