– 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!

– Bp. Erik Gronberg

In July of 1991, I enviously watched the youth from my church in Austin, Texas leave for the Gathering in Dallas. I was one year too young to go with them. In 1994, I was in Atlanta, Georgia in the Georgia Dome (where months earlier the beloved Dallas Cowboys won the Super Bowl) with over 35,000 peers. I had never seen so many Lutherans in one place. It was pouring rain when we left the Saturday night mass gathering, yet we walked with the inspiring words of Coretta Scott King ringing in our ears. We were changed. My wife, also an ELCA pastor, was in Atlanta in 1994. We met years later in seminary. When we got to know one another, we immediately connected around the experiences we had at the Atlanta Gathering.

When I was in college, I volunteered in New Orleans. As pastor, I took youth to Gatherings in San Antonio, New Orleans, and Detroit. At each Gathering, I watched and rejoiced as the vision of so many young people was expanded with a realization of the size, diversity, and global impact of our church.

ELCA Youth Gatherings are pivot moments – moments of worshiping with thousands of peers, being challenged to consider another context, seeing the needs of neighbors, asking questions about vocation, engaging in service, being inspired by music and speakers, and just having plain fun. The local parish is the core of our church, yet all ELCA youth should have this mountaintop experience and these pivot moments.

As Bishop of the Northern Texas-Northern Louisiana Mission Area/ Synod, I am prioritizing the 2018 Houston Gathering by sponsoring a group from congregations with three or less eligible youth, emerging ministries, and communities of color. It is essential these young people have this opportunity. I am happy to take on this responsibility as a pastor to my synod.

The upcoming Gathering in Houston will be my seventh. I look forward to seeing y’all there. Be prepared to be changed. As we say in Texas, “It’s gonna be a big time.”

Rev. Erik Gronberg, Ph.D. is Bishop of the Northern Texas-Northern Louisiana Mission Area/ Synod. He resides in Forth Worth with his wife, their three children, and their rescue cat.

– Carrie Gubsch

Do you think we should go back, Carrie? 

It seemed like an innocent question. A few weeks ago, a colleague and I were talking about the 2015 Youth Gathering in Detroit. The Gathering was a whirlwind. We left Nebraska at 6AM and drove to Des Moines. We picked up Ryan, a person supported by Mosaic, and his caregiver, Mike. We drove late in the evening, prepping Ryan for the trip. We talked through what the Gathering would be like and how important it was that Ryan was with us. His role was to share about his life, dreams, and goals with those attending the Gathering. My role was to teach parents, volunteers, and teens about the barriers people with disabilities face when they interact with faith communities and the rest of the world.

It was a beautifully chaotic week sharing stories with thousands of teens and adults who stopped by Mosaic’s booth. They learned about some of the injustices and barriers people with disabilities face. It wasn’t that long ago parents were encouraged to send children with disabilities to state-run institutions. In many places, they only received basic care. In others, they were mistreated, neglected, and abused. To this day, we hear stories from parents who were asked to leave a faith community because their children were deemed too disruptive in worship. Too often, people with intellectual and developmental disabilities are missing in our communities. When this happens, we all suffer and our communities lose.

Ryan and a young woman named Sarah became fast friends. They talked about Ryan’s successes in Special Olympics, his job, and his friends. Sarah shared that she volunteered with Special Olympics and waned to study psychology and special education in college. Sarah gathered members of her group and Ryan and grabbed his selfie stick. She took a photo and shared it on Twitter, with the promise to make Ryan “Twitter famous.”

https://twitter.com/sarah_rhyne/status/621715766933606400

By the end of the week, hundreds of youth took photos with Ryan and his selfie stick. They shared them on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, giving life to Mosaic’s belief that our faith communities are better when everyone can fit into God’s picture.

My carefully laid plans to teach how churches are not complete without people with disabilities couldn’t compete with Ryan and Sarah’s friendship in a chaotic sea of 30,000 strangers. These experiences at the Gathering are so important for youth. This is why Mosaic continues to attend the Gathering, even as we prepare for disastrous cuts to Medicaid, our primary funding support.

Our churches, towns, and world need people with disabilities. The body of Christ is not complete without them.

Carrie Gubsch (@cgubsch) is the Digital Communications Coordinator at Mosaic, an ELCA-affiliated social ministry that provides services to more than 3,700 people with intellectual and developmental disabilities in ten states. She is a member of Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Tekamah, Nebraska.

– Kristina Johnson Dernier 

The ELCA Youth Gathering is a transformational event that impacts literally thousands of young people and their adult leaders for their entire lives.  When I was a junior in high school, I got to go to the ELCA Youth Gathering in New Orleans. I’m a lifelong Lutheran and an active “church nerd,” but my home congregation did not have a steady youth director. Since I didn’t have a steady youth director at my church, I did not get to have the opportunities that my friends were able to have with their churches.  But when I was in high school, there were some adult volunteers from my hometown that led the trip to the New Orleans Gathering. I was blown away when I walked into the Dome for the first time.  All of these people that were my age were worshiping the same God at the same time; I did not feel alone.  That was a feeling that rocked me to my core.   

I don’t remember the speakers (I do remember Lost and Found and “Lions,” however), but I remember that feeling. I pray that every young person and adult leader that participates in the Gathering has that feeling when they walk into the Mass Gathering. Because of that prayer, I said yes to the fantastic opportunity to be the Gathering Coordinator for the Northwestern Minnesota Synod.  I get to walk alongside adult leaders from my synod and make sure they have the information they need for this particular Gathering so they can be the best for themselves, their adult leaders, and their young people.   

If you have any questions, please contact me or my fellow synod coordinators, we would LOVE to help you! 

Kristina Johnson Dernier is the Northwestern Minnesota Synod Gathering Lutheran Youth Organization Advisor and Synod Gathering Coordinator.