Our group woke up this morning looking forward to today’s closing worship service, during which we would be part of the largest Lutheran congregation on the planet. 30,000 people gathered to praise God, hear the word preached powerfully by our presiding bishop, the Rev. Elizabeth Eaton, and receive the sacrament of Holy Communion.

Bishop Eaton’s message focused on the call for us to praise God in the midst of adversity and struggle, and to see God’s power and presence revealed in places of hopelessness and despair. She spoke of the Spirit’s movement among the people of Detroit and our participation in the Spirit’s on-going work of resurrection and renewal, and she called us to bring the news and hope of Christ’s transforming power to our homes and communities.

The service ended with the announcement that the next ELCA Youth Gathering will be held June 27-July 1, 2018, in Houston, Texas, and a thank you to Heidi Hagstrom, who has served as the director of the Gathering since 1994.

Following worship, we traveled back to Cobo to catch a bus to our hotel, where we would be picked up by Pastor Andrew’s father for a tour of the city and a barbecue at Pastor Andrew’s family home in Northwest Detroit.

A relaxing afternoon, including dinner, a walk through the neighborhood, and some games, served as a nice wrap up to the day. We enjoyed our last evening together in the hotel, and got ourselves packed for the return trip home, beginning with our 5:00 am shuttle to the airport.

We are grateful for the experiences we had during this trip, and look forward to sharing more stories about our time in Detroit soon!

Another day, another great time at the ELCA Youth Gathering in Detroit. On Saturday, we joined with 10,000 other Gathering friends to “Proclaim Community” as we explored the interactive learning and service activities at the Cobo Center.

The day began again with worship (with Holy Communion) featuring great music by Rachel Kurtz and *Agape. Following worship, we got to work checking out Cobo in more detail. Some of the activities we did together included walking an exhibit chronicling the plight of Central American refugees fleeing to the United States and other countries; making fleece hats for local shelters and schools;

painting board art that will be used to cover windows in abandoned houses; hanging out with Sophia Weinert, who was in town volunteering with the Gathering; and posing for a picture as participants in the Last Supper.

One of the highlights of the day was helping with a service project sponsored by Lutheran Campus Ministry. Throughout the three full days of the Gathering, groups were able to sign up to work an hour at a time to frame up walls for four houses that would be built for low-income families. At the end of the day, our group was invited to help get those wall segments prepared for loading and transport. Here we are in action:

We had a chance to sample some delicious Detroit – style pizza (recommended by Pastor Andrew), and everyone agreed that it was great!

Evening found us making our nightly trek back to Ford Field for Mass Gathering, this time featuring the following speakers:

Rozella White, the director of the ELCA’s Young Adult Ministry, who spoke poignantly about her struggle with anxiety and depression and her conviction that these and other challenges must be faced openly and honestly because they are part of our identity as people created in the image of God and loved by God.

Kyle Larson, former Young Adult in Global Ministry in Mexico City, who talked about how God meets us in the places where “the real world” and the “ideal world” intersect, and about how our past doesn’t need to define us because Christ has broken the chains that hold us back.

Veronika Scott, the 24-year-old CEO of the Empowerment Plan, a company employing people from homeless shelters to help create stability in their lives and provide them with tools for continued employment and improvement.

Marian Wright Edelman, a civil rights pioneer and founder of the Children’s Defense Fund, who spoke passionately about the cause of childhood poverty and the call for young people to be active in addressing the problems that face our society, such as racism, hunger, poverty, sexism, and political apathy.

The evening closed with a performance by Skillet, a popular Christian rock group that brought the whole arena to its feet.

After our nightly devotions, we headed to bed to prepare ourselves for the last day of Gathering and our final full day in Detroit. We continue to give thanks for your prayers, support, and interest in our trip.

Good morning, everyone!

On Friday we had a chance to explore the city a bit before we gathered with our Synod for our “Proclaim Story” Day.

We arrived downtown around 8:20 and slipped into worship with several hundred of our new friends. After receiving communion and a great message from a local pastor, we spent some more time around Cobo Hall checking out the interactive learning center.

When 11:00 rolled around, we decided to head out for an early lunch, which we found at Five Guys Burgers and Fries in Greektown. We all enjoyed a great meal, and then headed back to Cobo. On the way, we made a quick stop at the GM Building (also known as the Renaissance Center) to check out a new Corvette and a Silverado pickup.

Proclaim Story was our opportunity to gather as a Synod to explore how our individual stories are woven into God’s Story revealed in Scripture. We made personal time lines of high and low points in our lives, heard the story of the healing of a paralyzed man from three different perspectives, and placed ourselves into the story by imagining how we have been like various people in the narrative.

