[LCMSNews] Youth Gathering: 'Big Servant Event'

["LCMS e-News" <LCMSENEWS@lcms.org>]

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>7.29.2010              
>       LCMS News               
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>THE LUTHERAN CHURCH Missouri Synod             
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        July 29, 2010 .................... LCMSNews -- No. 69

2010 Gathering: 'One big Servant Event' to New Orleans

>By Joe Isenhower Jr.

NEW ORLEANS -- The 2010 National LCMS Youth Gathering (NYG) here July
17-21 no doubt left countless impressions on its 24,000 participants. A
number of those youth and adults shared what it meant to them.

"It's one big Servant Event for the city of New Orleans," said Michael
Edgecomb of Adelaide, South Australia, who works in school ministry for
a district office of the Lutheran Church of Australia.

Edgecomb made that observation sitting in Hall G of the mile-long Ernest
N. Morial Convention Center -- a hall transformed into the "LIVE: Saved
to Serve" room where on-site Servant Events included painting picture
frames for new mothers served by local crisis-pregnancy centers, making
125 baptismal banners for local churches, donating 1,000 units of blood
for area hospitals and locks of hair for cancer patients, making 500
fleece blankets for new residents of homes who lost their old ones to
Hurricane Katrina almost five years ago, a scavenger hunt for personal
care items to be donated to local shelters, and hearing about human-care
and other ministries of Synod-related agencies with exhibits in the
hall.

Wearing bright lime-green backpacks and T-shirts emblazoned with the
words "I care about malaria" -- to show support for the Lutheran Malaria
Initiative -- about half of the Gathering participants rode buses to
some 100 off-site Servant Events grouped in three categories of
activities: environmental, construction and human care/outreach.

One of those events in the last category was a "prayer journey" into
downtown New Orleans, with petitions offered at stops mentioned in a
walking guide. Each group on that journey discussed it on their return
to the convention center or to one of 40-plus hotels where they were
housed.

The value of goods and services donated by Gathering participants is
above and beyond the $42 million impact the city's convention and
visitors bureau estimated the Gathering had generated in the city.

Jess Kroschel, who accompanied Edgecomb in the "LIVE" room, works with
Teen Challenge in Australia, an organization that builds relationship
awareness among that age group.

"Servant Events is something we'd like to beef up," Kroschel said of
that organization, adding that she would be taking home "many good
ideas" from NYG Servant Events.  She also said that she was "really
impressed" with daily mass events in the Louisiana Superdome, where the
entire Gathering throng met for presentations, worship, singing and
celebration.

Those mass events were centered on a huge stage under a cross suspended
as if in blessing and outlined with metal gridwork holding colored
lights that gave it multiple hues throughout those events.

"I've been so impressed with the mass events ... how well they are
geared toward high-school kids," echoed Elizabeth Buchholz, one of five
adults with 17 young people from Mountain View Lutheran Church, Las
Vegas.

Buchholz said she had picked up helpful information during a Gathering
breakout session on planning mission trips -- "one thing we would like
to do at Mountain View to carry out our outreach beyond the
congregation. With the mass events and huge numbers of people here, our
youth are impressed, too, with the church beyond our congregation."

"I love the mass events," said Britta Epling, one of Mountain View's
young people in New Orleans.

That group raised about $20,000 for their trip to the NYG -- through
bake sales, car washes, babysitting, running a Fourth of July fireworks
sales booth, and several private sponsors.

>Idea for India

Dr. Jerry Joseph Joel said he wants to share word of "many positive
Gathering experiences" on his return to India, where he is serving his
medical residency at Christian Medical College in Ludhiana, Punjab.

A lifelong Lutheran, Joel said the NYG had been "a once-in-a-lifetime
experience" that he plans to "talk up" among those in the India
Evangelical Lutheran Church, with hopes of "maybe initiating a youth
gathering" there.

"Even if it starts with only 100 people attending, God will make it grow
if it is His will," Joel said.

He and the Australians were among 52 international guests at the NYG.
Their participation was facilitated by LCMS World Mission and church
leaders in their countries.

Other activities in the convention center -- including Bible studies,
performance areas and presentations on an array of topics -- were
grouped under the areas of "LOOK" and "LISTEN."  Those designations,
along with "LIVE," also were the titles of three tracks for roughly
equal numbers of participants to move through the Gathering program each
day in the convention center.

Tyler Owsley and KC Gloe were two young people among 25 others at the
Gathering from Hope Lutheran Church, Shawnee, Kan.  For both, it was
their first Gathering.

"It's so cool to see how many Lutherans there are our age," Owsley
commented.

Izaak Probasco, a young attendee among thousands traversing the hallway
between convention center venues, used the same word, "cool," to
describe his impression of "so many Lutherans" at the Gathering.

Probasco was one of 21 young people accompanied by six adults from St.
John's Lutheran Church in Palmer, Alaska -- roughly 40 miles north of
Anchorage.

That group partially funded their trip adding a New Orleans twist by
sponsoring a beignet breakfast cookoff, as well as with car washes,
babysitting and donations.

The Alaskans arrived in the Gathering city the week before, helping with
the projects connected with Recovery Assistance Ministries' Camp Restore
and preparing care packages for the homeless.

Wayne and Tina Enke, adult leaders of 13 youth from Zion Lutheran
Church, Bunker Hill, Ill., told about a memorable experience that day
during a Servant Event in the Ninth Ward, where flooding after Hurricane
Katrina had devastated that community.

