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By Wendy Royston
At a time when the Church is experiencing a revival, particularly among the young, a group of lay volunteers in the Diocese of Sioux Falls is resurrecting what was a thriving apostolate for youth a generation ago.
“There’s something special happening right now … with all the converts [joining] the Church this Easter Vigil,” said Billy O’Regan, executive director of the international TEC Conference organization based in New Orleans. “This movement that’s … [inspiring] people to rediscover their faith, get serious about their relationship with Christ and recommit themselves to a sacramental life is also happening with our young people.”
Billy, who has worked with TEC Conference for 15 years, said casual inquiries suddenly became serious in recent years. After more than a decade without new developments, eight TEC communities are in varying stages of formation, with the Diocese of Sioux Falls leading the resurgence.
Historical roots
Father Shaun Haggerty, pastor of the parishes of the Ave Maria Pastorate in the Watertown area, who attended his first TEC in 2000 and now will serve as spiritual director for the apostolate, said the group is mindful of its roots, even though East River TEC technically is a new endeavor in the Diocese of Sioux Falls.
“We build upon the legacy of those who came before us,” he said at a Mass with the organization’s Foundation and Core teams in April, noting that Prairie Teens Encounter Christ’s first chaplains, Bishop Donald Kettler and Father Mike Wensing, concelebrated with him, while the first coordinators, Jack and Carolyn Osborne (now in their 90s), held the team in prayer. “Here we are at the present moment, and God’s working something new.”
Prairie TEC held 125 retreats between 1979-2005, impacting up to 61 young people in a weekend. Now coined East River Together Encounter Christ (a name seen to be more inclusive of the generational reality of the lifelong TEC experience), the three-day retreat, focused on the Paschal Mystery and fostering a deep connection to the sacraments, has changed little since its first go-around.
“The theme of every TEC weekend is the same: It’s the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Christ and the sending forth of disciples at Pentecost,” Billy said, adding that the model is “simple”: Older teens and young adults who are alive in their faith share their testimonies and connect with retreatants, who have the opportunity to examine what stands between them and God, partake of the sacraments and dig deeper into their personal relationships with Jesus.
The TEC experience
Katie Taylor, coordinator of youth faith formation at Risen Savior Parish in Brandon, who attended 15 TECs in her home Diocese of Winona/Rochester between 2006-2020, said Father Matthew Fedewa, the Michigan priest who created TEC in 1965, “did it right by” using the setting of Good Friday through Pentecost as the basis for the retreat.
On day one, known as “Die Day,” participants “find the things that distract you from God” and “see where God fits into those holes,” she explained. On day two, “Rise Day,” participants focus on their relationship with God, the joy he finds in them and the purpose they have with him and in him without those distractions. Day three, “Go Day,” is the retreat’s Pentecost, with participants sent forth to be Christ in their communities, schools and workplaces.
“It’s just like the apostles and disciples, going out and living that faith,” Katie said. “What’s changed in you can change in a lot of people. It’s such a powerful thing, because the Holy Spirit is actually using you to help other people through their journey, just like he’s helping you through yours.”
The retreat often leaves participants with an overwhelming “impulse to go out and share the Good News with others,” Billy said. “Beyond a transformational evangelizing experience for older teens and young adults, TEC places everything that it does in an intergenerational setting. [Teens and young adults] are experiencing it not just with their peers but with adults who are alive in their faith so that, as they come out of their experience, there’s this intergenerational community of TEC that journeys with them into the future.”
TEC is diocese-focused, with a priest present on each retreat and volunteers coming from various parishes, allowing participants the opportunity to experience spiritual direction from priests and connections with faith-filled lay adults they otherwise may not encounter.
The visual of a wheat field, which grows on the prairies of East River South Dakota, not only binds the original TEC to the new one—and both to the local region—but also serves as tangible imagery through the central Scripture: “Unless a grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains but a single seed. But, if it dies, it produces many seeds” (Jn 12:24).
Though parts of the weekend are challenging and stretch participants, those challenges are intentional, as one cannot experience Pentecost without Easter, nor Easter without Good Friday.
It started with a prayer
The revival of TEC in the Diocese of Sioux Falls is the result of prayers from adults who felt a nudge from Bishop Donald DeGrood’s call for East River South Dakota to be “set ablaze.” One of them, Jo Vitek, a parishioner at Immaculate Conception Parish in Watertown, stumbled upon TEC as a response to prayer for clarity in her vocation.
Widowed and retired, Jo pleaded with God, “If I’m not supposed to be alone, bring somebody into my life with a servant’s heart that I can do lay ministry work with.” Soon after, a friend connected the retired police chief with a widower from their parish. Steve Raml had volunteered more than 20 years in jail ministry, leading Residents Encounter Christ (REC) at the Douglas County Jail in Austin, Minnesota, and moved to Watertown in 2019. Quickly, Steve and Jo became serious about one another and each other’s ministry interests.
“I put a lot of people in jail, but I don’t think God is going to ask me how many people I put into jail. I think he’s going to ask how many I’ve visited,” Jo said, and she followed Steve into the jail. “Before you can work a REC, you have to make a TEC,” so Jo registered and attended her first TEC in Minnesota in July 2024, a month before the couple was married.
“As I was there, I was thinking about Bishop DeGrood’s focus on lifelong Catholic missionary discipleship through God’s love, wondering why [TEC] isn’t happening in South Dakota and wondering how I could not have heard about it,” Jo said.
Eventually, Jo, a convert to both the faith and to South Dakota, discovered that TEC had once existed in South Dakota, as it started coming up in the Ave Maria Pastorate Set Ablaze planning sessions, and many in her parish had been involved in TEC’s first iteration.
“People started to share their experiences with me, and every one of them” expressed a desire for its revival, Jo said.
In February 2025, a chance encounter with Billy at a national conference for youth directors in Atlanta, Georgia, brought the yearning of Katie’s heart to the surface. She thought her TEC days had ended until, on a whim, she shared her longing for TEC in the Sioux Falls Diocese with Billy, who invited her to a previously scheduled conference call with Jo the following week.
Since then, East River TEC and REC have become registered nonprofits, with Jo and Mike Moran serving as co-coordinators of TEC, Steve and Robin Moran (Mike’s wife) leading REC and Katie serving on both the Foundation and Core teams. Though it is not governed by the diocese, the teams work in collaboration with diocesan leadership, and several team members were a part of Prairie TEC.
Upcoming retreats
East River TEC #1 is scheduled for Aug. 7-9 at Ave Maria School in Watertown, with a second planned for Oct. 10-12 and additional dates anticipated in spring 2027. The cost to attend the weekend is $85 for retreatants and $60 for volunteers who have made a TEC within the last 10 years. Those who have not been on a TEC retreat in the last decade must attend one as if they’ve never attended before prior to volunteering. The first East River REC is anticipated to occur in the currently under construction Codington County Jail in 2027. For additional information on TEC or to register, visit EastRiverTEC.com or the nonprofit’s Facebook or Instagram pages.
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Want to hear more from those who have experienced TEC?
The Catholic Views podcast will have guests on to tell their stories over the coming months. Watch or listen on Real Presence Radio or the diocesan YouTube page.
