Reflections on ELCA Youth Gathering by Amanda Weisner
How do you share, spread, and do the word of God? Well tens of thousands of teens, about 38,000 to be exact, learned how when they journeyed to New Orleans, Louisiana for the 2009 Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) National Youth Gathering from July 22nd to July 26th. On July 21st Aliena Zimmerman, Brooke Zimmerman, Garrett Baker, Ike Yost, Katelyn Watson, Kelsey Swanger, Lauren Horning, Natalie Bond, Natalie Weber, Jordan Reitz, Robert May, and Amanda Weisner, all from the “Northern Lights” group of churches, made this journey together.
As we all woke up at about 3:00 AM to leave Trinity Lutheran in Milton at 4:00 AM, the only thing we were thinking about was going back to sleep and why we had to wake up at this horrible hour of the morning. We left Trinity on our way to Harrisburg to fly to Atlanta and then on to New Orleans. But, of course, nothing is perfect in air travel. With our travel delays totaling about nine hours, plus the two and a half hours of actual flying time, we arrived in New Orleans at about 6:30 PM.
After we finally arrived in New Orleans, what we were about to experience began to sink in. Just walking down the terminal we saw so many signs saying, “Welcome ELCA youth!” and, “Thank you for helping our city.” Once we left the airport and were driving to our hotel we saw more signs that were on the street lamps that said, “WELCOME ELCA YOUTH, WE’RE JAZZED YOU’RE HERE!” It was these things that made us feel welcomed, along with the many people of New Orleans saying, “Thank you for coming to help the city.”
That first night of the gathering we couldn’t really picture 38,000 youth with about 2,000 more adults in New Orleans; not until that night in the Superdome when we saw everybody. We filled nearly two-thirds of the Superdome, plus the whole floor. It gave us an overwhelming feeling of happiness and excitement that this many people all came to New Orleans to share, spread, and do the word of the Lord.
During our time in New Orleans there were three service project days where each day a third of the gathering would go out into the city and do work. When everybody went to do work you saw how much damage was still left from Hurricane Katrina. In most parts it looks like Katrina was just there literally a week ago. This was when pretty much everybody realized that America as a whole had just forgotten about New Orleans seven months after Katrina hit the city. Most Americans figured that everything was back in order and that New Orleans didn’t need help anymore. That is quite the contraire given that most of the city is still in such a disastrous state.
Did you know that nearly 5,000 families are still living in FEMA trailers nearly four years after Katrina? This is because 80% of the city was flooded and their neighborhoods were so badly flooded that reconstruction hasn’t even started there yet. Another hard hit part was City Park. It is a 1,300 acre park in the heart of New Orleans, and the 2nd largest city park in America. Here everything was flooded. Once the water retreated it left behind invasive species of plants that took over the park and pushed out the native plants. It also brought in tons and tons of debris from all over the city.
On those three days of service projects people did things in City Park including mowing grass, picking up sticks, spreading mulch, picking up litter, cutting and picking weeds, and replanting flowers. Others helped out by cleaning and painting schools and houses, hosting health and reading fairs, giving out school supplies and clothing, cleaning up cemeteries, rebuilding homes, making floats and giving blood. Our group helped to clear weeds in City Park for a two mile hiking trail. We got a little surprise that day. We saw an alligator floating down the river right through City Park!
With all the people who attended the youth gathering, it was calculated that what was done in the three days we did work would have taken the city three more years to do. That is also the equivalent of one person doing work for five hours a day, five days a week, for 90 years without taking a break. That is the amount of work that 38,000 youth completed in the three service days.
The city of New Orleans and the people there couldn’t stop thanking us. From the moment we arrived all the people were happy. They weren’t mad that we took forever to cross streets or blocked the whole street while crossing to go to the Superdome or Convention Center. They weren’t upset that we filled all the restaurants or that we packed into the stores. Instead they were glad and thankful. No one knew that a whole city, even one as large as New Orleans, could be so welcoming to us and so thankful we were there. At many places in New Orleans local people would give us money to help pay for our meals or pick up the whole tab for us at restaurants. When we would say, “Thank you for welcoming us,” they would say, “No — thank you for helping our city.”
On our final day of the gathering we all came to the Superdome for a massive worship service. Then we all said our tearful goodbyes to all the friends we made from across the nation. On that last day when we all reflected on all the work we had done, we felt blessed for all that we have in our lives which we take for granted everyday. From July 22nd to July 26th, 38,000 teens learned just how to share, spread, and do God’s work.
Amanda Weisner
Trinity, Milton
