Youth find faith at Face to Face retreat

Sask-born movement focuses on praise, prayer, silence

- Photo by Ken Yasinski Praise and worship are part of recent Face to Face Retreat held in Brooks.

By VIRGINIA BATTISTE
Special to the WCR
Calgary

While images of youth in trouble abound in today's news media, hundreds of Catholic youth are choosing to make their mark on the world in a different way. Through Face to Face Retreats many are responding to the challenge to become serious about living out their Catholic faith in a real way in today's world.

Imported to Alberta from Saskatchewan, Face to Face Retreats have ministered to hundreds of teens across the Prairies since 2000. Sponsored by Face to Face Ministries and born in Saskatchewan, they are affecting youth and adults alike.

Led by founder, Ken Yasinski of Saskatoon, the retreats are marked by high-power praise and worship that has participants dancing in the aisles and insightful messages that reach young people at the heart of where they live.

Yasinski's own life was dramatically changed by an experience at a similar youth event during his first year of university. He draws on that experience as he ministers at the retreats.

Loss of identity

Moving from his small hometown to Saskatoon to attend university, Yasinski's sense of identity faltered. He realized he could not compete and would no longer be recognized for his academic aptitude, athletic prowess or musical ability. There would always be someone else who was better at those things than he was.

To find his niche in college life he turned to becoming known as the best party animal on the campus social circuit. His world nose-dived when he made a failing grade on a mid-term exam. He felt it represented his "grade" in life.

Knowing he needed to change something, he agreed to attend a youth retreat sponsored by a Catholic campus ministry.

Until that point, he says, God had been an important part of his life, but was not a top priority.

"Just like students go to class because that is what students do, I knew that good Catholics go to church and pray because that was what Catholics do. God was somewhat important to me, but I wasn't putting him first in my life," he says.

He concedes that was a shallow attitude, but it was what he thought at the time. He says that giving God first place in his life had not been presented to him in a way he could understand.

Relationship with Jesus

At the retreat, however, for the first time he understood that the Catholic faith is really about opening up to a relationship with Jesus Christ.

"Everything in the Church points us to this covenant relationship with God. I was invited at the retreat to make a conscious decision to live for God, not because my parents said so, or the priest told me to. I knew I needed to do this for myself."

Dramatic changes

That decision resulted in dramatic changes in his life. From pursuing majors in business and law, he switched to psychology and religious studies. Instead of looking for happiness through a high power career and financial success, his desire became seeing others come into a relationship with the God who loves them and finding their happiness in the Catholic faith, as he has.

Face to Face's travelling team is made up of Sarah de Jong, Ken Yasinski, Janelle Levesque and Chris Yasinski.

Through a series of events he began to minister to teens and went into fulltime ministry in 2003. He challenges teens and adults alike to make God the centre of their lives by living out their Catholic faith daily and striving for holiness.

Teaching on the meaning of the sacraments, leading in praise and worship, encouraging participants to make an honest Confession, and inviting silence before the Blessed Sacrament are all part of the overall experience of a Face to Face Retreat.

Bus excursion

Face to Face Retreats are part of the ministry of Face to Face Ministries which has recently become a non-profit organization to support the ministry and its various facets of outreach which include the retreats, summer camps and a bus excursion to the U.S. this summer on a service project and to attend a conference at Steubenville University.

Since January, a Face to Face: Family Edition has been developed that provides ministry for families, including children over age four, and adults up to seniors, which has really taken off.

Among his activities in Alberta, Yasinski has conducted retreats in Brooks and Calgary, spoken to Catholic teachers in Edmonton, and has Confirmation retreats booked for Lloydminster and Vauxhall this spring, and retreats in Leduc and Bonnyville later in the year.

For further information: www.facetofaceministries.com.

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