Mark and Beth Stevison are parishioners at Mary Mother of the Church Parish in the Archdiocese of St. Louis. They have been married for 24 years and have three boys. They met on a youth retreat (how cute is that?) called Teens Encounter Christ where Mark was on the music ministry team and Beth was a retreatant.

This weekend Beth is serving as an usher, and Mark is serving as a prayer minister – and he was a youth group chaperone last weekend. This is Beth’s 5^th year attending our conferences, and Mark’s 6^th.

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They say that it takes a village to raise a child, and I think there’s some truth in that. But I can tell you for sure that it does take quite a crew of dedicated volunteers to put on a Steubenville youth conference!

Last weekend’s youth conference was staffed by 108 volunteers – and there are 112 volunteers staffing this weekend! When you consider that each volunteer is here in Springfield from at least 10 am Friday until at least 1 pm on Sunday, that means that over 6800 volunteer hours are put in each summer by amazing people devoted to making our conferences a positive experience for every teen and every adult who attends. And I couldn’t even begin to calculate how much time and energy and prayer that staff members of the Office of Youth Ministry and Franciscan University of Steubenville devote to these amazing events!

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There is a profound truth in the theme for this weekend: Belong. Not one of us is an outsider. And if we belong to Christ, we belong to His Church.

“I am really, really, proud of you.”

Fr. Mike Schmitz began his vocational call by thanking every vocation in the house. He thanked the single people, the married people, and the religious. Everyone is called to some vocation, and it is inspiring to see so many people answering their call through Christ.

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