National Youth Gathering: Thursday July 16, 2015

Thursday July 16, 2015 - Proclaim Community Day

Today was Proclaim Community Day! It was our day to play in the Cobo Community Center.

The community center was packed full with activities, adventures, games, information, and creative expressions in what they call a holy playground. The holy playground was a space for us to engage and be immersed in the life breath of the church, the community of God. It included such mediums as art, music, technology, sports, ropes course, fellowship, fun and reflection. The community center calls us to believe in and respond to the good news of Jesus.

The community center was designed intentionally around the good news of Jesus on the cross; therefore, the entire space was designed with the cross literally and metaphorically in the center of all the activities. Walkways extended in each direction from the cross, so that we were drawn into the cross and then sent out from the cross.

Each corner of the cross invited us to explore how to Proclaim Community by breaking chains, building bridges, bearing burdens, and bringing hope (which were the themes for each night's mass gathering event).

The youth quickly gravitated to the building bridges (yellow) corner of the cross. Specifically, they were attracted to the large inflatable obstacle course, and quickly got in line. After the obstacle course, the youth played bumper "boats" and then made fleece hats before going to the habitat build.

We had an 11:00am reservation to help build a wall for one of the 4 habitat houses they were building all week. The habitat build was led by Pastor Christ Heavner and the ELCA Lutheran Campus Ministries. There were volunteer college students from across the ELCA, including DJ Chatelaine from Duke. DJ worships with us at St. Paul's regularly.

One highlight of the community day center was the free fall jump. The youth waited in line for a significant amount of time in order to jump from a 20 foot platform into a large inflatable landing, much like a stunt devil. You can see the videos below. While the kids waited in line for the jump Chris waited in line for the zip line.

In the final moments of our day at Cobo we ventured into to the sports (bearing burdens) corner of the cross. Ryan, Chris, and Daniel played floor hockey while Greta, Erin, Sarah, and William played ping pong. We hope to return in our free time!

At tonight's mass gathering event we heard moving speeches from Karis Ailabouni, a recent Young Adult in Global Mission student serving in Madagascar, Eric Barreto, a professor and author from Luther Seminary, and Reverend Alexia Salvatierra, a national leader who spoke passionately about poverty and immigration.

The highlight musician of the evening was an artist named Blanca. Blanca is a Puerto Rican-born American contemporary Christian musician. She combines her distinct soul/pop with a hip-hop vibe to create a unique artistic direction.

Short Reflections from today's experiences:

"We're not all supposed to be alike. God made us different and calls us to be different, as God made us." - Joan

"We are not generic people, we all have our beautiful differences." - Ryan

"Today I thoroughly enjoyed getting up early to go for a run along the River front. It was extremely peaceful. Finally, Detroit has been a very hospitable city so far." - Chris

"A burden shared is a burden lightened." - Will

"'We can turn this around, it starts right here, it starts right now.'" - Greta quoting Bob, one of tonight's artist.

"'There is nothing for me upon this Earth...' except 30,000 Lutheran and having a lot of fun. Also, I jumped 20 feet into a plastic bag, and we have pictures to prove it." - Erin adding on to a song from tonight's mass gathering.

"Through poetry we can share our burdens with others and take burdens of others onto our own shoulders."

Pictures