Uphill idealist

2015 Detroit Youth Gathering PSA Baskets-full of Empowerment for local youth July 15 to 19, 2015 marks the whirlwind week for the triannual Evangelical Lutheran Church of America’s National Youth Gathering in Detroit, MI. The almost week-long trip will engage youth in grades 9 to 12 in service projects, education and opportunity to worship with over 30,000 Lutheran youth from across the United States. For the last three years a local Lutheran team, (Emily Magnuson, Kirsten Magnuson, Emily Whitney, Lydia Gozdalski, Caylee Shelters, Darcy Whitney and Vicar Tara Eastman) have been raising funds and making preparations for this summer’s mission and education trip to Detroit. A major fundraiser and team building project will take place on Friday June 12th at 7pm in the parlors of First Lutheran Church. This fundraiser will include a basket raffle (basket donations are welcome) and a screening of the documentary film, “The Empowerment Project”. The Film The Empowerment Pr...

First things first, we (local youth and adults who attended the 2012 ELCA Youth Gathering) would like to  thank our home churches and community for the financial and prayer support that helped get us to and  carried us throughout our trip to New Orleans from July 18-23. For five fast-paced days we were at the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America's Youth Gathering in New  Orleans, LA. During our time there, we practiced peacemaking, justice and christian discipleship. We we  challenged by the human struggles still being dealt with by the people of New Orleans, were excited to hear  church and world leaders like Bishop Hanson ,  Pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber and Shane Claiborne speak and dance and sing with the many amazing musicians that performed at the Super Dome. In the Convention Center we we challenged to seek out ways to peace in our communities, schools, families and churches by learning more  ways to serve others. We shared wonderful...

Heaven! It's funny what can come up when your brainstorm over pizza, salad and the need to create a t-shirt design for a ELCA Youth Gathering t-shirt contest. My friend Darcy, and her family all helped to think through the number seven (that is what Synod we are a part of) and our upcoming mission trip to New Orleans this summer. We did improve on, " Synod 7d is headed to heaven!" (Ahem - thank heavens!) So this is what we ended up with... Synod seven d is here to serve...now lets put ourselves where this design is! If you would like to submit a shirt design by January 31st, you can do so by submitting to: 2012 Youth Gathering T-shirt Designs C/O NFCLYO 55 Pleasant Avenue, Lancaster NY 14086 or email info@nfclyo.org

Two weeks ago, First Lutheran Church hosted a "Spaghetti and Meatball lunch" collaborative fundraiser for the 2012 ELCA Youth Gathering . The team of over twenty people helped to cook and serve five gallons of sauce, five-hundred meatballs, thirty pounds of pasta, and six cases of sliced Italian bread with the addition of raffling off 40 donated baskets to raise $1350.00 for the effort. The volunteers and donations came from people from St. Timothy's Lutheran, Bethel Lutheran, Holy Trinity Lutheran, Immanuel Lutheran and First Lutheran Churches. In July 2012, twelve youth and five adults will be traveling to New Orleans for worship and mission and fundraisers like this will be our main resource in achieving the goal of making this trip. Until November 10th, our team will also be selling coupon books for the Bon-Ton "Community Days" for $5.00 each. These coupon books are worth up to $200.00 in the Bon-Ton during their holiday kick off sale on November 11th a...

A few months ago, I received a call from a Pastor that oversees youth ministry for the Upstate and Western NY. She asked me if I would be interested in coming to Convo in Rochester to serve as Chaplin. My first response was "Chaplin?!!?" My second response was, " Am I able to do this?" and my third was, "What exactly is Convo?". Convo is a senior-high youth gathering of the Synod area that is part retreat, part community building, part church camp culture, part service project and part education in the business and voting aspects of the Lutheran church. Some of the responsibilities of the individual serving as "Chaplin", is to help plan the curriculum for the small group time for students, assist individuals with prayer support and a listening ear, and to be curator and tender of the prayer space used by the students and staff throughout the week. Convo is something very unique in way of youth ministry events as it is six days long. The sheer amo...

As I floated in circles in a pool of stilled water, I occasionally tapped the water's surface noticing a relay of ripples reflecting in the shadow and light of a sunny day. One finger at a time pressed the surface of the water sending repeated ripples bouncing against the edges of the pool. Even the gentlest impact on the water's surface caused the water to change and move. Each action caused an unaccountable reaction on the water's surface that not too long before my presence, had been as still as glass. This moment of observing ripples reminded me about an entry in my journal as I was flying 35,000 feet over the expanse of water between Tampa Florida and the New Orleans airport, on my final flight before arriving for the ELCA Youth Gathering. "All I can see is blue sky and blue water. There is not break or difference in it's shade or depth - at least from where I can see. All this blueness reminds me of the account of creation in Genesis. "...the earth was f...

A mash up is defined by wickipedia as "A digital mashup is a digital media file containing any or all of text, graphics, audio, video and animation drawn from pre-existing sources, to create a new derivative work[1]. Digital text mashups, for example, appear by the thousands every day as users of blogs and online forums copy and paste digital text in juxtaposition to comment on topics of interest, while fan-created video/audio mashups juxtaposing commercially produced video clips with favorite pop songs constitute a major portion of YouTube content." This last week was somewhat of a "mash up". For months I'd prepared to go to New Orleans with my youth group for six days of service, education and fun for the ELCA Youth Gathering . There was a great deal of fund raising that took place to make the trip possible, as well as reservations and what seemed to be thousands of emails. But, all that work done and over with, our group was off to the Big Easy. Our group was...

I'm home from the ELCA youth gathering in New Orleans. It's amazing to me that yesterday morning I was in that beautiful and now almost hopeful city and today I'm back to my small city, and seeing hopeful signs here too. I will have to take the next few days to unpack my physical luggage as well as all the experiences and opportunity our group had while we were the the big easy. So for today, I just wanted to tell you all a simple hello, that I missed you and that I already miss all the lovely people I met in New Orleans. You made a home in my heart with your stories, your determination and your hope.

I feel like I've been packing for a month. This week I'm headed to New Orleans with my youth group. Its been a busy road of fund raising, list making (wink back to last week's bread.) shopping, sorting and packing. Thing can become complicated when you are planning travel and convention details for ten people - I'm just glad I'm not the one doing ALL the registration for the 40,000 people that will be attending the ELCA Youth Gathering. When you pack for a week or so - you 5-6 of everything. You need: Socks, underwear (sometimes more!), shorts, shirts and two pair of comfy comfy walking shoes. Then there is all the extra items: soap, toothpaste... you get the idea. In this examen, there is a focus on what you spiritually and physically let go of and what you hold on to. So in this week of trip preparation, I realize too that I've had some things to let go of and hold on to. Letting go of: Pushing the limit: So often I'm tempted to pack my figurative luggage ...

"Do not worry, you are worth more than many sparrows." Matthew 10:31 This is our FLY group banner that we made to bring with us to New Orleans for the ELCA Youth Gathering . Thank you to everyone who helped with the planning and creation of this project. Nice work!