By Julie Lagree, It All Started at TEC
Editor’s Note: Members of the Teens Encounter Christ leadership team will periodically provide articles to The Message to share some of the impactful stories of how TEC has made a difference in lives across the Diocese of Evansville.
Meet Shannon Walsh. She is the director of Project Xavier, an organization devoted to raising up local missionaries to share the Gospel in Asia, to serving the church in a place with significant challenges and accompanying Catholics on their faith journey. As a missionary on the front lines, she spent many years caring for medically fragile orphans, including running a hospice for terminally ill infants and helping women in crisis situations.
Shannon is from Newburgh, Indiana, and when asked how a girl from our little diocese was able to embark on such an incredible journey to make such a huge difference, Shannon’s reply: “Well, it really all started at TEC.”
Shannon was a junior at Reitz Memorial High School in Evansville in 1993 when she attended Teens Encounter Christ #6.
“I did not want to go; my mom signed me up,” she said. “I had managed to wiggle my way out of going on #5 in the fall, but it seems I had run out of excuses and ended up at that spring retreat.”
She continued, “In the course of three days, I truly encountered Christ and that changed everything. I showed up not quite sure if God actually existed and left not only convinced that he is real, but that he loves me. That truth — God is real, and he loves me — has been the sustaining grace of my life.”
Shannon worked several TECs after that first one, and she says that being a part of numerous teams helped to deepen her commitment to the Lord, develop an understanding of what discipleship looks like, and create Christ-centered friendships.
In addition, being a part of a small group of fellow “TECites” that met to share about their faith journey each week was hugely beneficial. She says, “This helped to root me in the grace received on the initial weekend retreat. I began praying regularly, seeing God’s presence in my life, attending daily Mass and looking for ways to grow in love for the Lord.”
In 1997, Shannon spent five weeks volunteering with Mother Teresa’s sisters in India. The time spent serving in an orphanage and sharing her faith with fellow volunteers enkindled a desire to spend her life serving those in need and sharing the Gospel. After graduating from college, she spent a year in Mexico, and since 2000, Shannon has been mostly focused on serving the people of Asia.
As Shannon reflects back on her life and the impact TEC has made for her, she says, “Living the paschal mystery is living the Christian life. Over the years, I have appreciated that as a young Christian participating in multiple retreats, the TEC template of die, rise, go imprinted the Paschal Mystery on my heart. We are constantly being invited into Christ’s passion, death and resurrection. A willingness to die to self was necessary as a missionary living in foreign lands, learning new languages and adapting to different cultures.”
Sponsored by the Diocese of Evansville, TEC is a three-day retreat weekend of prayer, reflections/talks, discussions and activities based on the Paschal Mystery. TEC is a special experience with topics and an approach designed for older adolescents and young adults who will be starting their junior year of high school through college age. Adults are also encouraged to join as participants on the weekend. The retreats are usually hosted by St. Mary Parish in Ireland.
Hearing Shannon’s story has been so inspiring for the leadership of our local TEC community. So many people’s lives have been changed by TEC, but we never hear most of their stories. If you have a story you would be willing to share, please visit https://forms.gle/AGbYnxaVpdfAZ6jCA or email julielagree@gmail.com.
TEC is launching its first-ever fundraising campaign to create an endowment that will help TEC continue to inspire lives. To learn more, please visit www.switec.org/give.