Across East Tennessee, youth groups from our parishes tackled mission trips and pilgrimages. We’re highlighting a number of outings that took place this summer.
Good Shepherd, Lookout Mountain, Pilgrimage by Matt Harbison
This past June, students from Church of the Good Shepherd Lookout Mountain traveled to Montana for a week-long Pilgrimage. The Pilgrimage was the culmination of two years of Confirmation classes & local service projects aimed at handing over control of a student’s faith to themselves. So, over the last two years, our students have had to prioritize, participate, volunteer, and commit to a faith-seeking life under the guise of “confirmation classes”. The beauty of the J2A (Journey to Adulthood- yes, it’s still around) program is it is structured in such a way that it allows the students to ask the questions in the context of their lives as their lives progress, and (sometimes, but not always) find the answers together.
Just like our faith is a slow-meandering river, the classes give the students time to reflect and sit with the big questions. As you can imagine, it requires a considerable commitment, but it also FORMS a group of students into the church. Students also raised money for their pilgrimage and got confirmed in April 2026 by our Bishop. Couple all of this with five adults that have the same commitment, and lives are forever altered from a year and a half schedule of fun, yet challenging activities.
After flying to Bozeman, Montana, the Pilgrimage headed north to Whitefish, Montana to stay at All Saints Episcopal Church. Recently this parish had called former Good Shepherd seminarian, (now) Father Gabe Lepage, to be their Priest. While in Whitefish, we worked with several community programs involved in food sustainability and community nutrition in the form of a community garden. Each day was a new challenge! From planting dozens of squash plants and moving a few truckloads of mulch, all in unseasonably cold rain, students persevered and took care of one another. In the downtime, students kept their spirits up with lots of hacky sack, wiffle ball, basketball in the church parking lot, and hiking through Glacier National Park.
In addition to the service side of the trip, students also were instructed in the native American tradition of making parfleche** by Napi (Austin) Tootoosis and Treyace Yellow Owl. During the workshop, the students also heard stories about the importance of parfleche in everyday living. Finally, to round out the week, the students spent a day on the Thompson River where they learned the finer points of fly fishing with a guided tour by a group of fly fishing experts.
The trip was a wonderful experience for us all. We started out a close youth group, but we returned home a family. In my 29 years of full time Youth ministry, this trip was one of the best. And believe me, there have been some good ones! Youth ministry is at its best when it’s based on relationships, trust, and good old fashioned time with one another.
SUMMA by Riley Walser
SUMMA was a phenomenal, eye-opening, and fun experience for me. When I did debate in high school I hated it, people were aggressive and the topics were boring. However, SUMMA does the exact opposite, it is about interesting theological topics and the motto “Speaking Truth in Love” promotes a more kind debating approach centering “Faith Seeking Understanding”. SUMMA’s approach made the camp an amazing experience from start to finish.
The camp is structured around a debate topic (this year it was “Is faith in God necessary for human flourishing) which is debated on the last 2 days of camp. There are lectures on rhetoric and theology taught by professors throughout the camp. There is worship every day with opportunities for camper participation. There’s also fun activities to do each day, my personal favorite was visiting the nuns at St. Mary’s. I met a lot of friends there that are very like-minded people.
If anyone has an interest in either theology or debate I highly recommend them to apply (applications open September 1st), you’ll make a lot of friends, learn a lot, and most importantly have fun.
Diocesan Mission Trip by Addison Borders
This summer, I had the opportunity to attend a mission trip with the Episcopal Diocese of East Tennessee Youth Community. We traveled to Fletcher, North Carolina, to assist with Hurricane Helene relief. We partnered with Towel Ministry and the Diocese of Western North Carolina,organizations that had also been impacted by the hurricane. While we were there, we worked at two different sites with different needs, so our group was randomly split into two.
The first site was owned by a lady who both lived at the property and ran her daycare there. All of her daycare supplies were in two sheds that had been flooded twice, and her basement had also been flooded. Our task was to build her a new shed that was raised off the ground so it wouldn’t flood, and large enough to fit everything that was originally in the two sheds. On the first day, we split into teams: one was the foundation team, one was the walls team, and one was the floor team. Each team had a blueprint of what they needed to do and went to work using tools like drills, table saws, hammers, and many more. In the following days, our groups rotated and went wherever they were needed—working on the roof, siding, painting, the ramp, and other tasks to move the project forward.
The second site was a lady whose home had been flooded. She needed new flooring and a new bathroom. We replaced the carpet with hardwood flooring and completely redid her bathroom. During our free time throughout the week, we hung out at the church where we were staying, played games, went bowling, visited the town area, toured other places that had experienced hurricane damage, and met a guest speaker who had previously worked with Hurricane Helene recovery. Over the week, I made so many new friends and unforgettable memories. I am so grateful for the opportunity to go on this trip and can’t wait for next year’s mission trip.
St. Peter’s, Chattanooga, Mission Trip by Gracelynn Garland
Good Samaritan Pilgrimage by Sinéad Love
This July, the Good Sam Youth went on a trip to Selma, AL. While we typically do a mission trip with lots of service work, this trip was closer to a pilgrimage, with some service but heavily focused on listening, learning, reflecting and discussing the history of Selma, the South, and our United States as a whole.