July 23, 2010
The Story of TEC
‘It all began with TEC’ — A missionary tells her story
By ZOE CANNON (Sacred Heart Church, Vincennes)
Sixth in a series
Dependence on God: The deeper our faith becomes, the bigger God will be for us. As our vision of God becomes clearer and we understand his enormity, we learn to rest in him. We grow in our ability to depend entirely on God, whom we read about in the pages of Scripture and encounter through the love of others. In spite of this loving and all knowing God who promises to never abandon us, we often find ourselves beset by worry and fear. In nurturing our faith; we begin to understand that when we come to rely on God we find rest in this world. Jesus spoke to His disciples about dependence on God. “Therefore I tell you do not worry about your life and what you will eat, or about your body and what you will wear. For life is more than food and the body more than clothing.” In this Gospel of Luke, chapter 12, Jesus tells us that detachment from material possessions symbolizes our heavenly treasure. Rich in what matters to God is literally, “rich for God.”
The sixth TEC story is written about a young woman from Newburgh who recognized her need for dependence on God through the love and example of the TEC community. Her story which leads her to China is evidence of the importance in developing a close relationship with God. To achieve this we simply follow Him with humility and trust, and for this faithfulness, Shannon Walsh can truly say, “I will show you my faith by what I do.” For the past seven years Shannon has been doing missionary work in China. When she is in Indiana, her home parish is St. John Newburgh. Her parents are Colleen and Pat Walsh. She has two sisters, two brothers, two brothers in-law, one sister in-law, three nieces and two nephews.
Shannon tells her story:
“It all began with TEC”. . . I was a junior at Memorial high school and not all together interested in spending a whole weekend away on a retreat. God, if He was even real, had no serious part in my life and I wasn’t interested in spending three days praying. Mom signed me up for TEC #5 and I managed to wiggle my way out of going on the weekend. What I hadn’t expected, though, was that a friend of mine would come back from the weekend all excited about what a great time she had and all the new friends she had made. I had a hard time understanding how a church related thing could have been fun, but . . . When the next weekend rolled around, I agreed to go. I had no idea that the weekend would change my life. Before TEC #6 (’93), I found it difficult to really believe that there is a God in Heaven. By the time I left the retreat, I was convinced of two things: God is real and he loves me. These two realities touched me so deeply during those three days that the truth of them has remained with me and has influenced the course of my life. The joy of knowing Jesus filled my heart and gave me the desire to know Him more and more. TEC didn’t just influence my faith; TEC brought me to the faith.
Pat Ziemer was the lay director for TEC #6, he asked me to give the “Peace Talk” on the following retreat. I didn’t want to do it, but he said that my name was the one that came to him every time he prayed about it. I think asking me to give the talk was God’s way of introducing me to prayer — I was so nervous the months before the talk that I was praying all the time to prepare for it! One of the greatest blessings after making my weekend was forming a group that met once a week to share our faith. This time was such a gift for me because I had a chance to learn from peers and grow in my faith. We spent not only our “group” time together, but would hang out and during that time I learned a lot about Christian friendship and about our Catholic faith. After making TEC, I started attending daily Mass — a practice I have kept up as long as Mass is available to me. The blessing of hearing the Word and receiving the Bread of Life each day is what keeps my faith alive. I went on to study Theology at Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio; there I was able to deepen my faith and my desire to share it.
When I began to feel the Lord calling me to do missionary work, I went to Calcutta, India to spend some time volunteering with Moth-er Teresa’s sisters. During my short time there, I decided that I wanted to spend my life caring for the poor and sharing the Good News. After college graduation I went to Mexico for a year and then spent seven years working in China as a lay missionary. I was learning about the orphans, the Christians persecuted for their faith, and about all the millions of people there who have never even heard of Jesus. The more I prayed for China, the more my heart longed to be there. I asked the Lord to open the doors to get me there and He did. I have been able to work with orphans and opened a hospice for dying babies: (www.chinalittleflower.org), women in crisis, and young Catholics who want to learn more about their faith but don’t have the opportunity. I am back in the US now, but still very much involved with China and helping the orphans and Christians there. Young people need an opportunity, a chance, and a place, where they can go to encounter Christ. If I had not made TEC and come face to face with the beauty of living for Christ, my life would have been entirely different. I can’t begin to express how thankful I am for the people who put together my first TEC weekend. There wasn’t one moment when everything clicked for me, or one thing that someone said that made the difference. I think it was the whole thing — a group of people who had been praying for us, a time and a place set aside for making the encounter with Christ possible. In that place, my heart found what (or rather Who) it was looking for and transformed me. It is that personal encounter with Christ that keeps people in the Church and looking for ways to serve the Church. It is vitally important that we have ways to help kindle the fire of faith in the lives of the youth.
In Shannon’s willingness to rely on God, she has found a heavenly treasure in a place where some have never experienced that joy. She is truly rich in what matters to God. We are blessed by the witness of our young people; who are nurtured by God’s love and the TEC Movement, which plays a big part in that gift. Pray for the continued openness of the hearts and minds of young people to share His love for them, and the TEC Movement in our diocese.