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Hello, and welcome to Word and Work an Intersection.

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I'm your host Dale Meyer. Joining us is Reverend Ron Roma

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he is the chaplain at the Lutheran Church Extension Fund and was campus

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pastor at Lutheran High School South here in St.

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Louis.

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He is also a founding member of the Show Me Teens Encounter Christ

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program also known as TEC. Welcome Reverend Ron thank you for being here.

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Good to be here. Over the years

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I have heard Reverend Roma from from kids from co-workers and

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everything and thanks for taking the time to be with us and tell us

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about your life your work.

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It's so good to be here and I I retired from Lutheran High School

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South May of this year after many many years couple decades.

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I was a campus Pastor chairman of the theology Department and

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counselor therefore for many years. In my retirement

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I thought it would take some time off and see what the world has to

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offer and then all of a sudden by the power of the Holy Spirit

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Bart Day from Lutheran Church extension fund gave me a call and said we

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would like to extend a call to you to be chaplain here at LCEF.

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So it's been a wonderful experience so far. Great for our audience may

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not know

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what is the Lutheran Church extension fund? LCEF provides many

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opportunities, it provides funding grants and Investments for members

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in our church body and provides for schools and a number of other

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Ministries all around the world.

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But particularly my role is to minister to the people in the home team

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here at

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St.

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Louis at the LCEF headquarters.

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So I have an LCEF account and every paycheck part of my money goes into

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LCEF and then that is used for loans to Church's. Exactly. Extending the

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mission the Lord's mission.

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Yeah. And it's a wonderful opportunity for people.

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What do you do as chaplain there? Well that's a great question. I provide chapel services every Tuesday and Thursday

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and we have about a 20 minutes half hour Chapel service for the people

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in the building. And then I'm available for people and counseling and

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family needs all across the building but also my opportunity to

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help people in our extended field all around the United States. And

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I'll get opportunities to speak to pastors and some of our team

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workers all around the United States.

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So it's a great opportunity.

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So with that out of the office dimension,

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you keep busy.

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It is and it's great. My wife and I just talked about this the other day that she said

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you look like you're happy going to work these days.

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I said I love my job is just a great opportunity.

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So would you advise me to retire?

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Well in your retirement I know God will have great things in store for you.

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Well, thank you.

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Thank you for being here.

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Let's let's go back into your history.

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Where did you grow up?

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Where'd you go to school?

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Who were you before

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you became Reverend Ron Roma? Well I grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin,

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and I went to Gospel Lutheran elementary school and then Milwaukee

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Lutheran High School.

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Then I progressed to Concordia Milwaukee.

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It was called at that time.

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I went there to for 2 years and then that's all they had.

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That's all I needed at that time, and I went to the senior college and

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in Fort Wayne, Indiana, beautiful

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campus beautiful opportunities there and and then progressed on to

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Concordia Seminary. And so I'm a graduate of Concordia Seminary also

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went to Washington University for my Master's in counseling.

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So when did you graduate from Seminary? Well it took a little bit of

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time because I was doing a dual program at Wash U as well, but 1980s.

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So it looks at forty years is kind of out your mark.

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When did that happen under those years ago by.

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So after graduating from the Seminary and completing that degree, did

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you go straight to Lutheran's South?

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That was my first call Lutheran High School South and so I I ended up there and

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God's got interesting surprises in store for people. But you also served in

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Parish Ministry while you are Lutheran South? I did I was at Salem Affton for

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quite a while and then at Lutheran Church of the Resurrection and then

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at Hope Lutheran High Ridge for about 24 years and presently

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I'm at Concordia Kirkwood.

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Do you help out at Concordia Kirkwood?

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I do I do there's a need right now because of a vacancy that we have

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but soon to be filled with hope. I don't know if I want to retire you

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sound so busy.

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Oh, I don't know when I found time to work before,I've heard that I've I've heard that. Tells about your family?

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All right.

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What a blessing.

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My wife Cindy is a nurse.

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She's an RN and she worked in the emergency room at Old St.

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Anthony's now at Mercy

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for quite a while and now she's working at Urgent Care part-time.

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We have two sons our oldest son

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Tom is a graduate of Concordia Seminary.

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His first call was in Raleigh North Carolina and and then he

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accepted the call to be associate pastor at Lutheran Immanuel Lutheran

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Wentzville.

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And so he's been there a number of years and he's married to Sheila

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and they have two beautiful sons our grandsons Henry and Sam and it's

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just a joy being with them. My youngest son Steven

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graduated from Concordia Seminary. Do I remember them both?

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I certainly remember Steven.

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When did your oldest son graduate?

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Oh that's been and I think that's been about seven or eight years now,

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so it's been a while. Because I remember when I when I meet a

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student and his name was Roma.

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Yes, that's my father,

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my father. Stevens out in Santa Clara, California and he's been out

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there about three years.

