ELCA National Youth Gathering Day 4
Written by: Molly Mccue and Angela Miller
SERVICE:
Community service is a creation of God that never ceases to stir so much want in me. After every service project I do, I always leave wanting to help this fractured world, this fractured faith, even more. Today, my peers and I woke early to help the cause of food insecurity in the largely populated city of New Orleans. We arrived with mixed feelings: some of us excited to help, whereas others were still asleep or nervous about the heat! The project truly came alive with every 33 set of hands getting dirty digging, cutting wood, or painting garden beds! My mom always likes to say, “Many hands make little work!” And after today there is no better evidence than 33 teenagers— 66 hands, building 6 flower beds and painting 12 beds all under 2 hours. This whole idea really got me thinking…
Why don’t we as a congregation, as students, as families, etc, take a simple hour or two out of our day to help save countless of lives? Who decides that our time takes precedence over others chance to live?
Try to imagine just how many stories and smiles could be saved from fading into existence with the help of everyone’s able bodies!
We all found joy in meeting others along the way, getting the chance to help others in a city with a history full of hurt, and getting to put our new friendships to the test of working together. By the end of the service almost everyone had crosses or handprints painted on our skin or shirts. I believe the colorful mess was a symbol of joy through all the hard work and scorching heat.
When my peers and I were told that we were walking to lunch in our bright orange, sweat soaked, paint covered shirts, there was a bit of stress. But taking a step back moments later, I realized how we could seize this moment as an opportunity to show others our hard work and the beautiful meaning behind this sweat. And though the paint can tell a story of service too, the crosses brandished upon our limbs and clothes were a story of faith and teamwork as well.
Before I end my portion of the blog, I would like to share a quote from a book I read recently that I try to incorporate wherever I travel. “Anywhere you go, people are just people.” — Laura Wood, A Sky Painted Gold. Yes, when you travel anywhere, you are likely to bump into different foods, different music, different accents, different weather, different culture, but the people themselves will always have feelings, will always have hurt, and will always have stories to tell. Everyone is human— maybe we are just human in our own kind of ways.
MASS GATHERING
Tonight, our theme of worship was freedom. What exactly is freedom? How do you define freedom? What does it mean to be free? We heard from a plethora of speakers about what it means to them to be free. Freedom in faith, freedom in gender, freedom in expression, freedom in being one’s true self. What stood out to many of us was Ms. Austin Channing Brown and her take on racism in predominantly white spaces and how it connects to this idea of “being free”.
As children, we don’t tend to dwell on the idea of race. Is it hair? Is it food? To quote Brown, “Is it cats?”. As we get older, we start to see race as skin color, accents, clothing, neighborhoods, etc. We have normalized societal molds and expectations that we associate with skin color and facial features. To you, it may just be a simple interaction that means nothing, but to a person of color, it is yet another person trying to push us into a box that we are not made for. “Make sure your eyes are open”, “Enunciate your words”, “Correct your posture”.
In too many spaces, we are asked to change, to be something different than what God created us to be. We are each created to be good, to do good and to show good. We are all fearfully and wonderfully made to be children of God. Embrace the imperfect, learn to accept blissful chaos, acknowledge that there is work to be done.
“People who are homeless are not the work. Housing is the work. People who are hungry are not the work. Food insecurity is the work. The people who live in toxic neighborhoods are not the work. Environmental racism is the work. Education, our children, our students right here in this city and right where you live are not the work. The way we fund education is the work. Even on this stage just tonight we heard an acknowledgment and an apology of racial harm and students of color I need you to know that you are not the work. Racial justice is the work.”
Freedom work is a human dignity of every person in the world. We must honor not only the dignities of those around us, but also one’s own self. There will always be freedom work to be done. There will always be dignity to be honored for we are all children of God, fearfully and wonderfully made.
