As the Gathering is just over 100 days away, the blog editor thought this would be a great chance to interview those who have attended previous Gatherings, those who are looking forward to the upcoming Gathering in Houston, and those who will be serving in different ways at Mass Gathering. Keep reading the blog–more interviews are to come!

Meet Christopher Bautista. He attends Emanuel Lutheran Church in Dallas, TX. Christopher went to MYLE and the Gathering in Detroit in 2015 and will be at MYLE and the Gathering in Houston in 2018.

Tell the Gathering blog readers a little bit about yourself.
I am a junior in high school. I play football and I also play clarinet in band.

Where do you see God most active in your life?
I see God most in my life when I play football. It is a group of people working together, being on a team, and working for a common goal.

What is your favorite thing about your church/ faith community?
My favorite thing about my church is how we always come together, serve others around the church and in the community, and have fun together.

What are you most looking forward to at MYLE?
I’m looking forward to getting to know people from different parts of the country. There will be people there with different experiences than me and we can learn from each other.

The theme for MYLE is “One.” How does this theme and this word connect with you as a member of the church? 
We’re all here for each other and work together to be one. Even though everyone is their own person, nobody is alone.

What is your biggest hope for you when you come home from MYLE?
I hope to share with others what I learned from my experiences at MYLE.

With the theme “One” and your hopes and expectations for MYLE, what is your biggest hope for your church/ faith community when you return from Houston?
My hope for us going to MYLE is that we can come back more like family as well as friends and bring that home to our church.

– Branden Hunt

The theme for MYLE in 2018 is One.

We must all come together as one. We must all move forward together as one. Yet coming together as one does not mean that groups of people must give up their culture in the process.

There is room for all people at God’s table to come exactly as they are.

There are different communities of people in the ELCA that each bring their own stories and experiences to the table, but for a lot of communities, there can be the feeling that something must be given up in order to fit in.

Our hope for MYLE this year is that we can talk about how we are one in Christ, and one in Christ with different gifts and abilities.

A young person of color can be a part of a community, but they do not have to give up who they are. In fact, they have so much to bring to the God’s table. One of the daily themes is “One Body, Many Parts,” in which we will explore with young people the gifts that they have for the world. These gifts need to be shared with the world to make it a better place.

Our hope for our church and our world is not that we just come together as one, but rather, we come together as one in such a way that every culture’s unique gifts are lifted up and no one has to lose their identity. Our hope is that everyone is accepted for who they are. If we are able to come together in such a way… it can change the church and the world.

– Evelyn Soto

Why should the youth of your congregation attend the 2018 Multicultural Youth Leadership Event (MYLE) in Houston?  Why come to this pre-Gathering event?

Here are some wonderful reasons why your youth of color should register.

• Growing in leadership. MYLE is an amazing opportunity for youth of color (Latino, African, African-American, Asian, American Indian and Native American, multi or bi-racial youth) to gain confidence and grow as leaders.  They will have an opportunity to see others who resemble and sound like them in key leadership roles—leading music, worship, preaching, teaching, mentoring, and so much more. MYLE exposes and encourages youth to enhance their leadership potential at the event, at the Gathering, and most especially when they return home.
  

  

  

  
  
• Building relationships, community, and networking. This event focuses on youth getting to know others at the event through many experiences, including worship, workshops, sharing meals, and fellowship events.  At every MYLE, youth are invited to come and share their culture with others through song, dance, dress, and conversation.  All cultures are shared, respected and appreciated.
  

  

  

  
  
• Growing in faith and being a witness to Jesus’ love in a just world. All MYLE participants are involved in worship and learning experiences that impact their faith, broaden their understanding of what it means to be a youth of color in our world/context, and grow in their capacity, understand and fluency for the gift of diversity in the Lutheran church and in the world.

My daughter, Amanda, attended two MYLEs and Gatherings (2011 and 2013). In 2015, she volunteered as part of the Stage Crew for the Gathering. Earlier this year, she graduated with a degree in English and minor in Theater. I know that she has been impacted by these events and experiences, and they helped shape who she has become—a powerful young woman who is vocally passionate about justice and equity in the world.  I am grateful for having the opportunity to witness this.

Come to MYLE and see God at work, now and beyond.

– Kinda Makini

Blessings from me to you!

My name is Kinda Makini. I am honored to serve as the Team Leader for the Multicultural Youth Leadership Event (MYLE) for 2018. Through MYLE, we live to empower young people of color and those whose primary language is other than English.

At MYLE, our hope is for everyone attending to embrace their story as a part of God’s story to move towards healing and wholeness as transformational leaders in the world.

At the Gathering in Detroit, I served as a Co-Team Leader and Project Manager for Service Learning. Serving on the ELCA Gathering team transformed my life to love and tackle God’s work through accompanying our young people.

I live in Detroit, Michigan with my precious little one; Kay’Lei Ella. I am the Executive Director of Inner City Youth Group, whose mission is to serve youth between the ages of five to 24. My hobbies are sewing, playing Candy Crush, exercising, bowling, and most of all, enjoying time with family.

– Sessen Stephanos

I first found out about MYLE in 2012. My youth director, Brianna pitched the idea to me when I was 14 and I was adamant that I did not want to attend. Looking back on it, I think my attitude towards it was rooted in fear. Fear of acknowledging that my experience as a first generation African-American woman was different from many of my peers at school and at church. I did not attend MYLE in 2012, but the feeling lingered over the next few years. By the time 2015 came around, I was 17 and had just graduated high school. When Bri asked me this time, I said yes. I had spent a lot of time researching about race relations in the United States and I was ready to explore my identity that I had spent so much time trying to suppress.

MYLE definitely pushed me out of my comfort zone. It was a drastically new experience for me.

I think the biggest thing that I took away from MYLE is that our differences are not something that should be ignored. So often I hear people say things like “I don’t see race” or “I don’t see color,” and while those statements come from a well intentioned places, I think it in some ways they are still invalidating. Being black is part of who I am, being from Ethiopia is part of who I am. It is not all that I am, but it is a lens through which I see the world and experience God.

MYLE helped show me that different communities and cultures feel God’s love and express it in different ways.

I was surrounded by people who had really similar upbringings and also drastically different ones. MYLE gave me the opportunity to engage in some of the most honest discussions about topics that I never really thought I would be able to have in my faith communities, and it was a really valuable and precious experience.

Courtesy of LutherTube by Brett Nelson and Zack Stoudemayer:

Scenes from the Closing Worship of the 2009 MYLE, Multicultural Youth Leadership Event, a pre event to the ELCA Youth Gathering in New Orleans. MYLE is a multi-ethnic and multi-generational event to encourage young leaders to lead their congregations toward a more inclusive and diverse church.