By Brett Hetherington*

Every four years The United Methodist Church hosts a large gathering of young people from across the country for four days of discipleship, worship, fellowship, and fun. Thousands of young people sixth grade through new high school graduates and their adult leaders will gather in Daytona Beach, Florida July 25-28 for YOUTH 2023. The East Ohio Conference will be well represented, with a team of 35 youth and leaders taking part in the quadrennial event and two adults having worked tirelessly behind the scenes for months as members of the YOUTH 2023 planning team.

Stefanie Williams serves as the East Region Youth Leaders Coordinator for the Conference and is a member of Canfield United Methodist Church (Mahoning Valley District). But it is her role working with United Methodist Volunteers in Mission North Central Jurisdiction that connected her with YOUTH 2023.

“UMVIM-NCJ came up with a grant that allowed me to work with YOUTH 2023 and create mission journeys before or after the event. I was on Facebook on New Year’s Eve and happened to see the newsletter that the Jurisdiction puts out every couple of weeks and there was an opening for a new position that would involve planning all these mission trips and working with youth leaders and being a part of YOUTH 2023. And I was not searching for a job, I was happy with where my job was. I was the discipleship director at Canfield UMC, but this opportunity came up and I was like ‘that is my jam, I would love to do that.’ I prayed on that because it was a total unexpected call from God for me, but I felt it was a talent I could help and use, and it was a new position, so it required some creativity that I think I have so I applied and here we are.”

A large part of Williams’ role has taken place in the lead-up to YOUTH 2023, networking with youth leaders and planning opportunities for groups to serve at various locations on their way to or from Daytona Beach, working with teams that will be serving at project sites in various ways and making sure everything can run as smoothly as possible.

“We plan everything for them except the travel. Where they stay, helping them create the devotions, everything. We are trying to make it as easy on the youth leaders as possible,” she shared.

Williams will also spend part of her time during the week encouraging people to explore UMVIM and the connectional nature of the organization, emphasizing its mission to do missions outside the church walls.

Micah Beck is East Ohio’s other representative behind the scenes at YOUTH 2023. A student at Kent State University, this is Beck’s first time being a part of an event of this caliber, although he’s no stranger to youth conferences. When he was younger, Beck was involved with Youth Annual Conference (YAC), an East Ohio Conference youth ministry weekend planned by youth and the Conference Council on Youth Ministries (CCYM).

“Last year Kaye (Wolfinger, former Young People’s Ministries director) reached out to me and told me there was an internship opportunity though the Conference office. I joined that team, and we planned what was Youth Annual Conference last year. I worked on some videos for that, that was my role. A couple months later she reached out to all the internship people and shared there were openings on the design team for YOUTH 2023 and I applied.”

Beck’s role on the design team is a caregiver, providing support where necessary.

“If people need emotional support to go through a tough process, or something. Or just like someone to be there while they are making tough decisions or doing stressful work, I’m that guy. It’s a little bit different from some of the other roles like the store manager or the treasurer, stuff like that, but nonetheless it’s still an important role and will play a big part in planning YOUTH 2023.”

Both Williams and Beck commented on the difference in size between Youth Annual Conference and YOUTH 2023 being such a dramatic adjustment. Beck detailed some of the logistical items that he and his team ran into that he had not encountered working to plan Youth Annual Conference.

“We had to figure out hotel situations, we have a convention center we had to make sure could hold everybody which is something you don’t have to worry about with YAC. No matter what, working on YAC definitely helped with planning some of YOUTH 2023. It brought a good insight on my behalf, having done some of that video work, having been on CCYM, having seen what works and what doesn’t work at YAC it definitely brought an opinion to the table that no one else really had because I was someone who not only planned but went to those things as a student.”

Williams shared her excitement looking forward to her first experience at the national gathering.

“This only happens every four years. To have youth come and be connected and all passionate about Jesus and helping, and sharing that fellowship with others – I have never been but I have heard it described as YAC on steroids. When I have been to YAC it has been so great. If you imagine the growth when you take kids on a mission trip and then you combine that with going to YOUTH 2023? I can’t wait to see it.”

Beck echoed the same enthusiasm at being a part of YOUTH 2023.

“I hope to see all sorts of kids be touched by the Lord, and I hope that people will go who might not typically go to church as often or might not be as much of a devotee. I think that would be really cool because that would be a great outreach situation because you’re around thousands of other students coming in from all across the country. Whenever you’re in an environment like that it does amazing things to you. I’ve seen how it can transform people at YAC, imagine that on steroids, basically. That’s what I hope to see, that it changes people’s lives and provides that once in a lifetime kind of experience that you tend to get at these kind of things.”

The Conference Communications team would like to share other stories that highlight ways that each of us is answering the call of Bishop Tracy S. Malone to reach out to our communities in creative ways. Please e-mail your ministry story to EOC Executive Director of Communications Rick Wolcott at wolcott@eocumc.com.

* Brett Hetherington is the Communications specialist for the East Ohio Conference of The United Methodist Church.