wfn.org | College welcomes middle-schoolers

[PCUSA NEWS <PCUSA.NEWS@ecunet.org>]

Note #7398 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

22-August-2002
02315

College welcomes middle-schoolers

Montreat conference on Mary Holmes campus is richly educational

by Emily Enders Odom,
Montreat Conference Center

WEST POINT, MS - Mary Holmes College, the Montreat Conference Center and region 3 of the Presbyterian Youth Connection got together this summer to make a world of difference for hundreds of young people.

The 2002 renewal of the Montreat Middle School Conference was held on the historic campus of Mary Holmes College here because the North Carolina site of the inaugural conference in July 2001 was unavailable.

Mary Holmes, a two-year racial-ethnic institution founded by Presbyterians more than 100 years ago, has been in dire financial straits in recent years - and the facilities showed it.

Youth groups from across the Southeast appreciated the welcoming and "can-do" attitude of the college staff, including some employees who had lost their jobs just three weeks before the conference but came back as volunteers to serve in the dining hall. Everyone pitched in to help keep the facilities clean.

Many of the conference participants expressed embarrassment about the wealth of their home churches. The sixth- to ninth-graders also took up a collection for the college, and examined their faith in light of such disparities in resources and opportunities.

The theme of the event was "God Sightings." 

Bob Tuttle, the director of Montreat's Center for Youth and Young Adult Ministry, recalled a sermon by Rodger Nishioka of Columbia Theological Seminary, who spoke about "thin places" - where heaven and earth seem closer. 

"For those of us at the Middle School 2002 conference," Tuttle said, "Mary Holmes was such a place."
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