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What a blessing it is to bring it all that family together.

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Usually Christmas and one time to get to a Cardinals game in the

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summer.

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Grandkids are great kids children are great it's wonderful.

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So we're here to talk about Teens Encounter Christ.

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I have a bit of a an acquaintance with it

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I did a TEC weekend years ago, when I was Pastor of Holy Cross in

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Collinsville, but I don't know half of it and and maybe our audience

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doesn't know any of it.

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But it's it's a great program.

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Tell us about it. Back in 1980

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we had a group of people and clergy that decided that they were going

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to attend a Roman Catholic Teens Encounter Christ program, and when

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they went they were so excited about what happens in the program for 3

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days and the transformation that can take place

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on a 3-day retreat. That they invited some of us to go on a Roman

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Catholic weekend and so back in about early seventies late 70s way

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back then we we attended some of those weekends and decided that it

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would be important for us to move that into the Lutheran Doctrine and

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Theology.

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And so we gather together with all of those lay people and clergy to

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use the basic idea TEC but make it a Lutheran weekend.

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And so our first weekend was held in June of 1980 and a since that

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time we've had over a hundred weekends.

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So it's been a blessing for many many people.

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Okay, that gives us an overview.

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We're going to take a short break and then we'll come back with

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Reverend Roma and get deeper into Teens Encounter Christ TEC stay

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with us.

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Make a difference in the world become a church worker or encourage

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someone you know who has the skills call Concordia Seminary admissions

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at 800-822-9545 or email admission at CSL.

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Edu.

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That's 800-822-9545 Concordia Seminary can make a difference in your

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world.

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Welcome back to Word and Work an Intersection.

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I'm your host Dale Meyer.Today

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our guest is Reverend Ron Roma.

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He's chaplain at the Lutheran Church Extension Fund and is also a

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founding member of the Show Me Teens Encounter Christ program TEC for

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short.

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So I understand you have TEC weekends.

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Is that correct?

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That's right.

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So what does it look like?

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We have a couple of parts of the TEC weekend that I want to explain.

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One is the participants that get to go this is primarily for high

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school students young people between the ages of 16 and 21.

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That we call the real participants.

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But anybody who's over the age of 21, we certainly invite them. So an

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adult can go? An adult goes absolutely. One of the joys of the program is that we have

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young people that will go and afterwards they'd like their parents

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to go or siblings to go or family members.

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So we've had families that have attended the weekends together in and

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then participate in some way. After you go on the weekend

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you can come back and serve on the weekend in some leadership

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capacity or participant again, and one is a serving element of

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the TEC weekend in the other is a presenting team.

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So we've got a lot of elements that kind of come together on the

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weekends. And it's a joy to see how many people actually can come as

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family members and enjoy these weekends together, even though it's

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geared for that 16 to 21 year old. So I'm a 16-21 year old and I've been persuaded to

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go whoever persuaded me and I arrive at the site.

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Well, first of all, what is the site?

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There on number congregations that hosts our TEC

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weekends and mainly in the St.

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Louis area.

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We have to work with a number of those congregations that open up

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their schools and open up their congregations to to have us over there

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with that Friday, Saturday,

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Sunday and Monday. Now the Friday night is our kind of preparation time.

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That's where the presenting teams kind of gathered together and they

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prepare for the weekend.

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The participant's new to the weekend come on Saturday morning and leave on

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Monday evening.

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Okay, so I'm a participant I'm 16 year old, don't I wish, and I've

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arrived at

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Martin Luther Lutheran Church on Saturday morning.

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And what's the agenda? Okay, that's a great question. So we spend a lot of time Saturday morning kind of acquainting people to each other in allowing the people to kind

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of co-exist together and get to know each other a little bit and

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then the actual presentations start in these are talks given by people

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who have been on the weekend before given from outlines that we've put

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together and prepared for them. That first day

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we really look at the season of Lent and Good Friday.

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We shorten that by calling it Die day and so the goal here is for

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people to look at what the sacrifice of Jesus did for us and how we

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then I'll turn our eyes and our focus on Christ.

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No, does this presume

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that these are Church

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young people who are interested in the topic like this?

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I mean how many kids want to go and have somebody talk to them on

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Saturday morning?

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So I assume that they're receptive to this kind of presentation.

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I think that first day of there's a lot of uncertainty and there's a

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lot of questions that people have but I think once the people get

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involved in the weekend and immerse themselves in a weekened and

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really participate in what happen a lot of those questions begin to

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disappear. And I think the talks and presentations that we give provide

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for that. That that's a long night because one of those things that we

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do is we we have an opportunity for a service of Confession and

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Absolution and after that initial time on Saturday, we have a bridge

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time.

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That's kind of the Easter Vigil where we look at that bridge between

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Die Day, Lent, Good Friday and Easter and Sunday really is what we call

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rise day at the celebration of Easter to the celebration of the

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resurrection of our Lord and Savior.

