GXP (God Experience)

I spent this past weekend getting to know a group of teens from a small village in Smolenice, Slovakia. This was a weekend appointed by God for sure. About 4 months ago, I went to Slovakia to put on a GXP retreat for a group of teens and it was the hardest retreat I had ever been to. Talking about God was unfamiliar to the teens, they were not used to having people care about them, and I don't think most of them knew what the words 'morality' or 'respect' stood for. Needless to say, the teens with the hard knocks had truly experienced God and now have a youth group in their village since GXP. Now, after four months of recovering from the 1st GXP, I was very curious to see what God would do this past weekend.

After praying for this particular group from Smolenice and the next village over, we sensed that God wanted to bring healing to these teens and that these kids were really special to Him. GXP is a retreat very similar to TEC (Teens Encounter Christ) weekend that is run in diocese around the U.S. There are a serious of 8 talks, small group discussions, group building activities, praise and worship, prayer stations, and....a lot of fun on GXP! To my surprise, the retreat center we stayed in was a perfect accomodation that wasn't desperately cold like many, there was a room that we could change into a sacred space, and there were two wonderful women who cooked for us all weekend...this made for few distractions and plenty of time to focus our attention on our new friends. The teens were just awesome and even asked if we could go to Mass on Friday night..."SURE"!!!!! This is the group we have been waiting for to start GXP on a regular basis in Slovakia. We needed to see some hope that teens could help to put on this retreat for their peers with little assistance. I honestly think this is the group. Praise you God. Thank you for the parents of these God loving teens and for all the people in their lives who give them space and freedom to have a relationship with You!