2012 Wrestlers - St. Mary's Central High School

RELIGIONNCYCBy: Teri Lardy & Kaytlyn HeickHave you ever had the chance to go somewhere, where all 23,000 people were in that same placefor one specific reason, which is learning more about being a good Catholic? November 17 th – 19 thfourteen St. Mary’s students attended the National Catholic Youth Conference in Indianapolis and gotto be a part of this amazing experience. We all got a chance to hear five interesting keynote speakers.There were basically five sessions that started as a whole group, all 23,000 people, then broke intosmaller groups in workshops of your choice. There was an abundant amount of workshops to choosefrom. It’s unfortunate we only got to choose five (for us only four considering one day it took almostthree hours to find lunch!). On top of all this we had many great God sightings and experiences duringthis trip.“Prayer doesn’t help or build your relationship with God. Prayer is your relationship with God.” Thisquote by Mark Hart is one of the many intelligent quotes we heard at NCYC. He was one of the fivekeynote speakers we had the opportunity to hear. Mark Hart talked about how we can search for Christthrough the scriptures. Another keynote speaker we had was Mike Patin. Mike talked about how weare all put in this world for a specific purpose and we are meant to fulfill that purpose. For example, anIPod is meant to play music, not be a door stopper or a paper weight. Mike Patin said, “We are meant toplay our music loud and clear for the world to hear even though we might get judged.”There were many workshops people could choose to go to, but sadly the most you could choose wasfive. One of the workshops we chose was My Catholic Life by Judy McDonald which talked aboutwhat a day in the life of a Catholic teen looks like and how a young person lives their Catholic faithin the world today. Another one we got the chance to go to was Clearly Catholic by Steve Angrisano.In his workshop we did a lot of singing and got to hear how we can explain our faith to those who don’t understand.These are just some of the many workshops you could choose from.You can ask anyone who attended NCYC that by far the best part was either mass or the 2-3 minutes we spentin pure silence. John Windsor says, “It was sopowerful to see so many youth receiving theBlessed Sacrament. It really moves you.” “Myfavorite part of NCYC was the keynote speakerMike Patin. He had everyone text someonewe know that we care about them and that theymatter. My friend texted someone who sheknew needed her prayers. Her friend respondedthat she was going to kill herself because shethought no one cared until she received the text.NCYC was full of experiences like this. It wasincredible,” Emma Konieczka says. All of theGod sightings were a powerful part of the mindbogglingexperience.The three days spent at NCYC wereoutstanding. We learned so many new things,met so many new people from all over,strengthened the friendships we already had andRELIGIONgot to participate in an overall great experience.We enjoyed awesome keynote speakers andworkshops. We are so blessed to be able to saythat we celebrated Mass with 23,000 peoplenationwide (plus the people watching from homeonline), 250 priests and 50 deacons. NCYC haschanged our lives and is definitely something we will never forget!Matthew Koppinger, Brooke Wolf, Allison Appleby, KylieRusch, Emily Vecchia, Emma Konieczka, Madelyn Reichert,Anna Schwieters, Kaytlyn Heick, John Windsor, Issac Eberle,Teri Lardy, Austin Huck, and Chris Uhler