ELCA Youth Gathering: Break Chains

Today was the last of our full ELCA Youth Gathering days, and we, after participating in the Proclaim Community and Proclaim Story days, found ourselves with our synod for Proclaim Story day. This consisted of many short videos, a “story journal”, and a pen. We got to listen to our Bishop Kirby Unti tell his faith story. At the end we took a selfie with him! We also had communion, and sang songs with a praise band. We got to branch out and talk to youth from our synod. It was so touching to hear their stories, and in return we shared our stories with them.

Before that, we hung out in the Cobo Convention Center and visited the Old Lutheran Store that had a lot of funny or awesome t-shirts and sweatshirts. At the big youth gathering night, we listened to a few inspirational speakers who all touched our hearts in different ways. We also got to listen to the beautiful Rachel Kurtz sing, and we got to rock out to Skillet! On our way back to the bus, it started to rain and we felt right at home. ;)

All in all, it was a wonderful day and we can’t believe that tomorrow is the last day. –Anastasia & Sara aka The Queen

ELCA Youth Gathering: Build Bridges

This morning we hopped on a bus to go to Hart Plaza. We waited there for the buses to pick us up to go to our service site. While we were waiting, there was a man singing to keep us occupied during the long wait. The buses arrived around 1 which took us to Oakman Blvd. for our service project. We were given the task to beautify the neighborhood. We took out weeds, cleared trash, and cleaned sidewalks for 3 hours. We were done at 4:30, and the buses took us back to Hart Plaza. We then walked to The Renaissance food court, ate dinner, and walked to Ford Field for the Mass Gathering, which started at 7:30. During the worship we listened to 4 amazing speakers, and had the privilege to listen to The Temptations sing a few Motown classics. Afterwards, we walked through humid Detroit, rode back to our hotel, had our closing, and then typed up what you are reading right now.

-Hailey Ostbo and Alessandro Squadrito

Our speakers at tonight’s Mass Gathering were phenomenal, and all spoke on the theme “Build Bridges.” First, we heard from Rani Abdulmasih, pastor to one of the only Arabic speaking churches in the ELCA. He spoke on bridging the gap between Christians and Muslims, and bringing to light our Christian roots in the Middle East. One of his quotes was, “The first Christians were Arabs, and the first Arabs were Christians.”

Next, we heard from a young woman named Sarah Funkhouser, who recently completed a year with the ELCA’s Young Adults in Global Mission program, where she served in Jerusalem. She talked about how she was assigned to teach English to blind students at the Helen Keller School for the Visually Impaired. Not having a background in teaching and not knowing how to speak Arabic, she turned to a passion of hers: Yoga. She challenged herself to teach these blind students yoga poses, and reveled in the spirituality of the exercise. The impact she had on those students was great, and she is now discerning where God is calling her next.

The last speaker of the evening was Reverend Steve Jerbi from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He spoke about racial injustice, particularly in the story of a 13-year-old boy named Damaris Simmons. “Damaris should be here and having this experience, but he can’t.” He then when into detail about how a couple years ago, Damaris was taking out the trash, and his neighbor, who wasn’t particularly fond of having a black family on the block, shot him in his front yard, while his mother helplessly looked on from her front steps. The power in which he spoke about the plague of racism in our country was incredibly moving and powerful. At one point, the entire stadium stood up and clapped, and after about 10 more minutes of him speaking, I realized we never sat back down! He drove the message home that Jesus claims us, and we claim him as well.

Awesome day!!! What an incredible experience for everyone here. Thanks so much for reading our blog and sharing in our time in Detroit!

ELCA Youth Gathering: Bear Burdens

Today was ‘Proclaim Community’ day, and so we walked around doing activities. Us ladies (Anastasia, Sara, Hailey, and Taryn) stopped to paint a mural of a tree with other high schoolers. It was a picture of a tree, and then we put fingerprints on it as the leaves. These murals are going to be used to board up abandoned buildings, making it less likely for the buildings to be looted (as they will become beautiful pieces of art). Afterwards, we wandered around and Taryn sang a karaoke song (Note from Taryn: And I rocked it!).

