ELCA NEWS SERVICE

July 18, 2006  

'Servant Life' Projects Highlight ELCA Youth Gathering
06-107-JB

     SAN ANTONIO, Texas (ELCA) -- Participants in the 2006 Youth
Gathering of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA)
logged tens of thousands of hours in service to this city and
other parts of Texas.  A key piece of the Youth Gathering was the
"Servant Life: As A Way of Life!" component of the gathering, in
which participants performed a variety of community service
projects throughout this city and at the Henry B. Gonzalez
Convention Center here.
     About 40,000 high-school-age and adult Lutherans from the
United States and around the world participated here in the  ELCA
Youth Gathering.  The gathering took place in two back-to-back
events. Some 15,000 young people, chaperones and volunteers
participated July 5-9; the second week more than 24,000 people
participated through July 16.
     The theme of the gathering was "Cruzando: Journey with
Jesus." Cruzando is a Spanish word for "crossing."
     Servant life projects throughout the city were divided into
three general categories: "care" which generally involved
literacy programs with children; "construction" in which
participants performed chores such as building, cleaning or
painting parks or structures; and "culture" in which Youth
Gathering participants, accompanied by local volunteers, toured
parts of the city, learned about the culture and met people
living in various neighborhoods.
     During the two-week period, 8,669 ELCA Youth Gathering
participants went to 67 locations throughout this city as part of
the Servant Life component, said Peggy Contos Hahn, Houston,
director of the Servant Life component of the gathering.  Hahn is
assistant to the bishop, ELCA Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast Synod.
     At the convention center, some 16,000 people were involved
in three "Way of Life" servant projects.  Under "care," the youth
created school-supply and health-care kits to distribute here and
in communities along the U.S.-Mexico border; the "construction"
piece involved the making of "happy hats" for distribution to
children in San Antonio-area hospitals; and the "culture"
component involved writing advocacy letters to elected officials.
     Servant life leaders knew that service would be an important
component of the gathering, Hahn said. "We have a generation of
young people who know that serving is essential to discipleship,"
she said.
     In the three years leading up to the gathering, Hahn and
other team members prepared for the event by building
relationships with the 67 agencies hosting the servant projects.
     "We wanted them to understand how important this was, and
that when our kids come to their sites, they learn about the
ministry of the site and they understand the value system of the
place," Hahn said.
     During the gathering, Hahn said representatives from several
San Antonio service agencies already served by youth volunteers,
called and asked if extra volunteers could be available.  Agency
representatives called back because the youth volunteers
accomplished a lot during scheduled service periods, she said.
     When the youth return home, "more than anything, I'm hoping
they pick up skills here that they can incorporate in their own
congregations," Hahn said.
     "We want to teach our young people that service is not just
something you do one time and feel good about yourself for having
done it.  Rather, it's a way of living that is being people of
the cross," Hahn said.
     Christine Frye and Megan Busch, members at St. Andrew
Lutheran Church, Audubon, Pa., were part of a servant team that
trimmed bushes and did other maintenance work here at Eisenhower
Park.
     "We always do a community service project," Bush said. "We
always like to do service projects when we go to retreats."
     "(Gathering speakers) talked about giving back to your
neighbor," Frye said. "The whole week you're on this spiritual
high. You have to go home, and you have to do something with it."
     Alyssa Thacker, St. Luke Lutheran Church, Temperance, Mich.,
was part of a group that did a culture tour.  Her group learned
about the Native American and Spanish culture and how they
settled in the same area together around San Antonio, she said.
     Thacker said when she returns home she will share with
friends how much she enjoyed the Youth Gathering.
     "I cannot believe there are so many Lutherans," Thacker
said.  "There are more Lutherans than I could have ever imagined,
and this is just the youth.  It's amazing.  It's really fun to be
able see all these people, and (see) that they think the same
things that I do about God."

Thousands of hats to go to hospitalized children
     Through Glories Hats Project, the Lutheran youths made some
3,000 hats with "happy thoughts" for young hospitalized children,
said Susan Khorsand, a member of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church,
Falls Church, Va. The hats were sent to four children's hospitals
here, she said.
     "They have a tremendous impact in reducing the anxiety level
of hospitalized children," Khrosand said. "They say 'a teenager
made this for me.'  The hats in the hospital represent all of
these teens wanting to help."
     The hats are made in stages through an assembly-line
approach.  Teens making the hats learn about how such a process
works, and they learn how a simple act of kindness can make an
impact in the community, Khorsand said.
     Every hospitalized child in San Antonio will receive a happy
hat made at the Youth Gathering, she said.

School kits benefit children in San Antonio and U.S.-Mexico
border area
     In addition to the hats project, teens made at least 5,000
school kits, consisting of art and writing supplies, for needy
students in the San Antonio area and for students living along
the U.S.-Mexico border, Hahn said.
     "It felt good doing something for kids that don't have the
same privileges as we do," said Alex Webb, Immanuel Evangelical
Lutheran Church, Clay, N.Y. "We get to go to school every day,
and we don't think anything about it, but there are kids out
there that have to sit at home because their parents can't afford
it.  It makes us feel good when we're making a difference."
     "It turned out to be a lot more fun than I thought it would
be," said Derrick Brill, also a member at Immanuel. "We had a
good time together as a group.  It felt really good doing what we
were doing -- making book bags for kids that were less privileged
than us."
     "It's amazing.  It makes me feel that every person can make
a difference.  No matter how small it is or how big it is, you
can make a difference," Brill added.
     Nine young people from Christ Lutheran Church, Eureka, Kan.,
helped make school kits.  The Rev. Roger D. Dennis, pastor,
Christ Lutheran Church, said the youths told him how important it
was to them to make the kits. The service project was one piece
in a week of learning, he said.
     "Throughout the entire event, they talk about how (the
gathering) has opened up their eyes," he said in an interview.
"All of sudden they're saying, 'We're beginning to connect what
you've been telling us, pastor, but now it seems more real this
way.'"
     When the Christ Lutheran Church group gets home, Dennis
believes the gathering experiences will carry over.
     "The one thing that even the kids have talked about is 'we
just don't want this to be seed on shallow ground and not do
anything with it,'" he said. "The kids already do a Saturday
evening worship service for other youth in the community to reach
out to the unchurched.  We're a small town that's in decline, so
I suspect what's going to happen is the kids are going to be the
ones to put it in terms that even being in a small relatively
isolated area, we can still do something significant."
---
     Information about the ELCA Youth Gathering is at
http://www.ELCA.org/gathering/ on the ELCA Web site.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or [log in to unmask]
http://www.elca.org/news
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