Wheat letters are one of the essential elements of the TEC weekend. They powerfully communicate to the candidates that countless people far beyond the weekend are praying and sacrificing for them. They testify that God is indeed a community founded on love, prayer, and service.
There are two kinds of Wheat letters. First, there are public wheat letters—those that you write for the conference room as a whole. Second, there are personal Wheat letters—those that you write for a specific individual on the weekend (each weekend participant receives three personal Wheat letters).
So how do we write a Wheat letter? Simply put, a Wheat letter consists of four parts.
1) Encouragement — This may be an exhortation to trust the Team or to be open to God, or it may be an affirmation that God will reveal Himself in His own time during the weekend. One effective way to do this is to briefly share your own experience from TEC and the wonderful things God has done for you. Share your conviction that God will likewise do wonderful things for the candidates.
2) Prayer — Share your prayer for the candidates. Some examples include prayers for a change of heart, that the candidates will come closer to God, or that they will find strength to go forth as Christ to the world. If you are writing a letter specifically for Die, Rise, or Go day, let your prayer reflect the theme of the day.
3) Act of wheat — What act will you undertake to hold the candidates in prayer through the weekend? A pebble in your shoe? An extra hour before the Blessed Sacrament? A rosary at 3:00 am? Fasting all weekend? Whatever the means of prayer, remember that the focus is on praying for the weekend, that God might shower it with his grace. The focus is not on any spiritual heroics you might perform.
4) Closing — Share your name and the TECs that you have attended or been on team for.
Wheat letters can be e-mailed to wheat@rockymountiatintec.net, or mailed to St. Thomas More(8035 South Quebec Street Centennial, CO 80112) care of Rocky Mountain TEC
When you send your Wheat letter(s), indicate if they are personal or public. For personal Wheat letters, indicate the person for whom you wrote it. For public Wheat letters, indicate the day for which it was written—either Die, Rise, or Go.
WHAT NOT TO write IN a Wheat letter : Your wheat letter should communicate your prayer and support of the candidate on the weekend, and the sacrifice you are making on their behalf. In that spirit you should avoid the following when writing your Wheat letter :
- Pen pal/ Yearly Cristmas Letter verbage. The Wheat letter is a lettter of encouragement, not a chance to catch-up or let the reader know what you've been up to. It's a format for expressing your love and support for the person.
- Excessive Silliness. We all enjoy a good laugh and have good friends that we like to joke around with. Sharing a funny anecdote or an inside joke with the reader is fine, but remember the point of the wheat letter is an exercise in making the reader more holy before God. Excessive silliness or joking detracts from the message that I love and support you before God, so try to keep it to a minimum.
- Criticism. We all have heard of tough love, and we all know that as Christians we are called to hold our brothers and sisters accountable to their own holiness. There is a time and place for that, however a wheat letter is not the place for it. Remember Christ loves us exactly as we are, but he also loves us too much to let us remain where we are. Right now our job is to show the reader of the wheat letter how Christ loves us know, Christ will do the rest. Criticism even in the most loving fashion can shut a person down if they aren't expecting it, and it can negatively affect a person's weekend.
Romantic sentiments. There is nothing wrong with love letters. You may be writing to your spouse, fiance, or the person you are currently dating, and you want to express your feelings of love for them. However, the point of the wheat letter is to lift the reader up to Christ and show them how Christ loves them. When you start expressing romantic feelings for the reader it can change the focus from Christ to your relationship, and we want to keep the candidate or team member focused on Christ at this point.