We participated in a mass cast performance at the end of the day in Ford Field to a song called “If You’re Out There” by John Legend. It was very moving walking up to the stage next to strangers who were feeling the same emotions you were. There was a very moving speaker at the gathering tonight, who shared her story about growing up in Detroit and what the city means to her. She said, “This is a city filled with more semi-colons than periods.” The sentence could end, but instead, it continues on. This city is full of so many beautiful people with kind hearts, and we are excited to continue our journey tomorrow. –Anastasia & Sara <3

ELCA Youth Gathering 2015: Rise Up Together!

We made it to Detroit! Today was our first full day here, and the 2015 ELCA Youth Gathering officially began. The theme of this Gathering is "Rise Up Together," and today's daily theme echoed the overall theme as well. Here is a taste of our experience in Detroit today! Enjoy :)

First thing in the morning, Alessandro didn’t take a shower. Then he did take a shower. Once he finished, we went down and ate breakfast at the buffet, where there were eggs, bacon, hash browns, and toast. I ate toast. Soon after, some of our group went to CVS, then we all got on the shuttle, and went down to a park, and had lunch, for lunch, we did a Coney Island Dog blind taste test, choosing between Lafayette and American. After that, we visited the courtroom and got in trouble for speaking into the microphones, which were on. Then we went to Cobo Convention Center. Taryn made us sit and listen to Rachel Kurtz for a really long time (Note from Taryn: I did not make them sit for a really long time! AND THEY LIKED IT! Rachel Kurtz is incredible). I had to go to the bathroom, so I did. After this, we all went downstairs to a large room where lots of games were set up, from four-square to ladderball to karaoke. When that area closed, it was time to get dinner and head to Ford Field for evening worship. We had the same great idea as at least one hundred other people to go to Five Guys Burgers and Fries, which took about an hour to get through and get our food. Because of this, we were a bit late to evening worship and at that point they were finishing a dancing thing so we did not know what was going on.
-Sammy Fletcher

Later on, the dean of Duke University gave a speech and it went something like this: “There once was a man looking for a horse… a fast horse to take him from the west coast to the east coast, but to make him go, you needed to say, ‘Praise be to God,’ and to make him stop, you need to say, ‘Amen.” After the worship ended, all 30,000 of us walked from ford field to the GM tower then after that we went back to the hotel.
-Tom Huntley

What an amazing start to this Gathering. Between breakfast and going downtown, we went to the Motown Museum and went on the tour. It was the perfect thing to start off our experience! It was fun, upbeat, and truly embodied the spirit of Detroit. After that, everything fell into place, even if plans didn’t necessarily follow suit. We have a very flexible and positive group of kiddos here, and I’m so blessed to be here with them. I say this all the time, but they bring me so much joy! I cannot believe that we were so busy today, walked over 10 miles and still had as great of attitudes at the end of the day as they had at the beginning. I can’t wait to see what this week has in store for us! Thank you so much for your ongoing support of our youth!
-Taryn Hauglie, Director of Youth Ministries

Our last day: Painting, Community Cookout, and Foot-Washing

On Thursday, our last day of work, we painted a home just outside of town. But more on my side of this post, we had the first cookout of the summer. It was lot of fun getting to talk to the people of Lapwai, and playing with the kids. I do not like to pick favorites, but mine was Amrin. He is an awesome kid who knew my name from the first year. I am really going to miss him with the fact that he is moving. (Tom Huntley)

Our last service day came and went we were so sad because we didn’t want to leave the village and its people that we’ve come to love so much. So to make the memory last the youth leaders organized a cook out at the park. When we were there we hung out, ate burgers, and played with the kids for the last time. It was an amazing experience to see the joy in kids’ faces and how much love they showed towards us.  I really loved doing community service and getting to know the cute and awesome kids.  When we left the park, we got picture of everybody there and that was when we said “Goodbye!  Nice to getting to know you!”  At that moment some of the kids started crying while others gave final hugs to their big buddies.  I hope to see them next year! (Miranda Smith)

Later in the day, we had foot washing ceremony during our church group time. The Youthworks staff washed our leader’s feet. The leaders then came around, washed our feet, and said personal prayers for each of us. When everyone had their feet washed, a prayer was said for all of us together, we shared our highs and lows, and then I said a prayer for the group. It was one of the best church group times in my opinion, and gave everyone a lot of time to think. (Garrett Steffan)