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And that's a really community

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joyful time that we have when we focus on what God did for us

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in that Resurrection in Jesus.

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And then Monday, we actually celebrate Pentecost and so we really have

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an opportunity for what it means to serve and to go out into the world

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to be an Ambassador for Christ.

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So during these days Saturday, Sunday and Monday, I assume the young

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people kind of coalesce.

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They their anxieties about strangers go away and they start to bond.

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Oh, I think that that's one of the things that happens. More

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importantly

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I think that the goal here is the central focus and the primary focus

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is on how that relationship with Jesus Christ is growing and

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developing and it's as a presenter and has a leader to watch that all

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happen within 3 days

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it's really a miracle. Could you talk about that

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I mean what kind of things do you see as their relationship to Jesus

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grows?

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I think, I think they see the power of what God's word is all

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about.

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We have one of the talks called sacred scripture usually given by a

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church worker iand the church work there could be a seminarian, teacher

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pastor that comes on as a presenter and one of the things they talk

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about is the power of God's Word.

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And I think that's one of the key elements to have people start

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focusing on what it means to be in the word and and in prayer and

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fellowship.

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And once they see that combination coming together a lot of the

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questions that they have a lot of that masks that people put on begin

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to disappear and they see that I can be a real person.

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I can be who I am because of what God's done for me.

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So this comes to the kids from somebody who is a little older and down

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the road and just kind of honestly sharing.

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Here's all God's words as worked in my life. Here's

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how Jesus

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impacts me. That's a great point and not only do these older people

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adults explain what happens in their lives.

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But we also have some of the youth that have been on the weekends before

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they're called resources and they have an opportunity to do devotions

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and get to give presentations as well.

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So to see young people rise up in those leadership positions and as role

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models for some of the other participants is really a key element and

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what makes TEC work. How many young people have attended TEC, Show Me

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Tec weekends?

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Wow.

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Well, we started with TEC number one Back 40 years ago, and I think

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we're going about TEC 120 right now.

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So we had a hundred and twenty weekend's over the forty years and it's

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been it's been powerful. We have about 30 to 40 new participants

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that can come on one of the weekends as a new participant and then

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combined with some of the presenters and some of the serving teams

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that we've got.

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We could have about a hundred people on one weekend.

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So there's there's a large number of people who have gone through TEC

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weekend's. Exactly.

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if a TEC participant comes back

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for a subsequent weekend.

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Okay.

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You've got a touch with them.

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If they don't come back is there is there any follow-up contact and

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what I'm asking for is when kids go off the college their really tempted

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to walk away from their faith.

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They might be okay in high school, but in my reading it's it's when

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they get away and get influenced and I'm curious TEC is great.

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Does it for defy them for what's to come?

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I think before we look at them coming back or what happens.

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We really want to plug them into the congregation's we make a real

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good effort and connecting them back with their youth pastor or their

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DCE or somebody in their congregation so that there's a continuation

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of the growth that they have. Now  we have a number of college students

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that wait for these weekends and when you can sign up to be on on that

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serving or presenting team there are a number those students that that come

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back to serve that are presently in college.

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And again, we want to plug them into some campus ministry in college

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if we possibly can do that.

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And so we really do make a concerted effort to plug them into a

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congregation.  Oh, that's great that's wonderful.

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I have some pastors that I'm better acquainted with and they carry

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on a real email Ministry with the kids were going off to college.

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That's that's super.

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40 years.

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Wow.

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And you started TEC in St. Louis this Show Me TEC.

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Is it found other places in the country?

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It is, it's kind of interesting because I will receive emails from a number of people across the United States asking how they could get a TEC

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center started in their location.

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And we do have a protocol for what it takes to start a TEC weekend

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and it does take quite a bit of energy commitment to do that.

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We want them to be involved in some church in that they may be

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attending. To get in touch with their pastor to get in touch with their

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youth worker.

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It was about a month ago that I received an email from somebody down

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in a Ping (ping) Papua New Guinea. And and this Lutheran Pastor wanted to

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get a TEC center started and then so we gave them some protocol and

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how to get that started. That's great.

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If somebody in the audience wants to learn more about TEC maybe get

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involved.

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Where can they go?

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We have a great website.

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Show Me TEC.com show me tec.com.

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Show me tec.com. We wrap this up

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I'm going to go back to your long career Lutheran High School South

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and tell you was pride that my oldest grandson James Christian will be

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entering Lutheran South next year, and we're so glad about that.

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Congratulations Grandpa.

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Thank you, and I'll tell him that Lutheran South is a great school

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because of Reverend Roma worked there. Thank you.

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Thank you Ron so much for being with us today and for telling us all

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about Show Me Tec, Teens Encounter Christ. If you would like to

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participate in a weekend retreat or know someone who does sign up at

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here it is again, show me tech.org and thank you our audience for

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joining us.