A large wooden cross covered in hand-written prayers lay on the ground. Moments earlier hundreds of high school students were crowded together praying and singing; some with tears, others with laughter. In their absence, the cross was left with scattered permanent markers and a strange object nearby: a 2-liter plastic bottle filled with sand and small scraps of paper.
This plastic bottle had a very significant journey during Kairos, the annual week long Virginia Synod youth event held June 21-28 at Roanoke College.
“The first small group, one of our leaders had the empty bottle and some sand and she told us to write down something that worried us or stressed us out,” said Angel Ross.
Angel Ross, a rising sophomore in high school, is a member of St. Michael Lutheran Church in Virginia Beach is part of small group 7.
After every member of small group 7 had written down something that caused them stress, they put their worries in the bottle and poured sand in the bottle to signify the weight that is felt when you try to bear your own burdens.
During the first few days of Kairos every member of group 7 carried the bottle for an hour every day and during each small group the students wrote down more of their worries.
The small group leaders from Group 7, Kayla St. Germain and Rachel White, wanted to illustrate that the longer you hold onto your worries, the more burdensome they become.
“They all put their worries in the same bottle because in reality, we’re not just carrying our own worries. We worry for our friends, our mother, and our father and we become stressed out whether we realize it or not,” said Rachel.
The plan for this exercise was to complement the overarching Kairos theme.
“The theme this year is “Consider It All Joy” and we took it from James 1:2-4,” said Travis Redman, a member of this year’s planning group and of Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Virginia Beach.
“The verses talk about the struggles and the trials that we face and how we should consider it all joy because of how it allows us to grow in our faith,” he said.
The planning group helped shape the entire event and they spent months in preparation before all the participants arrived at Kairos.
This year the group is made up of Allen Britt from St. Philip in Roanoke, Maggie McPherson from Our Saviour in Christiansburg, Emiliy Mussey from Christ Lutheran in Fredericksburg, Phoebe Nassar from Christ the King in Richmond, Travis Redmond from Emmanuel in Virginia Beach, Nathaniel Schaus from First Lutheran in Norfolk , and Grace Yucha from Epiphany in Richmond.
One of their most noticeable responsibilities is performing skits at every largegroup meeting. This year each of the planning group members is a super hero with various super powers such as flying, talking to vegetables, and making puns.
Travis Redmond played the part of the Exclaimer, the super villain who brought terror to all by exclaiming random, irrefutable facts.
While the skits provided lots of laughs for onlookers, the storyline slowly revealed a connection to the overall theme of the event and offered an avenue for conversation in small groups.
It was through these small group conversations that Group 7 began to process all that they had been experiencing.
“There have been things here that have affirmed my faith more and have given me more of a solid reason for what I believe what I do,” said BorÓka “Bo” Boisen, a member of Group 7.
On Wednesday night it has become a tradition to hold a service called “Prayers around the Cross”. During this large group the youth have the opportunity to go up to the pastors at the event for prayers and absolution, as well as write their own prayers on a wooden cross.
Before the service began, Group 7 placed their heavy bottle full of stresses and worries down at the cross.
“For the group, putting the bottle at the foot of the cross was symbolizing giving our worries over for God to handle,” Jacob Brooks said.
“It reminds me of the bible verse where Jesus says, ‘take my yoke for my burden is light’ because we are giving our weight that we have been carrying to him.”
Over and over again youth that come to Kairos will talk about the amazing community and how what they experience at youth events is like nothing else they have ever found.
Perhaps what the Youth are seeing and experiencing is a glimpse of the kingdom of God, a place where love and grace abound and where Christ is intentionally sought after.
“Kairos has impacted me this year because it has made my faith a whole lot stronger, I feel like that is sort of a cliché thing to say, but it’s really true,” Jacob said.
Soon the youth will be coming home and they will have less sleep, more friends, and, hopefully, a deeper relationship with God.
