By Erin Harden

Camino in Spanish means “a path, route, or road.” For us, it was a sacred journey. The “us” I am talking about is a group of over 150 young adults, ages 18-30, from all over the United States and Honduras, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic and Ecuador.

By Erin Harden

Those of you in attendance at Council may have noticed a large group of young people sitting at two front tables in the main ballroom. I wish everyone could have seen us because it was the largest-ever group of 18- 30-year-olds for Young Adults@Council. There were thirteen of us from many different walks of our young adult lives—some of us who are still in college, some of us who work full-time.
Our weekend started Friday night at the home of the Rev. Jonathan Harris for dinner followed by Eucharist at St. John’s. On Saturday, we started with breakfast at Ernie’s on the market and then to Hotel Roanoke to participate in Council sessions. Our nights were spent at Christ Church, Roanoke with discussion and fellowship.
Our theme for the weekend was mission. We talked about the ONE campaign to eradicate extreme poverty in the developing world. Sarah Nagy, Grace, Lynchburg, shared a little about her work with the epidemic going on in Darfur. Will Urbanski was unable to make it for the weekend so I did the best I could in sharing his story about his work with orphans who have AIDS in Kenya. These are just two of the many young adults who are passionate about mission throughout the world and the United States. It’s amazing what the young people of this diocese have to offer.   
The weekend was a huge success thanks to the support of Jonathan Harris and the talents of Beth Crow, St. Peter’s, Callaway. Young adults are often overlooked in the life of the church. After youth graduate from high school, there is sometimes little to become involved with as far as offerings targeted specifically at our age group organized by the Episcopal Church. Several colleges have church-affiliated campus ministry but what is there for those who do not go to college or who are out of college? I challenge our diocese not to forget Young Adults when planning church ministry and to please support us in many ways including with prayer.
-Erin Harden is a recent graduate of Radford University and is a parishioner at Christ Church, Roanoke.