Backing up to make a turn that would head them out of the area after
that event, their bus hit a curb and exposed a burst water pipe,
creating a small sinkhole where one of its wheels became stuck. Also, a
plastic barrel cone was lodged under the bus, blocking the door. The
group sat there for an hour, until a forklift from a nearby construction
project freed the bus from the cone and the sinkhole.

To celebrate, Wayne and another adult leader sprang for a round of ice
cream, buying out a passing ice-cream vendor's supply.

Wayne Enke added that he has attended all 11 Youth Gatherings sponsored
by LCMS Youth Ministry since 1980.

"This year, we have kids of some of the kids we took to earlier
Gatherings, who told their kids 'you gotta go' to this one," he said.
"We've never led anyone to a Gathering who didn't say it's one of the
best things they've ever done."

>Theme: 'WE BELIEVE'

This Gathering's theme was "WE BELIEVE," based on John 20:31, which
reads, "But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the
Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his
name."

When that theme was announced two years ago, Dr. Terry Dittmer, director
of LCMS District and Congregational Services -- Youth Ministry, which
sponsors LCMS Youth Gatherings, noted, "One of the things that youth
always say about the Gathering is how much it means to encounter others
who 'believe like I do.' WE BELIEVE is a wonderful corporate expression
of our confession as we take that faith to the New Orleans community in
Word, celebration, service, witness and fellowship."

Word, witness and celebration were key elements of the daily mass
events, when young people shouted out and sang "we believe."

At Saturday's opening night event, Rev. Gregory Manning, who is 96
percent blind, retold the account of the blind man whom Jesus healed.

"He was born blind so that the power of God could be in him," Manning
said.

He later told the assembly that God had brought them to the NYG "so that
the power of God can be displayed in your life. We're in this place on a
journey. We only get one life to say we believe."

At the Sunday mass event, Kellie Stocker of Woodbury, Minn., told how
her daughter Makenzie -- a talented young ballet dancer with a promising
future -- had died in a car accident a year ago.

"How do you deal with something like that?" she asked. "If you have such
questions, it's OK," she said. "You don't have to have all the answers
to experience all His grace. ... When everything seems unbelievable
there is hope. Jesus will help your unbelief."

During Monday night's mass event, Synod President Dr. Gerald B.
Kieschnick and his wife, Terry, addressed the crowd, each speaking words
of encouragement to the young men and women about their lives' journies
with the Lord. President Kieschnick also alluded to his not being
re-elected president at the 2010 LCMS convention in Houston just the
week before.

"I'm not sure at this moment what that means for my life in the future,"
he said. "But these days my focus is on the words of Psalm 27:14 --
'Wait for the Lord; be strong and let your heart take courage; wait for
the Lord.' "

"So, my brothers and sisters in Christ," Kieschnick said to the
assembly, "as you continue your journey in life, ... know that God will
never forsake you. His love for you is strong and certain. He will lead,
guide and direct you."

Later at that event, Rev. Matt Popovits of Houston recalled the account
of the Samaritan woman who encountered Jesus at the well.

"She felt as empty as the jar in her hand, and Jesus knew it," Popovits
said.

"If all you do is drink from the wells of this world thinking it will
quench your thirst, it's a lie," he told the audience.

"Your life from the very first has been about Him. When Jesus is the
star of the story, He will forgive every [sin] you do."

At Tuesday night's "Divine Service" worship in the Superdome,
participants included a youth choir of 250 voices, a wind symphony with
60 young instrumentalists and 34 liturgical dancers -- all of whom
auditioned for those groups.  A re-enactment of Christ's passion
featured a procession through the crowd with the lifeless "body" of
Jesus on a stretcher after it was removed from the cross, ending with
His Resurrection as worshipers lifted the strains of "I Know that My
Redeemer Lives."

In his message for that service, Synod Fourth Vice-President Dr. Dean
Nadasdy alluded to Jesus appearing to His disciples after the
Resurrection, calming their fears with the words, "Peace be with you."

"Jesus said to His disciples and to you tonight, 'Peace be with you,' "
Nadasdy said.

"What Jesus wants from each of us when He says [that] is for Him to live
with us every day," he continued. "Do you have Jesus with you? ...
Whatever turmoil is going on, be with Jesus. Even in the midst of
24,000, you can hear the rustle of His robe."

For that service, Holy Communion was served at some 175 stations, from
communion ware commissioned for the Gathering and used the week before
during communion at the Synod convention.

The Gathering offering collected that night totaled $139,435.  That does
not include gifts that have come in online or since the Gathering
service.

At Wednesday's closing event, Jeffrey Meinz of Colorado Springs, Colo.,
asked the 24,000 participants, "Is it possible that we've been trained
over the last five days to tell the story of Jesus Christ? My prayer is
that when you tell the story of Jesus, they believe it, then they tell
it, and others believe it and tell it. The story never stops."

Meinz then shouted out as he pointed into the audience, "Are you ready
to tell the story? We go home to share the story every day. We believe!"

>****************************************

If you have questions or comments about this LCMSNews release, contact
Joe Isenhower Jr. at joe.isenhower@lcms.org
<mailto:joe.isenhower@lcms.org>  or (314) 996-1231, or Paula Schlueter
Ross at paula.ross@lcms.org <mailto:paula.ross@lcms.org>  or (314)
996-1230.

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