Rev. Reed Lee Pedersen's
I had never gone too a national youth gathering as a high schooler. I had never gone to a youth gathering as an adult leader. I had never tried to plan a youth gathering and all the fundraisers that come with it. My one experience was in 2012 when I sang in the house band, but everything was planned for me. Watching all the effort it takes from both adults and kids to raise funds and plan to attend a youth gathering I was looking ahead to 3 years from now and wondering if it is even worth it. That question was answered quickly -->TOTALLY WORTH IT! Here are the reasons why: Much is accomplished in the name of Jesus. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday involved about 10,000+ volunteers every day going out to help the Houston community. The service projects ranged from fixing destruction brought on last year's hurricane (Habitat for Humanity and beautifying parks for example), teaching English as a second language, and learning more about the city of Houston so that its story can be shared. All of this is done in Jesus' name. AMEN! New Relationships were made and old ones were reinvigorated. I saw the seven youth on the trip, half of which have had minimal interaction after confirmation due to differing school districts, grow in friendship with one another. I was also stunned when their favorite thing to do during the days was to get to know other groups from different parts of the countries. They witnessed to the broadness of the ELCA by getting to know groups from Ohio, Minnesota, California, and even Puerto Rico! AMEN!
All in all, the National Youth Gathering is a highlight of a persons life for both youth and adults. If you are part of an ELCA church that does not partake in the event, I hope you find encouragement through this. If you are someone who has gone to a gathering, I am sure you can think of a million more reasons why it is amazing. One thing is for sure...You can count on Augustana Lutheran Church sending youth to Minneapolis for the National Youth Gathering in 2021. In case you are interested, here is me singing at the 2012 Youth Gathering (don't mind the offbeat clapping):
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AuthorPastor Reed is a first call pastor at Augustana Lutheran Church in Andover, Illinois. Archives
July 2019
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