Local Youth Attend National Lutheran Gathering in New Orleans
By Pastor Doug Rokke, 11/12/2009
Fourteen youth from American Lutheran Church attended the ELCA National Youth Gathering in New Orleans this past summer. They were part of 37,000 Lutheran youth from across the country who participated in the event July 22-26. The three and a half day event was entitled “Jesus, Justice, and Jazz,” and had a three-fold emphasis corresponding to the title. Each day one third of those attending would gather for Bible study, another third went to an interaction center while the final third rode over 200 buses into the community for service projects. These projects included working at churches, parks, schools, building homes, and community centers. It is estimated that the combined efforts of the service given was more than 200,000 person hours. In addition over $150,000 was raised for hunger projects, 100,000 books were donated by youth to the schools of New Orleans, over a 1,000 units of blood were donated and hundreds of youth donated hair for “Locks of Love.”
In the evenings the youth had mass gatherings in the Superdome where they sang, danced and listened to many well-known contemporary Christian music groups. They also had speakers from around the world that shared messages on various topics. After the mass gatherings there were other recreational events held in the various hotels. This was the largest convention held in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina. With people staying in over 70 hotels, eating at their restaurants and buying souvenirs the ELCA planners hoped it would be good boost for the city’s recovery efforts.
Our youth found this to be a very memorable event. It began at 2:15 in the morning when the youth gathered at the church for a drive to Moline, Illinois where they took a 6:30 a.m. flight to Texas and then to New Orleans. It concluded a week later as they returned to the church about 1:00 a.m. after a long day of flights and delays to get back. In between it was a great trip; one they may always remember. The only down side of the trip was when Pastor Doug’s suitcase was left at the airport in Texas.
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