DARDENNE PRAIRIE, Mo. (NCC News) — Before COVID, Sunday evenings at Immaculate Conception of Dardenne would consist of high schoolers walking into a room to come together for a few hours of fellowship, games and religious study.
Matthew Maxwell knows this routine all too well. As the lead youth minister at ICD, he is in charge of Magnify, the high school youth ministry. Since COVID-19 arrived on the world stage, however, Maxwell has seen the program be temporarily shut down twice.
“The first was right when everything happened,” Maxwell said. “Pretty much everybody went on quarantine so we did the same. That was for about two months from the end of March until May 31st.”
The second shut down came following a prom held by one of the local high schools.
“There wasn’t any outbreak here,” Maxwell said. “But we just wanted to make sure that there’d be removal from that situation since we had teens that went to that prom.”
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The original chapel at ICD.
© 2020 Brendon Hodges -
The front of the "new" church. Masses are being held both inside and virtually for the entire ICD community to participate in.
© 2020 Brendon Hodges -
Despite ICD's Youth Ministry taking place, the Youth Room remains vacant. The only events being held within it are smaller group gatherings throughout the week.
© 2020 Brendon Hodges
It was a small setback, but a setback that kept Magnify from meeting until this last Sunday. Now Maxwell, along with middle school youth minister Samantha Sargent, is looking into how the pandemic could affect the upcoming year. Included in that is how bringing in students from outside ICD might affect the 800 students who will start attending daily classes there on August 13th.
“Just being aware of the space and numbers of students. Really I plan on following the lead of the school,” Sargent said. “If they require masks at the school I’m going to require [students] to bring a mask to youth ministry and try to enforce as best as we can.”
And while there are plenty of obstacles to traverse in relation to the continuation of youth ministry combined with the start of a new school year, Sargent is finding solace in the community she has around her.
“I think people just appreciate the community more,” Sargent said. “We’ve kept the ‘Welcome Home’ signs up for the last month and a half. I feel like this is home and we are a community.”
Maxwell has a similar mindset despite the adverse circumstances presented by the pandemic.
“For me at least, what I’ve tried to adopt and what I’ve really just been trying to push to people is hope,” Maxwell said. “This sucks. This has taken away so many things. This makes life so different for you. But here there’s hope.”