At 4:00, our guys wanted to do some work to help out the community, so they headed to the Lutheran Campus Ministry build site in Cobo Center to help frame walls that will become part of new homes around the city.

Then it was time to make the walk to Ford Field for Mass Gathering. It was busy downtown with the Tigers in town and scheduled to play a game against the Orioles beginning at 7:08, but we all got along together and made it to the Field. Once inside, we grabbed dinner at a concession stand and climbed up to the second deck for a different view of the evening’s festivities.

Tonight’s speakers included:

Rani Abdulmasih, a Palestinian Christian pastor serving two Arabic – speaking congregations in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn, which boasts the largest population of people of Arab descent outside the Mideast. Pr. Abdulmasih talked to us about the need to be bridge-builders in our communities, using the “dynamite” of the Gospel to break down barriers that divide.

Sarah Funkhouser, who served in Israel – Palestine with the Young Adults In Global Mission program of the ELCA. She spoke about how seeing God through the eyes of others helps to expand our vision of who God is for us and for the world.

Steve Jerbi, a pastor in Milwaukee who spoke of the tragedy surrounding the racially-motivated murder of a 12 year old boy in his congregation, the call to name the evil of racism, and the power of Jesus’ presence and name to transform us and our world.

The powerful speakers were surpassed only by the amazing music that we heard throughout the evening. It started with *Agape, a Lutheran – Christian rap/hip-hop artist. It continued with Royal Tailor, an eclectic band that brought songs of praise to the arena.

None of that could have prepared us for what came near the end of the evening. The highlight of the night was a surprise performance by the Motown All-Stars, a group made up of four Motown legends – original members of the Temptations, the Miracles, and the Capitols.

The place was absolutely nuts as thousands danced and sang along to classic Motown hits from the Temptations, Diana Ross, and the Jackson Five. All of us agreed that it was an incredible experience that we’re not likely to forget.

The Mass Gathering ended with a stirring performance calling us to reach out in love and bridge the gaps that divide us from one another. During the song, hundreds of people descended to the floor carrying lighted orbs that eventually formed a powerful image in the midst of the crowd.

Once the Mass Gathering was done, the party wasn’t over. We poured into the streets and followed the route to our buses that had been prepared for us. With most of the streets we walked closed down for our trip through downtown, we basically had a huge party in the streets, a party joined by fans and residents who sang and cheered and danced with us as we made our way toward the Detroit Riverfront. It was a lot of fun!

Great devotions closed out our day, and we went to sleep looking forward to a whole day of proclaiming Community at Cobo Center and our final evening Mass Gathering.

Sorry for the delay, but yesterday was so exhausting that it has taken a while to collect my thoughts.

For Day 3, our group was assigned participate in the first Proclaim Justice projects. This day was our time to scatter throughout the city and serve alongside the people of Detroit. Unfortunately, the day broke with ominous news from elsewhere in the Detroit metro area. A fatal car accident involving a pedestrian shut down a large section of I-96, a major freeway that runs from downtown through to the northwestern suburbs. As a result, many of the buses that were scheduled  to transport us to our work sites arrived extremely late, throwing the morning into confusion.

The traffic problems, combined with other unforseen circumstances, led to heavy delays in everyone’s projects and, eventually, the cancelation of projects for the last 50 bus loads of participants – including ours.

Again, our guys handled the long delay (over 4.5 hours) in the sun with amazing patience, and we determined to make the best of our day. We headed up to American Coney Island, one party to a decades-long rivalry between restaurants located directly beside each other and owned by a pair of brothers. The dispute: who has the best Coney Dog in Detroit. We sampled America’s contribution to the debate – hot dogs covered with chili, mustard, and diced onions – and thoroughly enjoyed our meal.

After lunch, we returned to Cobo Center, stopping to take pictures of the famous Fist of Joe Louis sculpture  and Spirit of Detroit statue.

We jumped on the Detroit People Mover, an elevated train that runs in a loop around downtown Detroit, and had a nice chat with some folks from North Carolina. After we got back, we spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out around Cobo until it was time to head to Ford Field for Mass Gathering.

We got great seats on the floor of the arena, and the guys had a great time joining the conga lines and dancing.

The speakers included Natasha T. Miller, a poet who offered a passionate and raw reflection on the city of Detroit; Kris Ailabouni, who spoke of her time with the ELCA’s Young Adults in Global Mission program in Madagascar, time she spent lwarning about others’ experiences of poverty and the way that those same people committed to bearing burdens for one another; the Rev. Dr. Eric Barreto, who reminded us that diversity is a God-given gift to be celebrated and enjoyed; and Alexia Salvatierra, a pastor, preacher, and advocate for justice who proclaimed her convictiom that bearing the burdens of others- particularly immigrants fleeing danger and violence – is our call, and that being disconnected from one another is evidence of disease in the body of Christ. Near the end of our gathering, a Puerto Rican singer named Blanca rocked the house, sharing her message that each of us are strong, beautiful, and enough in the eyes of God.

