– Ryan P. Cumming

In a world that seems unchanging with so many challenges, it can be hard to believe that change is possible. But “We are a church founded on change.”

We are a church committed to sharing in the work that God is doing to transform our world. All those who hunger can be fed. Everyone living in poverty can one day have enough.

This year, youth across the ELCA have the chance to be part of that change through the ELCA World Hunger’s Global Farm Challenge—a challenge to raise $500,000 to support communities around the world and here at home through gifts given at and ahead of the ELCA Youth Gathering.

At the Gathering in Houston, youth and adults will have a chance to experience for themselves God’s grace at work through ELCA World Hunger’s exhibit in the Interactive Learning space. Here, they will learn about Paul, a farmer from Central African Republic, who was given a scholarship to learn about sustainable farming in Japan and brought his education back to serve his community at home. They will learn about Lince, a mother of five children, who found a way to afford their education and meet their needs by raising pigs given to her by ELCA World Hunger’s partner in Indonesia.

They will hear about refugees in the United States, indigenous families in Malaysia, and so many other farmers whose lives have been changed because “a church founded on change” accompanied them.

To learn more about how you can be part of this change, take a look at ELCA World Hunger’s Global Farm Challenge brochure. Our church will be working throughout 2018 to raise the gifts needed to support this work. I hope you can be part of it, and I hope to see you in Houston this year!

Ryan P. Cumming, Ph.D., is Program Director for Hunger Education with ELCA World Hunger.

– Chris Heavner 

I love coming to the Gatherings and staying in a hotel!  My family didn’t stay in hotels that much (even now, I snatch all the tiny shampoo bottles for my kids).  This luxury would probably not be so thrilling if my stay only reminded me that I lack a permanent place to sleep.  For too many families, “home” is a couch in the home of a friend or relative.  For too many of God’s children, it is a dream to have a thermostat which controls the temperature and a bathroom with running water. 

“This Changes Everything” about the way we understand our stay in the hotels in Houston. Those of us staying in the hotels will “change everything” about the lives of three Houston families. 

Three Habitat for Humanity Houses will be constructed in the Interaction Center. Youth will swing the hammers that will frame the walls for bedrooms, kitchens, and living rooms.  I love coming to the Gathering knowing that a part of me and my heart will stay in the hosting city when I am gone.  

This is the fourth Gathering at which such a project has been one of the Interaction Center offerings.  The leadership is provided by Lutheran Campus Ministry and Lutheran Disaster Response. Twelve college students for whom Lutheran Campus Ministry has become an avenue for civic and community engagement will be serving as crew leaders. In addition to the work completed in Houston, we will tell you how you can organize similar projects in the places you call home. 

I love coming to the Youth Gatherings and meeting folks from across our country and our Church.  And I love working with you to change so many things in the city which serves as our host. 

Chris Heavner is campus pastor at Clemson University in South Carolina. This will be his eighth Gathering. He also serves as the faculty advisor for Clemson’s Habitat for Humanity, with whom he as built thirty-three homes.

– Claire Meyer

The Gathering does really, really big things really, really well. One of those really, really big things is Interactive Learning. We have some really, really big and exciting things in store for you.

Interactive Learning is a prime example of the really large scale-ness of the Gathering. In Houston, the Interactive Learning team will partner with over 40 organizations to fill 700,000 square feet with hands-on, creative, and engaging experiences. That’s over 12 football fields of space. We will house things like the blood drive to collect 1,000 pints of blood, and a hair donation station with hopes that 750 people will donate eight or more inches of hair. We will be your go-to place for the firsthand exploration of the daily themes. We are planning ways for you to pick up the daily themes and look at them from many different angles, like:

• talking about the daily themes with the people you came with and with people you just met,
• practicing the daily themes right then and there, and
• then taking home the experience and practicing the daily themes some more.

As much as I love the big stuff, Interactive Learning is all about the small one-on-one moments. Moments where an individual young person realizes that this Jesus thing makes sense. Moments where they connect with an organization doing God’s work that speaks directly to them and their passions. Moments where they discover how God has gifted them and is calling them to use those gifts. These small moments are the ones that make the biggest difference. We offer a huge range of things to do and see. We do this because we have 30,000 individuals who each need a moment to connect with God, to connect with their vocation, and to connect with their church.

The big thing that Interactive Learning does best is creating tens of thousands of small moments.

We can’t wait to help you find your moment that changes everything!

– Beth Hartfiel

I remember my first Gathering as a youth. We were going to Atlanta. We’d never taken a big trip like this. We weren’t just leaving Texas; we were going all the way across the country. The hours we spent on the bus ride there and back were the start of lifelong friendships for me. When we finally arrived, I remember the amazement I felt walking into the Dome for the first Mass Gathering and the awe of being part of such a great cloud of witnesses during communion.

Several years later, I was taking my own youth group to a Gathering, which also happened to be in Atlanta. I was blessed to walk alongside them as they experienced the greater church in a way they never had before. From my perspective as a leader, I appreciated the wide variety of ways the Gathering ministry reached high school youth: through DAYLE (now the tAble) and MYLE events, through the Interactive Learning Area, and through the awe of Mass Gathering experiences.

When I was asked to be involved with the Interactive Learning Area for the 2009 New Orleans Gathering, I jumped at the chance. I was excited about the opportunity to help form this experience that was always so meaningful to my youth and to me. With the Interactive Learning Area in 2018, we are continuing to explore new ways for participants to express their faith in action and to offer them unique opportunities to recharge in the midst of crazy-long days. I especially love using different learning styles to help youth connect with others from their own home congregation, with congregations they’ve met at the Gathering, and with organizations that focus on sharing God’s love in unique ways.

I look forward to seeing how God is revealed through the partners and participants in Houston in 2018!