BY ALLISON BARRICK
STAFF WRITER
Members of the Student Evangelization Networking Teams (SENT) are traveling to parishes as far as New York and Chicago to put on retreats for middle school and high school students.
The SENT mission teams, each made up of two leaders and 10 members, are involved in putting on one to two retreats each semester.
Erin Horomanski, coordinator of SENT, describes those who are a part of SENT as missionaries.
“It gives them a bigger sense of the word,” she said.
Horomanski, a senior theology and catechetics major, has been involved in SENT for eight semesters. It was during her third semester that she became coordinator of the ministry.
“I saw so much potential in the ministry,” she explained.
Before she became coordinator, SENT put on nine retreats a year. Now, the ministry puts on 30 to 35 retreats; T-shirts and videos are also created for the ministry.
“The expansion has been explosive,” said Horomanski.
As part of her ministry to the CORE team, she makes sure to meet with each team leader every other week. They all come together for a holy hour and spend time sharing about how each person is doing.
“These eighteen people have shown me so much about the Lord’s joy and love in this life, and they are truly remarkable human beings who were each called to serve,” shared Horomanski about the CORE team.
However, it is youth that Horomanski finds the most rewarding part of her job. She also says that working with her fellow team members has been a high point as well.
“The friendships created over the last two years are ones that will last for a very long time; they’re definitely rooted in something greater,” said Horomanski.
Senior Lauren Alley, one of the CORE team members and a senior theology and catechetics major, works with Horomanski as student head, assisting with office jobs and connecting with the other CORE team members.
As a CORE team member, she and her partner also are in charge of leading a team of 10 missionaries. Alley shares how she and the other members of her team have come together.
“I think it all ties together in a beautiful way,” she said, saying that they all gathered for something greater than themselves.
Each CORE team leader meets with his/her team of 10 other students once a week to practice skits, assign talks and create schedules for parish retreats. All of this work provides the opportunity to go outside of Franciscan University and to give to a thirsting world, explained Alley.
Junior Dominic Gentile, a member of one of the SENT teams, became involved in SENT in his second semester of college. While he may give talks, participate in the skits or just partake in relational ministry, Gentile says nothing is better than returning from a retreat.
“I think the most rewarding part for me is coming out of the van after the retreat, being exhausted but totally filled from serving and doing the Lord’s work,” said Gentile.
SENT is a ministry that falls under Missionary Outreach at Franciscan University.