– Jessica Noonan

This past August as the summer was winding down and a new year of school was beginning, life along the Gulf Coast came to a standstill.  It was like time froze. Everything was a blur.  No one knew what day it was or what the next day would bring. When you come to Houston this summer, you will learn quickly that everyone has their “Harvey story.”  Living through it and seeing the devastation that followed Hurricane Harvey it still seems unimaginable—the rain that kept coming, rising waters, tornadoes… and the waiting.  My neighborhood had no physical damage.  It was pure luck that our house was just a little higher in elevation than the neighborhood one mile way with lots of flooding, or the neighborhood four miles away that was completely obliterated. There is a lot of guilt when your home is fine and your neighbor down the road has no home. Everyone has a story.

You might be wondering how has the hurricane changed our approach to how we walk alongside our Service Learning partners in Houston?  It hasn’t.  One of our values has always been accompaniment.  We are in relationship with our partners.  We listen to their needs. We still want to focus on the needs of our partners whatever they might be come June 2018.

Jessica Silverio is part of the Service Learning Team; she is helping to secure service learning projects for the Gathering.  She said, “Many people are still out of their schools or homes and some lost it all. Getting to see 30,000 youth come out to the streets and help in whatever way they can will be a great sight to see. It’s important to give people a chance to talk about their lives and how its changed since Harvey.”

We are a people of story—Jesus teaches us through story, the Bible is filled with the stories of our faith—we are a people of story.

When Gathering participants go to project sites our hope is that the partner shares the story of their organization, mission, and why this work matters.  We hope that Gathering participants share their story with partners.

We hope that participants go home and create new stories in their communities.

Jessica Noonan is the Service Learning Team Leader for the 2018 Gathering.

– Todd Buegler

My first experience bringing a group to the ELCA Youth Gathering was in San Antonio in 1988. I brought a group of nine young people, along with one other adult leader.

Our experience in San Antonio was okay. Good. Fine. Not great, but good.

After the event, I talked with our young people about their experience. I compared notes with colleagues from other congregations who brought groups to the Gathering and heard about their great experiences. I came to realize something after these conversations: the good and decent experience we had in San Antonio wasn’t the fault of the Gathering planners and organizers. It was my fault.

It was my fault because our group wasn’t prepared to receive what the Gathering offered and to recognize how God was at work. I just wasn’t prepared.

The Gathering isn’t meant to stand alone as an event. It is intended to be contextualized for your community.

Everything experienced from the main stage, the interaction center, and the service opportunities are intended to be interpreted for your unique youth group. And you… we… the adult leaders… are the interpreters.

I’ve been a part of every ELCA Youth Gathering since 1988: as a pastor bringing a group, as a planning team member, and as a team leader.  These experiences have affirmed for me that our group’s experiences are still dependent on how well we are prepared to receive what God brings through the Gathering. Pressure? Yeah, maybe some.  But here’s words of hope: you are not alone in this.

We have a Network.  The ELCA Youth Ministry Network is the organization that supports adults who work with children, youth, and families in ELCA congregations, The Network focuses on renewal, education and networking.  We connect with each other to create a culture of learning and support, so that the work we do as interpreters of the Gathering, of other ministry experiences, and of God’s work in the lives of young people can be transformative for those we are called to serve.

From January 26th to the 29th, almost 1,000 adult leaders will gather for the annual Extravaganza in Houston for worship, learning, and to connect with each other.

Prepare yourself and your group for the Gathering.
Strengthen your ministry.
Learn all you can learn.
Know the material.
Ask questions.
Wonder about what God is up to.

I invite you to join the Network!  We are a community centered around faith formation for the young, and our belief that God calls us to serve. Thanks be to God!

Rev. Todd Buegler is the senior pastor at Trinity Lutheran Church in Owatonna, and also serves as the Executive Director of the ELCA Youth Ministry Network.

– Andrea Martínez

My name is Andrea Martínez, and I serve as the Team Leader for the Communications Team for the 2018 Gathering.

What exactly does this team do, you may wonder? This is the team that is joyfully responsible for the 24-hour infoline, social media, photography, livestream, videography, mobile app, printed guide, and of course, the amazing blog. We are also well connected to the important work of other Gathering teams, supporting their communication needs.

