wfn.org | Lutherans Help Children to 'New Ground' Post-September 11

["Frank Imhoff" <franki@elca.org>]

No. 1 - LWI Series on LWF Tenth Assembly Theme
	    "For the Healing of the World"

[As preparations get underway for the 21-31 July 2003 Tenth
Assembly of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), Lutheran World
Information (LWI) will be featuring a series of articles that
focus on the assembly theme, "For the Healing of the World."

The "theme seems helpful as we yearn for healing in the events of
last [11] September," says Kathy J. Magnus, LWF regional officer
for North America. The region includes four LWF member churches -
in the USA - the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and
Lithuanian Evangelical Lutheran Church in Diaspora, and - in
Canada - the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada [which will
host the Tenth Assembly] and Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church
Abroad.

"The LWF gathers because of our conviction and proclamation that
the God we know in Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy
Spirit is 'for the healing of the world.' This is the witness and
hope we bring to a whole world that is festering with violence,
injustice, poverty, divisions, despair and sickness. It brings a
word of hope to our thinking in the United States, as we look with
hope to what God is doing in and through the brokenness of our
lives and our world to bring healing and new life to humankind and
all creation," Magnus says.

"Lutherans Help Children to 'New Ground' Post-September 11," the
first article in the series, is a highlight on the LWF North
American region.

Lutherans Help Children to 'New Ground' Post-September 11
Learning about Forgiveness

CHICAGO, United States of America/GENEVA, 8 September 2002
(ELCANEWS/LWI) - Placing children on "new ground" was the priority
this summer for about 800 children from New York and New Jersey
metropolitan areas.

"Camp New Ground," a week-long day camp hosted by Lutherans,
served to help children process their feelings from last year's
September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States. It helped
children move on "to new ground, to a new place of support,
knowing that God is with us in that new place," said camp
director, Rev. Ann M. Tiemeyer, St. Jacobus Lutheran Church,
Queens, N.Y.

Funded by Lutheran Disaster Response, a ministry of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America *(ELCA) and the Lutheran
Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS), the July 15 - August 16 camp
featured morning and afternoon worship, music, arts and crafts,
Bible lessons, recreational activities and mental health
assessment.

Mental health counselors offered opportunities for children to
talk about terrorism, identify their gifts and articulate their
dreams for the future. Also available were resources for parents
on ways to talk with their children about terrorism.

Each day campers met with a mental health professional and went
"through a series of journal questions that provided opportunities
for children to engage in conversation about September 11,"
Tiemeyer explained. The children were asked such questions as,
'What makes you happy, and what makes you sad? What dreams do you
have for yourself, your family and for your community?' she said.

"Joseph's Journey" served as the camp's theme. In the book of
Genesis of the Bible, Joseph was sold into slavery in Egypt by his
brothers. Later, famine swept the land and Joseph (chief
administrator working with Pharoah to deal with the crisis)
encountered his brothers and forgave them for selling him into
slavery.

Tiemeyer spoke of a unique activity to learn about forgiveness.
Children were given a brick-shaped red piece of paper on which
[was written], 'How I feel about terrorists.' They were then
instructed to write questions and draw. The bricks were structured
into "a wall" and the children talked about how anger and hate
"create a wall around us." On the last day [of camp], the brick
wall came down, as they drew pictures and talked about
forgiveness, wrote prayers of forgiveness and about a variety of
things in life where they have experienced forgiveness or offered
it.

There was a variety of ways for the children "to be in community
together and have a sense of support," Tiemeyer said.
Firefighters, emergency workers and rescue dogs also came for an
afternoon to meet with the children.

For Tiemeyer, the camp's main success was that it created a
variety of new networks of support and care, not only for the
campers but also for the host congregations and schools.

Information on Camp New Ground is available at
http://www.ldrny.org on the Internet.

* The theme for the 2003 ELCA Churchwide Assembly, August 11-17,
is "Making Christ Known: For the Healing of the World."

(The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the
Lutheran tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund (Sweden), the LWF now
has 133 member churches in 73 countries representing over 61.7
million of the 65.4 million Lutherans worldwide. The LWF acts on
behalf of its member churches in areas of common interest such as
ecumenical relations, theology, humanitarian assistance, human
rights, communication, and the various aspects of mission and
development work. Its secretariat is located in Geneva,
Switzerland.)

[Lutheran World Information (LWI) is the information service of
the Lutheran World Federation (LWF). Unless specifically noted,
material presented does not represent positions or opinions of the
LWF or of its various units. Where the dateline of an article
contains the notation (LWI), the material may be freely reproduced
with acknowledgment.]

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