Join us again this year for Blaze!
My name is Gabby Zacharkow. I am 17 years old and am going into my senior year at Camden Catholic High School. At Christ the King, I lector and help lead the parish’s youth girls Bible study program called “Blaze.” Blaze happens once a week, every Friday during the winter. You meet with middle school girls to talk about faith and certain Bible passages that relate to everyday occurrences. We talk about body image, self-love and love for others and how to use God and faith in our everyday actions. In school, I play soccer, I am involved in 2 leadership programs, I am an ambassador for Morgan’s Message, and I am a part of a course called Christian Ministry.
Throughout my life, my faith has always been a part of who I am. From the moment I was able to speak, I was learning how to say different prayers. As I grew up, I sort of felt like my faith was a requirement, given that I have gone to Catholic school my entire life. It felt as if being Catholic and believing in God was something I didn’t have a choice about. When I was just 10 years old, my dad was diagnosed with stage four brain cancer. As a 10-year-old, I never fully understood the magnitude of how my life was going to change. I was told by everyone to “just keep praying” or that they were praying for my family because that’s all anyone could do. But why would God let my dad go through so much pain? I began to lose my trust and faith in God because from then on my dad only continued to get worse. On December 16, 2023, my dad passed away. For a long time I was angry at the world. I was angry with God. Why would he take my dad away from me? As much as I wanted to stay angry with God, I couldn’t help but ask him for help, for guidance, and to keep me on my feet, because unfortunately the world does not stop even when you have lost all the reasons for it to keep going.
Through my family struggles, I began to see the world through a new perspective: every day is not promised. I started to find interest in participating in Mass and showing up not just because it was forced on me, but because it was something I began to enjoy. Being a lector and a Blaze leader at Christ the King has taught me many things—the main one being that stepping out of your comfort zone is perfectly okay. If you are trying to get involved, my advice to you is to do it, because not every day is promised. Faith is not something I leave behind when I walk out of Mass on Sunday. It is something I carry with me every day. Because of Christ the King, I have learned to trust God’s plan, serve others, and find strength in moments of uncertainty.