 The Studentville conferences are an outreach of Franciscan University and our patron of St. Francis who heard the call from Christ to go rebuild the church. We put on conferences across North America for youth, young adults and adults where it is our hope that we're sharing the love of Christ with those that attend. It takes 18 months of prayer, planning and preparation in order to execute the conferences. We have thousands of volunteers and then our conference partners that are working year-round, sometimes over a year, just to make the conferences happen, but it's all worth the fruit. I was kind of duped into youth ministry in high school and I always tease and I say that God used pizza, volleyball and girls to first put his, you know, first hook in me or what not. And it was probably when I was a junior in high school I was on a service camp and I was actually in confession and it was the first time that I was in confession that a priest ever asked me directly, I've ever thought about the priesthood. I had a soccer coach who was a great man, he was also my religion teacher. I used to get detentions all the time and so in detention one day he just, he simply asked how's God loving you and I remember I didn't have an answer. And so that kind of is what sparked some curiosity and some interest because I wanted an answer. I wanted to know about this God who supposedly loved me and it was this teacher who first introduced me to Stephen Goh. I was really mentored by a youth minister and I wasn't a youth, let's for sure I had four kids by then and she brought me to a conference to be a chaperone and God just hit me really hard that, you know, my gosh, I'm missing the life of Christ. It was all the same summer that the priest first asked me in the confessional had he thought about the priesthood and then within a month I was at a student bill youth conference and it was the first time that I had been at a conference like that. I didn't know what I was getting myself into, I knew it was a weekend away and a weekend away from the country and away from the small town was an exciting weekend and so so I went and yeah the conferences they they were just something new for me. I don't know I went and I just felt very drawn to keep going and I really liked it and I think being here now working as a youth minister here it's kind of like a catalyst to kick off my year. When people walk into the main venue at a student bill conference they're immediately surrounded by thousands of other believers who are fired up about their faith. What we see with our conference outreach is the power of invitation that people are going and they're sharing about their experience of the conferences and bringing others and this is how we continue to build and rebuild the church. Over 10 plus years I've been able to participate in the conferences and primarily the youth conferences are such a powerful event to be able to be part of because when we start on Friday night there's all this joyfulness and praise and worship singing going on and you still see the kids looking around there are a few of them not quite sure what's going on yet but throughout the course of that weekend you see that transformation that takes place in their lives such as they become on fire by Sunday morning and really want to continue to grow deeper in their relationship with Christ and continue to have an effect in the church and in the world. You know by the time Sunday came around and they they asked the question you know is there anybody out there thinking about the priesthood that all of those dynamic experiences that I received through the student bill retreat conference at least made it a possibility and I said I don't know but I'm willing you know and so that's what gave me the courage even to stand up next to my girlfriend and say you know if I got to go I got to go. As the weekend progressed you started to realize that there was something deeper going on and there's something at the heart of it that that was really life changing and I remember Saturday night during adoration probably the first time I'd ever been to adoration just kind of having this moment that I didn't know what was going on I didn't know exactly what I was supposed to be doing but I remember that there was something there that that I knew that I needed to experience more of. The reason why I felt inspired to start bringing some adults was because all the adults wanted to go to the youth conference some of them don't know why they're coming but they're intrigued and that that's the Holy Spirit too you know. You know Franciscan University of Steubenville is truly truly a special place we hear that from so many people that that come to our campus and I think one of the biggest things in relation to our conferences is community and we're very excited about where we're going with all of our conferences for youth young adults and adults. We go to the Lord and we pray and we say God what do you want what do you want next how do you want us to handle this challenge or this next situation that we have or what conference do you want next and so the biggest thing that we do is that we follow Jesus we let him lead us and guide us and direct us and show us where he wants us to go next. The atmosphere there I don't know it just draws people in but what I love about it is it doesn't stay there. You want to give what you yourself have received and so it's kind of like well if these activities made me fall in love with my faith then I want to be able to share those activities with the young people that now I'm trying to kind of grow with and journey with. I think God is doing a lot in a lot of different avenues and areas of the church but I think there's something special with the student conferences. I would say without the conferences I wouldn't be where I am. Being able to bring the teachings of the church to them to be able to help them to hear the voice of truth to be able to help them to develop virtue in their own lives rather than listening to what the world wants to tell them. If what happens at our conference dies at the conference and is not spread forth then our mission dies. It is our hope our prayer that everyone who comes and has this radical encounter with the love of Jesus will go forth with the desire to spread that love and be equipped to share the gospel in a way that brings new life to their friends their family and their parish. I believe what we're doing as a as a university and as the Christian outreach office is critical to the church. I mean it's amazing what God has allowed us to participate in. We're in rebuilding we really are not rebuilding theology not rebuilding doctrines we're building hearts. Come and experience the love of Christ not only in the sacraments but also through the love of Christ and people that are here. Come and see what the experience of the Super Bowl conference is all about.