MYLE YOUTH: "I BELIEVE I CAN FLY"

NEW ORLEANS (ELCA) -- "I believe I can fly, I believe I can touch the sky!" resounded throughout the McAlister Auditorium at Tulane University by high school youth attending the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Multicultural Youth Leadership Event (MYLE), July 20-23.
"Stones in the River" was the theme that brought more than 600 "children of color" together before 35,000 Lutherans arrived in New Orleans for the ELCA's Youth Gathering. MYLE participants came from across the United States and as far away as Bolivia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Participants came together for worship, music, ethnic caucuses, workshops, fellowship and to celebrate the diversity that they represent in the ELCA.
MYLE provides leadership opportunities through elections to three-year terms on the Multicultural Advisory Committee (MAC) of the Lutheran Youth Organization, the youth organization of the ELCA. The MAC consists of members elected in individual ethnic caucuses. They meet twice a year to discuss issues in their respective communities as they relate to the ELCA. Two members serve on the LYO board. MAC members also chair the caucuses during the MYLE.
"We are leaders in training. We are training now, so that when the opportunity for leadership presents itself, we will be prepared. The youth are the future of this church," said 16-year-old Romesha Williams, Zion Lutheran Church, Chicago.
The MYLE provides an opportunity for participants from many ethnic and cultural backgrounds to create a multicultural community of faith in which diversity is celebrated and respected. Individuals are valued for the unique gifts and talents they bring and all participants are challenged to grow in their leadership qualities.
To prepare participants for future leadership the MYLE provided workshop opportunities with topics such as: "Create Your Own News Release," "Recognizing your Leadership Style," "How to Get into College," "Public Speaking for Wimps," "Can Meetings be Productive" and "Leadership Development Techniques."
There were also workshops on church life: "Here I am Lord, Send Me, Send Me" and "Sharing Christ with Your Friends."
Some workshops were simply for fun: "Liturgical Dance," "Jammin in Percussion" and "Good Communication: The Basis for Long-Lasting Friendships."
Other topics were intended to help participants from multi-ethnic and European heritages identify with today's very complex society.
Participants did not spend all of their time attending workshops. Some went out into New Orleans communities to assist with development projects. There were also free-time options for simply hanging out and getting to know each other informally.
The Rev. Margrethe S.C. Kleiber, Tierrasanta Lutheran Church, San Diego, preached during the opening worship service. She told the Bible story of 12 stones that were taken from the Jordan River and related it to the 12 stones that had been placed on the stage by the participants earlier in the evening. The stones represented some of the ethnic groups at the gathering. She asked the participants, "Are you willing to be a stone in the river? Are you willing to allow God to move you?"
"God's people are called to be people on the move," she said. "I believe that those who are stones in their own way have said yes' to God. I think they say yes, we are willing to be moved.'"
The Rev. Tony Machado, Iglesia Luterana Todos Los Santos, Minneapolis, led the opening service liturgy in both English and Spanish.
Billy Mills, Sacramento, Calif., spoke to the gathering and shared his story. He created one of greatest upsets in Olympic history when he won a 1964 gold medal with a "come-from-behind finish" in the 10,000 meter run.
Mills told the participants about a time when he overheard a newspaper reporter recall the 1964 Olympic victory and refer to it as the greatest race of all time. Then the reporter said that Mills was probably a drug-addicted alcoholic now -- an assumption the reporter made based on a negative stereotype of Native Americans, he said.
When Mills identified himself to the reporter, the reporter apologized but continued to use stereotypes. This time the stereotype was aimed at young people. The reporter said his comments were not simply aimed at Indian youth or Indian people. He meant all young people -- that all young people in America today are quitters, do not listen and do not try.
Mills said he countered the reporter's negative perception and told him about the youth of America that he comes in contact with and described them as having "incredible power, pride, dignity, character and concern for their communities." Today Mills travels the country motivating and empowering youth to "reach within the depths of our capabilities and perform to the greatest of our potential."
While the MYLE event was for youth, adults also had opportunity to listen and learn. During an adult forum led by the Rev. Kelly Chatman, ELCA director for youth ministries, adults expressed their concern regarding youth and the church.
"Our job is to empower them and support them," Chatman said. "There is an institutional role that each of us has ... that is to provide opportunity for the youth of this church."
"Our youth, if we listen to them, can help us to have a vision of what the future can be. They can tell us what they want. We have to be open to the vision," said Richard Mease, Zion Lutheran Church, Chicago. "We have to be ready to say to them that we are ready to vision with you, we are going to open our ears, our eyes and our hearts," he said. "The gospel of Christ is what we're after."
Mease said young people are staying away from the church. "We have to be open to listening to the youth of this church. They are telling us by their actions that they need something that we are not giving them," he said.
"A church without youth is not a church, " said Jean Thomas, youth advisor at Grace Lutheran Church, Philadelphia. "Your youth are who keep the church going. They are the next generation to take over and lead the church. Without them who's going to lead when we get older and cannot do all the things that need to be done?" she said. "We have to provide opportunity and activities that will keep the youth interested in the church," Thomas said.
"We have told these children that they can fly, we have led them to believe that they can' fly," said the Rev. Reginald W. Hansome, Jr., Our Saviour's Lutheran Church, Milwaukee. "We have to make a place for them where they can fly when they get back, or else they will find someplace where they can fly. They will find another Christian fellowship that allows them to express themselves" he said.

"We have a bunch of young people that have been saying that they believe they can fly. We have to commit ourselves to make that happen," Hansome said. "We do not have the resiliency that we had in the past. I do not think this church can afford to lose another generation."
The final evening of MYLE found the youth participating in a cultural festival and talent show, and eating Cajun foods. The opening of the cultural festival featured a youth group from Puerto Rico that performed a liturgical dance to celebrate "God's gift of eternal life," and popular and traditional dances from the island. The range of talent included story telling, poetry, singing and liturgical dance.
Offerings taken at the MYLE will be distributed to New Orleans area community projects including Bethlehem Lutheran Church's youth program. Hansome preached during the closing worship service which featured the MYLE gospel choir, liturgical dance learned at one of the MYLE workshops and the Bethlehem youth gospel choir.

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