Join Natalie Ibarra, along with special guests Gigi Wilwerding and Joaquin Trejo, as they explore how parents and ministry leaders can walk with young people in their faith. This engaging conversation highlights the importance of building a strong faith foundation before high school graduation and offers practical insights from experienced parents and youth ministry leaders.
Tell us about your family, where are you from, & what you do
Gigi: I’m a youth minister at a parish in the city of Des Moines, a mom of two, a college student, and a junior in high school.
Joaquin: I am the coordinator of the Office of Youth Ministry for the Archdiocese of Washington, DC. All of my children are adults, and I have three grandchildren.
Why is it important for teens to develop a strong faith foundation before they graduate high school?
Why are experiences like NCYC so impactful in a teen’s faith journey?
Joaquin: My oldest, who is 35 now, and he had a powerful experience at NCYC. I saw that spark then, the fire. He wanted to go to NCYC and see a much broader church. Not just his small parish, but to see how everybody from all over comes and enjoys and shows their faith was very inspiring. One thing that he told me later after participating is that his friends would ask him, where “were you the last few days that we haven’t heard from you?” So he had to tell the stories. And that’s a way of evangelization without even trying because he’s sharing the joy, the music, the games, the speakers, and everything that really touched the heart…It’s just, you know, an amazing thing. That Holy Spirit is amazing, isn’t it?
Gigi: Both of my kids [had an impactful moment] through adoration, and I do really think it’s adoration at NCYC when it’s so big and it’s so profoundly quiet when it could be so loud, even with little murmurs and whispers. They take it very seriously in some way that they can personally connect with God.
It planted a seed in my son to seek adoration and have moments with Jesus. My daughter goes to a Catholic school. They have adoration throughout the school day; she and her friends will meet up at Adoration before lunch while the lunch line goes down in the cafeteria…I think without NCYC, they wouldn’t have done it.
