As we look back at a busy year of 2025 for the Jesus Youth movement in Chicago, there is a lot to be thankful for and lot of blessings to count for our region. These are the fruits of many laborers working in His vineyard and God’s blessings being showered upon their efforts. Let’s take a scroll through the various events and happenings so we can get ready to get back into the fields for a bigger harvest for the Kingdom of God in 2026!!
Households
Households are a time when we come together as JY’s in the region to pray, reflect, and be in fellowship. Here are some of the highlights:
January Household
January household, the monthly gathering of all JY’s in the area, happened at the Emprayil house on January 18th. Jonathan Cyriac shared the reflection for the month, reflecting on the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the question of ‘Do…
February Household
For February Household, we met together at the Bijoys house to spend time in prayer, reflection and fellowship. Edwin shared the reflections on working hard in the kingdom of the Lord and we spent time sharing personal reflections and…
March Household
March Household was held at Jijo and Jiji’s house. It was awesome to have many of our college students who were back home for Spring Break. Bennett Kannana lead us in the reflection on ‘Waiting for the Lord’. Many…
May Household
Household (the gathering of all JY’s in the region) for May happened at Jithin and Anjitha’s house. We started off with an action song, bringing back the spirit of JY from 2 decades ago. Angela lead us in the…
July Household
We had July Household at the Bijoy’s house. Goodwin lead us in the monthly reflection on Guarding our Hearts. The reflection reminded us of the importance of rooting our heart on the Word of God and nurturing the strengths…
August Household
The August Household was held and Manoj and Tena Mathew’s residence. We gathered to reflect on Jesus washing the disciples feet, a slave like act done by our God, the example he is showing us to live out. The…
KCA – Kids Ministry
“Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it” – Proverbs 22:6
Here are some of the highlights from KCA
KCA – Seniors
KCA Seniors (8+) gathered in January at the Antony house and spent time in prayer, fellowship and activity.
KCA – Juniors
KCA for Juniors (5-8yrs) happened at the Antony house in January. They talked about God’s infinite love for us and…
KCA – Seniors
Today we had our KCA seniors gathering. We talked about Shield of Faith & Helmet of Salvation. The kids enjoyed…
KCA – The Sky’s the Limit
KCA organized a fantastic time at Sky Zone (trampoline park) for many kids, young adults, and parents. It was an…
Middle School
One of the most active ministries in our region brought together our middles schoolers for many fun adventure clubs, took them to Damascus camps and really built a community among them. Here are some of the highlights:
Boys Adventure Club
The middle school boys Adventure Club met this month and in the spirit of the football season, they had a game of football despite the cold and later gathered at the…
Girls Adventure Club
Middle School Girls Adventure Club went out bowling to celebrate their time together and to enjoy a time of fellowship and to celebrate Valentine’s day. After this, they met at Jijo…
Boys Adventure Club
For the March Boys Adventure Club, we flew kites and reflected on the theme of spirituality based on this fun activity. We had 15 middle school aged boys at the gathering.
Damascus – Middle School Camp
Our Middle School ministry took some of our middle schoolers to the summer camp organized by Damascus in June. This summer camp focuses on high-adventure activities leading to high-adventure faith. Many…
Damascus – Middle School Girls camp
Seven of our JY middle school ministry girls attended the Damascus camp in Great Lakes Michigan. You can find more about these summer camps here: https://www.damascus.net/catholic-youth-summer-campJust like the boys middle school…
Middle School Girls gathering
For the Middle School gathering in October, we visited a farm, discussed friendship and prayed together. Enjoy some pictures from the trip.
Adventure Club – Boys
The middle-school boys Adventure Club met on November 15th. They reflected on Giving Thanks in All Circumstances (1 Thessalonians 5: 16-18) and they spent time in discussion, prayer and playing.
Middle School Girls – November 2025
Middle school girls group continued to work on the topic Forming Friendship using an Endow study guide. Also as activity we did archery and Friendsgiving tea party and card making to…
Teens Ministry
Teens Gathering
JY Teens saw a lot of new faces in February! They got a chance to meet and talk about the value of fasting, abstinence and…
Teens Gathering
March monthly Teens Gathering happened at the Jacob house.