Through our work, we help tell the story of the Gathering to those who might attend, those who do attend, and those who support participants in Houston.

Though I never had the privilege to attend as a participant, this is my third Gathering—the first was in New Orleans in 2012 with Service Learning and the second was in Detroit in 2015 in Interactive Learning.

I currently work in marketing and outreach with Habitat for Humanity International. I am also pursuing a Master in Public Health from Emory University—almost half way through. Prior to my work with Habitat, I had the pleasure of serving as the Director of Communications with the Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast Synod—the Gathering’s host synod for 2018.

I look forward to connecting with you in the coming months and in June 2018 in Houston—be that through Instagram stories, snaps, tweets, photographs, videos, or face-to-face. #ELCAYG2018

– Cody Miller

The Gathering identified the need to lift up literacy as part of the Service Learning experience. Through the many conversations with literacy-related partners in Houston, we learned that many of the students in the Houston Independent School District enter school lacking reading-readiness skills. Up to the 2nd grade, students are taught and graded on their ability to read and write; once they get to the 3rd grade, they are expected to know how to read or write at their grade level. For those who do not read or write at their grade level by 3rd grade, they are at risk of never catching up.

Image courtesy of the Barbara Bush Literary Foundation

One reason for the lack of reading readiness skills is that families struggle to provide books for their children to read at home. Some families are unable to promote literacy at a young age because of the need to prioritize financial resources on the most necessary things: shelter and food.

There is a stunning statistic from the Barbara Bush Literacy Foundation: there is one book for every 300 kids in low income neighborhoods.

Books are most beneficial to students when they are in their homes. With this in mind, we are asking all participants to bring books to Houston from a curated book list. These books will then be distributed to kids who do not have easy access to books.

During the Gathering, several groups will sort the books and take them to various locations throughout Houston for book fairs for their Service Learning Day project. During these book fairs, Gathering participants will interact with kids from the community with games and literacy related activities. The kids in the community will go home with books.

By putting these books into the hands of these students, you are helping to promote literacy and playing a role in building a more successful lives.

– Christine Frye 

I was 16 years old and out to change the world. It was the summer of 2006, and I was traveling with my youth group to San Antonio, TX for my first ELCA Youth Gathering.

I remember arriving at the convention center for registration and being fascinated by every detail. There were energetic volunteers with walkie-talkies and attendee wrist bands advertising a 24 hour info-line. There was big, professional looking signage and welcome backpacks with information about the city inside.

I remember thinking “Wow, this is no amateur operation! Who organizes all of this?”

My fascination grew as I entered the stadium for the Mass Gathering for the first time. I stared in awe at the large stage for worship, as well as the rows and rows of people. I had never seen so many Lutherans (let alone, young Lutherans) in my life.

Fast-forward to a few years later when I was changing my major in college for the third time. One late night, I came across a degree in Tourism and Hospitality Management, which had a concentration in Event and Convention Management.

That’s when the lightbulb went on! Immediately, memories of the ELCA Youth Gathering replayed in my mind… the sea of people in their brightly colored shirts walking through the streets, the dynamic speakers during the Mass Gatherings, and the police officers collecting pins from the youth who had travelled from all over the country to attend.

These memories sparked my interest in a brand new career path.

During college, I volunteered for the 2009 Youth Gathering in New Orleans with my best friend. I got a glimpse of on-site operations to pull off this massive undertaking. The experience further solidified my passion for convention and tourism management.

After graduation, I worked for two Convention and Visitors Bureaus (CVBs), organizations that promote cities as convention and tourist destinations. CVBs often need to demonstrate to their local community how conventions and tourism positively affect their local economy. I felt confident in promoting these statistics because of my firsthand experiences with the ELCA Youth Gathering.

I now work for a trade show management company where I create marketplaces for businesses to connect and grow.

I feel that God has called me to help bring people together, face-to-face, for transformative experiences. The ELCA Youth Gathering taught me firsthand about the impact that conventions and tourism can have on a community.

I am proud to serve on the Operations Team for the 2018 Youth Gathering and offer my professional skills to an event that helped shape my vocation today.

See you in Houston!

– 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!