07/20/2015

ELCA youth build relationships with Detroit residents (See Photos from SOS participants!)

DETROIT (ELCA) – Wearing their orange T-shirts and dancing to live music, which reverberated in the streets of downtown Detroit, thousands of youth and adult participants of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Youth Gathering gathered July 16 at Hart Plaza. They gathered here before boarding buses lined-up for a mile-long, stretching from the Cobo Center to the Joe Louis Arena, to depart for their service work further into the city.

About 30,000 ELCA youth, adults, volunteers and other Lutherans from around the world are gathering here July 15-19 for leadership development, faith formation, service opportunities and more under the theme "Rise Up Together." ELCA Youth Gatherings are held every three years.

A significant part of ELCA Youth Gatherings is service work, which offers an opportunity for ELCA youth to meet and serve alongside Detroit residents. The value of 30,000 Lutherans, each working an average of four hours per day for three days in community service projects and benefiting local restaurants and businesses, is estimated to generate millions of dollars in revenue for the city, according to Heidi Hagstrom, director of the ELCA Youth Gathering.

Abby Stromswold and Damia Siebenahler, youth members of Zion Lutheran Church in Lake Crystal, Minn., will participate in service work this week. “With 30,000 people at the Youth Gathering, we could make a major impact on the city,” said Stromswold, adding that she’s looking forward to “meeting new people and gathering together” as church.

“We want to help Detroit,” said Siebenahler, who is also looking forward to building relationships with local residents.

For LaTonya Dalton, a resident in the Osborn community of Detroit, the service work from ELCA youth will have a lasting impact in the community. Youth will be cleaning vacant lots and boarding up 49 abandoned homes and properties, covering a nine-block radius, she said.

“As people lost their jobs and moved out of the community, as well as other activities in the area that (prompted) people to move out quickly, remaining area residents have not been able to clean up. The (exodus) of people happened so quickly that we couldn’t keep up. Landlords didn’t care for their properties, and the city could not conduct the maintenance,” said Dalton.

“We also have an elementary school on Waltham Street and another elementary school nearby with 900 students, so the board-ups and maintenance will help ensure the safety of our children who walk to school,” said Dalton. “We are so excited that ELCA youth are here. It’s just the greatest thing. And we’re confident that, with their work, we will be able to maintain the community surroundings from now on.”

About 225 ELCA youth worked in the Osborne community July 16.

Stephanie Geniac, program manager for the youth and nutrition program at Gleaners Community Food Bank, said the work of ELCA youth has the potential to feed 4,000 people in southeastern Michigan.

According to Geniac, ELCA youth will be packing produce and date-sorting cereal boxes gathered from a recent cereal drive organized by the food bank. Once sorted, youth will package food for distribution by 60 mobile units that will service about 150 families.

In addition to sorting and packaging food, “we’re also working to build hunger and nutrition awareness, so that (ELCA youth) will understand why and who they are helping,” said Geniac. “Packaging one pound of food will feed one person. If we can package 4,000 pounds of food that could feed 4,000 people.”

At the ELCA Youth Gathering’s opening program July 15 at Ford Field, speaker Mikka McCracken told the youth that it is possible to end poverty and hunger “and that the church plays an important role.”

“Hunger is not caused by scarcity. Hunger is caused by inequality,” said McCracken, who is program director for ELCA World Hunger in Chicago.

Members of Redeemer Lutheran Church in Stevens Point, Wis., have been collecting spare change to support ELCA World Hunger every Sunday for the past five years. They raised $13,000. Sydney Karch, a high school student from Redeemer attending the ELCA Youth Gathering, submitted a check of $5,330 on behalf of the congregation to support the gathering’s “Walk for Water” effort hosted by ELCA World Hunger at the Cobo Center.

“I was in sixth grade class that started this project,” said Karch. “It’s been amazing to watch it grow and develop over time, and it meant a lot to me to be the one to give the check today. I’m really proud of our congregation and to be a part of this,” she said.

Redeemer’s pastor, the Rev. Anne Edison-Albright, said she “loves being reminded every Sunday” that Redeemer is connected to the larger church and the world. “We always say, ‘small change can make a big change,’” said Edison-Albright.

ELCA Presiding Bishop Elizabeth A. Eaton and the Rev. Donald P. Kreiss, bishop of the ELCA Southeast Michigan Synod based in Detroit, opened the gathering. Dr. Luke A. Powery, dean of Duke University Chapel and associate professor of the practice of homiletics at Duke Divinity School, was a speaker, and musical performances were led by Chris Clay, Royal Tailor and others.

For more information about the ELCA Youth Gathering, visit www.ELCA.org/Gathering.

See all of our Youth Gathering pics on our Facebook page! https://www.facebook.com/pages/Southern-Ohio-Synod-ELCA/159995164010908

Special thanks or Pr. Aaron Layne for taking and posting most of the pics and to Connor from St. John's, Vandalia for his photo contributions!