Teens Gathering – September
After a long summer break, Teens gathering started back up in September at the Jacob’s house on September 19th. They spent the evening around a…
Campus Ministry
JY Chicago at Zion 2025
We had a group of about 20 attendees representing Chicago at Zion, a national campus conference, that took place from Dec 31 – Jan 4th in Woodlake, TX. They were…
Road From Zion
We had a post-Zion gathering on January 16th at the Abraham House. We spent time in fellowship, sharing the graces from the Zion conference, praying together and eating dinner together….
Pathways – First Gathering
The first gathering of Pathways, a campus program, took place on Feb 1st, at Jonathan and Joel’s house. Seven students who have committed to attending 6 sessions over the next…
Pathways – Service Project
The Pathways campus group did our service project by taking a trip together to the Feed My Starving Children in Schaumburg. We worked together to pack food to be sent…
Pathways
The spring semester, the Midwest ran its first batch of the National Campus Pathways program. The program included in person meetups of 6-8 college age students who committed to 6…
Pathways – 2025 Fall Semester
The first gathering of Pathways, a campus program, took place on October 5th, at Arden of Oakbrook (Jonathan, Joel, Amaris residence). Seven students who have committed to attending 6 sessions…
Pathways – 2025 Fall Semester – Service Project
Pathways continued throughout this semester and the group met consistently and delved deeper into questioning and understanding different parts and areas of our life. As we are almost at the…
Young Adults
Common Grounds – April
This month saw the beginning of a new initiative. “Common Grounds” is a basement-turned-coffee-shop, open once a week for an evening of fellowship. The coffee shop ambiance allows for 2 hours of “work together” time during which attendees can bring their todo lists,…
Common Grounds – May
“Common Grounds” is a basement-turned-coffee-shop, open every Tuesday for an evening of fellowship. It’s been continuing for the second month and has become a fun and productive coffee shop. Many start off the evening getting some work done while sharing some coffee, matcha,…
Other Ministries and Mission Initiatives
Intercession
Rain or shine, lead by Edwin, several JY’s met consistently every Monday of the week to pray for the region, the movement, the church and our world. When many in Puktawagon, Canada were affected by wild fire crisis, they came together to have a special intercessory prayer and we saw everyone there including our own Josh Jacob get to safety.
Mission
Pukatawagan Mission: Feb – Mar 2025
On the drive to Pukatawagan, we met with Bishop Cozzens and picked up Fr. Tom from Minnesota. We then drove to Winnipeg and had a fun game night with the youth. Then, we…
Saturday Soup Kitchen
The regular Saturday Soup Kitchen group went again this Saturday to serve at the Missionaries of Charity Soup Kitchen. They attended the morning mass at Immaculate Conception in Elmhurst and then made the…
Justina: Fulltimer send off
At the last community night before Justina, one of our youth, left for her fulltimership, the region came together in a beautiful time of prayer and sharing of memories and graces. Many shared…
Fellowship
Super Bowl Party 2025
The Jesus Youth Young Adults organized a Super Bowl party for all the youth in the region including High Schoolers. They used this as an outreach opportunity to invite friends…
Community Night – June
Community Nights, the social gathering where ‘no plans are the best plans’ started back up again for the summer. We started off the first month of community night at the…
Community Night – July
Community night continued at the Elmhurst house for the entire month of July. We had a blast meeting new people, having fun, and hanging out. We played football, enjoyed burgers…
Music and Arts and Others
Damascus Worship Conference
We had few people from our region go to Damascus Worship Conference in Columbus, OH. Here’s how Damascus explained what this conference was, ‘For lovers and leaders of worship- whether you are leading on…
Walk to Mary pilgrimage
A group of about 20 JY’s from Chicago drove up to Wisconsin to take part in the Walk to Mary pilgrimage. We start with St. Joseph (at the National Shrine of St. Joseph) and…
CorUS local
In preparation for the CorUS, the Jesus Youth national creative summit, we had a local gathering with Shelton Pinheiro. We had a great time asking and learning about how to use our talents for…
Formation
Formation Weekend
We had the first formation weekend of 2025 from January 24-26 at the Jacob house in Elmhurst, where we had a group of our youth and young adults take part in Emmaus and Stewardship course. These formation weekends are always a great time of learning, praying and growing together while also spending…
Looking Ahead
Thank you Jesus for a wonderful year, and we ask that you prepare us to be ready to serve the needs, opportunities and souls you will entrust to us next year. Happy New Year!!!