Dear Friends:
I will never forget the day I walked into the lunch room at Del Mar Middle School, looked around the room at the long rectangular tables packed with 6th, 7th and 8th graders at lunch … and my plastic lunch tray rattled in my hands.
Now, I had lived my entire life in one of the communities that fed into that school, so I knew, or knew of, just about every kid in that room. But in that moment, I was entirely alone, entirely friendless, a complete loser and deep down in my soul praying to become invisible immediately.
Childhood and adolescence is a multi-year walk through a minefield of fearing that you don’t belong, that you’re not doing it right, that people don’t like you and that it will never be okay. That is just a fact.
And that fact was the inspiration for a series of three gatherings for youth across our diocese on the theme of Romans 8:38 Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ.
Because while the secular world forms us into adults with the gentleness of a rock tumbler, the Scripture reminds us that we are perfect in the eyes of God. Nothing we do – however mortifying we believe it is – can separate us from the love of God.
The dream for these three youth retreats – one for middle schoolers, one for high schoolers and one combined – is that every youth in this diocese who wants to come, can come and see that truth at work. Every youth can experience and participate in God’s love, unconditionally:
- No barrier because of finance
- No barrier because of distance
- No barrier because of race or ethnicity
- No barrier because of gender or sexuality
The dream of these gatherings is to lay down the foundation of a life lived in the confidence that nothing can separate us from God‘s perfect love. It might not help when the lunch tray is shaking so hard that the box of milk wants to fall off … but it is something to fall back on.
YOU can help to make these gatherings a reality.
The annual WoDakota (“right relationship”) Campaign is our mechanism for making marvelous things happen in our diocese. In years past these funds have been used for youth and young adult ministry, congregational development ministry, Indigenous ministry, New Season of Ministry goals, St. John the Divine, and food scarcity in each of our communities.
Our WoDakota goals in 2026 and 2027 are very ambitious:
- We want to throw all three of these events in the summer of 2027;
- As a means of bringing together people from across the diocese;
- In the hope of beginning a wave of youth and young adult leaders;
- To connect our youth to their faith before they go into the world;
- As a statement of our commitment to young people in EDND;
- Because we love them.
The program includes:
- One retreat of 30 middle schoolers with 5 adult chaperones
- One retreat of 30 high schoolers with 5 adult chaperones
- One retreat for 60 middle and high schoolers with 10 adult chaperones
These programs will all take place under the leadership of a deacon of this diocese with an undergraduate degree in Youth and Family Ministry and a Master of Arts in Children, Youth and Family Ministry (Surprise, it is Dn Jess Krzewina!).
The total cost for this transformational project is $55,000.
My hope is that we can raise $25,000 in 2026 for WoDakota Youth Retreats. I would love to bring those offerings to the altar at the Holy Eucharist at Diocesan Convention, on October 24th, 2026.
And then raise the other $30,000 during the season of Lent 2027. And process them forward in each of our congregations on Good Shepherd Sunday, April 18, 2027.
The gospel of Matthew tells us that “where our treasure is, our hearts will be also” but I want to turn that around: where our hearts are, there we should put our treasure. Our hearts are certainly with the children and youth of our diocese.
Of all of the hopes and dreams expressed over the past few years of discernment for this diocese, is there one more universally held, more urgent or more impactful for the fate of the world than showing our children how much God loves them?
Please join John Houston and me in making a generous contribution to assuring that next summer is the beginning of a lifelong relationship with God for the youth of our diocese.
The pledge form is linked below.
Faithfully,
The Rt. Rev. Shay Craig
XII Bishop Diocesan
Episcopal Diocese of North Dakota
