We'll be updating you folks at home on our experience in New Orleans next week - our adventures, our reflections, our joys... but until then.... let us hear from *you.
What words of wisdom do you have for our young people embarking on this journey?
What prayers do you offer up for us?
What would you like to know about our trip?
Don't be shy - jump into the conversation!
We're headed to Detroit in July for the ELCA National Youth Gathering, where we will join with 35,000 other young people and adults for a week filled with worship, friends and reaching out to the people of Detroit through a variety of activities based on the theme, "Rise UP Together", 65 youth and adults from the Genesee Finger Lakes region will be heading to Detroit July 14-19; most of us traveling together on a chartered bus. Follow our thoughts and reflections here.
Part of the program is a "Practice Justice Day" where the kids will be hosting book fairs, visiting rec centers and reading with kids and building livraries in rec centers to help improve literacy in N.O. and surrounding areas. The ELCA is attempting to donate one million books while there to provide a BIG impact! If you'd like to donate, you can make a financial donation through scholastic books - $15 will purchase 4 books - or bring books to church this Sunday for the kids to carry with them. ONLY NEW BOOKS ON THE LINKED LIST are welcomed. You can donate at www.gulfcoastsynod.org/books.html or get the list of requested books at http://www.gulfcoastsynod.org/YOUTH_LYO/BookList.pdf
ReplyDeleteThanks!
Karan Thompson
(I'm volunteering Ben's suitcase to carry books...) :)
Thanks Karan for the reminder!
ReplyDeleteI am so excited for all of you who are going to New Orleans.
ReplyDeleteYou asked what we would like to learn from your experience there. I would love to know how the people are fairing. What are their hopes, their fears, their joys. We travelled to N.O. a couple of times during their years of booming success. I loved talking to the residents on the streets (not hard to figure out who was a resident and who was a tourist because the tourists were usually "whooping it up.") Their ease of talking with strangers made conversa-tions flow so easily (probably because we were talking outside of a local bar where the sounds of jazz was the backdrop.) Even the jazz artists playing in Preservation Hall were OK with carrying on a conversation as one set of tourists was exiting and the stands were filling with a new set of tourists.
The backdrop for all of this was the definite divide between cultures which is hard to see in the hoopla in the streets. It is even hard to see in the make-up of the bands because music brought the different cultures together. Ephesians 2:14-20 is certainly a great scripture to headline this gathering.
Be sure to come back with lots of pictures and memories of your conference gatherings, work and "touristing" so you can share them with all of us during an Adult Education class in the fall. Love, Karen Grover
I dropped off Ben, John, Anne, Cece and Vanessa at the airport this morning. Check in and security check went smoothly. I watched Ben go through the full body scanner, then blew him a kiss, which of course he missed because as always, he was looking forward, not back.
ReplyDeleteHeard from Vanessa about an hour ago. Her text message was: Just boarded our flight from LaGuardia to NOLA. Lots of kids from other churches in the northeast!
Off they go!