Almost 20 years later, the children of that community are now reaching an age of maturity where they are ready to make their own way in the world, though not always in the same spiritual and cultural direction as their parents.

“We have noticed that the number of youth and young adults in our Vietnamese parish has decreased over the years,” said Ylan Nguyen, 25, a PhD student at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont., and one of the four founding members of YaYA at the parish.

In response, Ylan and three other young parishioners, David Pham, Martha Ta-Nguyen and Steven Kim, began to discern their role in addressing the spiritual needs, present and future, of their unique bilingual community. The result was YaYA.

For Ylan, the goal is “to provide an environment where (youth and young adults) feel comfortable to be their true selves, a place where we can support each other so we can all grow and become the people God calls us to be.”

For many young Vietnamese-Canadians, the issue of language has created many barriers, said Van-Nhi Nguyen, 22, a parishioner and current member of YaYA.

“I grew up part of a Vietnamese parish but there are so many things I don’t understand and cannot fully express in Vietnamese,” she said.

Despite this, Van-Nhi said it is important for the youth to recognize the relevance of the parish in their lives since “the youth will be the future of our parish whether we like it or not.”

YaYA hosts various events at least once a month ranging from praise and worship jam sessions, social activities, monthly bilingual Masses and, most recently, a retreat in Kingston, Ont., at Providence Spirituality Centre in September where a group of 33 university and college students sought to grow in the faith. The bilingual Masses in particular reflect the unique background of YaYA, where the readings and songs are in both languages, and the homily is in Vietnamese. In doing so, Ylan said, “There is a mixture of familiarity with Vietnamese Mass and the increased understanding from English Mass.”

The group, however, is mindful that it takes more than just promoting Catholic rituals to evangelize. It also means setting practical examples of Christian life.

“I think it’s not just having a Mass that will encourage people to come back to church but bearing witness to our faith, discerning our true call in life and as the World Youth Day theme says, being rooted in Christ and firm in the faith,” Ylan said.

Van-Nhi noticed that through these initiatives, youth participation has increased dramatically at the parish.

“The youth Mass has a high attendance of youth that I have never seen before. (YaYA) is slowly bringing more youth back to church,” she said.

She also adds that, through the group, she has rediscovered her cultural roots.

“YaYA has helped me merge the two culture identities (Vietnamese and Canadian) and helped me realize it isn’t really two identities at all but one unique one,” she said.

For Ylan, YaYA still has a long way to go.

“I think we are sparking something among the youth and young adults,” she said.

“We’ll just have to be patient and have faith that God will provide.”

(Thien-An Nguyen, 18, is a history and political science student at the University of Ottawa. Find out more about her at youthspeaknews.org)