We headed back to our hotel for devotions and some time to hang out before we turned in for the night.

Look for the entry about Friday, when we spent time with our Nebraska Synod brothers and sisters to “Proclaim Story” on Saturday..

Good morning, everyone! Wednesday was an eye-opening day for our youth, as more participants from all over the country (and the world) continued to arrive in Detroit for the Gathering. Our day started with another transportation delay, this time having to do with our shuttle downtown. I don’t envy the job that the Gathering Team has trying to coordinate the movements of 30,000 people throughout a major American city! Once again, our group spent the time chatting and getting to know people from other groups (shout out to the folks from Harrisburg (PA), Greensboro (NC), and Jacksonville (FL)). Around 11:00 we hit the road for the Cobo Center, where we were treated to views like this:

The guys found the sports activity area pretty quickly and spent much of the day there, which was fine because many of the educational exhibits weren’t open yet.

Around 4:30, we headed toward Ford Field, home of the Detroit Lions, where we will meet up all together each evening for Mass Gathering.

Once we got ourselves inside and found our seats, we got a look at the stage for that evening’s events.

The house was rocking, with a performance from Lost and Found, and the amazing house band leading us in song. We had a great time getting ready for the evening speakers who included the following:

The Rev. Elizabeth Eaton, Presiding Bishop of the ELCA, and the Rev. Dr. Donald Kreiss, Bishop of the Southeast Michigan Synod, welcoming us to Detroit.

An unnamed young woman sharing a poetic reflection on the question “Why?” and how we might answer it in our own lives.

Mikka McCracken, ELCA World Hunger, sharing her conviction that ending hunger and poverty is possible because we worship a God of abundance and possibility.

The Rev. Dr. Luke Powery, Duke Divinity School, preaching powerfully about the “end” of Mark’s Gospel and our call to be “resurrection revolutionaries” who will not remain silent in the face of the problems that face our society and world.

The Mass Gathering ended with an incredible performance from Detroit’s famous “Selected of God” Gospel Choir (featuring Lutheran rap/hip-hop artist *Agape).

We hit the streets again to get to our hotel shuttles, arriving back in Sterling Heights around 11pm just in time for our Final 15 devotions and some instructions for Thursday’s “Proclaim Justice” day. We’ll see what today brings as we continue to Rise Up Together.

If you’re interested in checking out a Mass Gathering, they are available to view live online. Find a link at http://www.elca.org/gathering. Music starts at 6pm CDT, and speakers begin shortly after 7!

Early this morning, after months of preparation, seven members of the STSX3 Group began our journey to the 2015 ELCA Youth Gathering, being held this year in Detroit, Michigan.

The fun began at 2:00 am when we gathered at St. Paul’s to load up our vehicle (graciously lent to us by Jan and Terry Lotter).

After a word of prayer and our last goodbyes, we hit the road for Kansas City, where we would board our first flight bound for Atlanta, Georgia.

Once we made it to the ATL, things got interesting. Two delays pushed our depature back from 9:50 to 12:50.

Then, after boarding the plane and heading for the runway, another mechanical failure forced us to turn around and return to the gate, where we sat for over an hour. Finally, around 2:30, we took off for Detroit, arriving around 4:15 – after we were just minutes from being diverted to Milwaukee.

When we got into Detroit, we definitely felt the love!

The city is ready to welcome us and to work with us this week. The people we’ve met so far couldn’t be nicer or more open about the city they love, and it has been a real gift to hear their stories.

We finally got to our hotel about 5 1/2 hours after we were scheduled to arrive. We checked into our rooms and the Gathering (thanks to volunteers Tom and Donica from Northeast Kansas!), then grabbed dinner at a restaurant across the street from the hotel, before settling in for a relaxing evening.

It has been a very trying day, but the group handled it with remarkable patience and grace, and we are looking forward to meeting more of our brothers and sisters from across the ELCA tomorrow as the Gathering officially starts.

For more info on our trip, stay tuned to our Facebook page (www.fb.com/fcstpauls) or follow Pr. Andrew (@achavy007) or St. Paul’s (@FCSaintPauls) on Twitter. You can also watch either FB or Twitter using #RiseUpELCA.

Good night, Falls City! STSX3 signing off from the Motor City.