Pastor Conda Lashley, Jen Creech
Teens Encounter Christ (TEC) has about 30 different fellowships around the nation. North Carolina has a TEC program called Hand in Hand TEC (HIHTEC). TEC is very similar to Via de Cristo. There are the same teams, but for TEC each team is led by a youth with an adult to help as an encourager, safety net, mentor. Where VdC focuses on God’s Grace, TEC focuses on God’s love.
TEC weekends have a side day, rise day and go day. Then there is fourth day which includes fellowships and community service. There are 14 talks which are mostly followed by discussion and posters. Nine of these talks are given by youth who previously made a TEC weekend.
The best advertisement for TEC is youth to youth. Visiting youth groups and having teens explain TEC in their own language is best.
Please reach out to HIHTEC if you would like a copy of the documents they use to include all team manuals. Their website is HIHTEC.org. Click contact and they will happily send them to you.
You are invited to attend an HIH TEC weekend one Labor Day or MLK weekend or we may be able to help seed some teams. If you google TEC, you may find the Catholic version. There are also Chrysalis and Happenings groups from other denominations.
Remember these youth aren’t the future of the church. They are the church.
Reported by Chris French Kramer
