Title: LUTHERAN YOUTH DEMONSTRATE GENEROSITY
ELCA NEWS SERVICE
July 30, 1997
LUTHERAN YOUTH DEMONSTRATE GENEROSITY
97-YG-17-KD
NEW ORLEANS (ELCA) -- It will be hard to call Generation X selfish
after learning that 25 tons of non-perishable food items and more than
$325,000 were collected from 30,000 high school students during the worship
offerings at the triennial Youth Gathering held by the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America here July 23-27.
The 25 tons of food were collected for Second Harvesters Food Bank,
New Orleans, which collects and distributes food worldwide. Items such as
canned tuna/meat products, peanut butter, soup, evaporated milk, canned
vegetables and fruits arrived in droves as kids approached the Louisiana
Superdome for worship Thursday evening. Summer months are slow times for
food banks; so the gifts were designated a "Christmas in July" offering.
One group of young people from St. Mark Lutheran Church in
Springfield, Va., became an example of generosity through an unforeseen
circumstance. After raising money for four buses to bring them to the
gathering, a few kids dropped out of the trip. The young people then
decided they only needed three buses and, rather than take the $4,000 that
the bus cost them for themselves, they decided to put the money into the
gathering's Sunday collection.
The $325,000 collection will benefit several ministries:
+ Tanzania - The Mwangaza Educational Resource Center serves a population
in which only six percent of teenagers have access to secondary education.
+ U.S. Homeless Ministries - More than two dozen ELCA ministries help
homeless people with food, shelter, health care and counseling.
+ Resources for Members who are Blind - The ELCA Braille and Tape services
provides brailled Sunday School, Vacation Bible School, confirmation and
many other resources.
+ Ministry to Street Children in Brazil - The Lutheran congregation of
Santo Amaro began the Children's Reconciliation ministry which provides
health care, basic education, vocational instruction, clothes, food,
recreational activity and religious instruction.
+ Corridor Ministry along the Rio Grande Valley - This ministry will focus
on identifying, selecting, training and utilizing grass-root lay leadership
as missionaries in this field.
+ Prison Congregations of America - This organization is responding to the
biblical command to "visit the imprisoned."
+ Pastoral Interns for U.S. Inner Cities - A special fund supports
internships in communities that cannot finance them on their own.
+ The Amity Foundation - Founded by Chinese Christians, this organization
provides medical care and rehabilitation to victims of the 1989 polio
epidemic in rural China.
+ Native American Ministries - The ELCA has seven congregations largely or
exclusively Native American. Financial support is used to train lay
ministers to spread the gospel.
+ Community Mission and Development Project in Colombia - Three barrios
represented in the community hope to purchase a building where they can
gather for worship. Housing improvement is another major project of the
community.
+ The Ashram Ministry to Women - This service provides a home and skill
training that allows ostracized women to become self-sufficient. Many of
these women later return to their communities to minister and proclaim the
gospel.
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For information contact:
Ann Hafften, Director, News and Information
http://www.elca.org/co/news/current.html
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