Kaitlyn from LEAD is a member of St. Joseph Parish in Conway, Arkansas – which is in the Diocese of Little Rock. She will be a senior this fall at Greenbrier High School.

In her testimony this afternoon, she got very vulnerable with all of us about a difficult family situation she experienced, and how she felt a great deal of personal guilt because of how the situation played out.

What brought Kaitlyn a tremendous amount of freedom was opening up with her small group at a Steubenville youth conference.

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After an opening game of Family Feud between the speaking team and a team of teenagers – which the teens dominated, tbh – we spent the rest of this afternoon’s general session focusing on family relationships.

Katie Prejean McGrady began by sharing an awesome story about the birth of her daughter Rose; it’s impossible to summarize in a way that would do it justice, so you might want to give it a listen by clicking on the link above or watching it on our Live Stream.

The moral of Katie’s story is that family life is messy and chaotic and nothing like you’ll ever see in a Hallmark movie. And yet, the great news is that there can be beauty in the messiness.

“God does not call us into isolation, He calls us into relationship.”

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David Calavitta opened the men’s session this afternoon by leading the men in a loud roar.  Literally, the entire arena erupted with the loud screams of all the men gathered at the conference.  He then called the men to lean into Christ’s message during this session.

David opened with telling the story of the 40 Holy Martyrs of Sebaste. These men were sent into a frozen lake to die – and, being holy Christians – died together as brothers.  He said, “I want to be that kind of man that lives and dies together with his brothers.”

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Noelle Garcia had the opportunity to speak to the ladies of the conference today on the topic of authentic friendships. We as a generation consider ourselves very lonely, despite the amount of “friends” we may have and the amount of “likes” we receive on social media.

We need relationships to survive. Specifically, we need our female friendships. Women are sensitive; we are able to sense. We can sense when others are in need. We can sense when someone needs us. So, Noelle challenges us to have this attitude toward our friends: “You are responsible for them and getting them through this journey.” That journey can be many things ranging from one bad instance in their life to the journey to Heaven.

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