Final Preparations Made for ELCA Youth Gathering

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Organizers worked with a host of volunteers last week to make final preparations for some 40,000 young people and adult sponsors from around the world who will travel to St. Louis this week to attend the 2000 Youth Gathering of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).
The gathering theme is "Dancing at the Cross Roads." About 22,000 people will attend the first event, June 28-July 2; about 18,000 are expected at the second event, July 5-9. Many of the gathering activities will take place at the America's Center and the Trans World Dome at America's Center.
Program schedules for each event are the same. Because of space limitations at previous ELCA Youth Gatherings, identical events were scheduled to allow for greater participation by ELCA members, said the Rev. William B. Kees, director for the Youth Gathering, ELCA Division for Congregational Ministries, Chicago.
Among those attending the gathering are 46 international guests from more than 20 countries, including Argentina, Australia, Canada, Colombia, Cuba, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Germany, Guam, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Japan, Kenya, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Palestine, Papau New Guinea, Sierra Leone, Swaziland, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe. Some began arriving as early as June 10, Kees said.
Among the things they did in their orientation session was learn about the United States and St. Louis, visit a bank, a post office and a court building. The students also went shopping and sampled American fast food, he said.
"It was a great experience to watch these young people," Kees said. "In small groups, they shared the richness of their cultures."
A local arrangements committee for the gathering helped organize volunteers to unload several truckloads of Bibles, water bottles and specially made backpacks. The colorful backpacks were made by hand in a Guatemalan village and shipped to the United States as they were finished over a period of five months, Kees said.
Some 150 volunteers worked at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Manchester, Mo., to "pack" the backpacks with gathering information. Backpacks were to be shipped to the St. Louis site June 26, Kees said. Each gathering participant will receive one.
As the ELCA Youth Gathering neared, LeRoy Zimmerman, chair of the local organizing committee, was busy making last minute arrangements. Zimmerman is a member of Bethel Lutheran Church in University City, Mo.
"We've been making sure that we get furniture to all the rooms that need it," he said. "We've finished stuffing 40,000 Guatemalan backpacks." Making sure that all the lumber is cut, so participants can build four Habitat for Humanity houses in East St. Louis, Ill., is also a job for the local organizing committee and volunteers, said Zimmerman.
Zimmerman and the committee began work about a year and a half ago. Getting everything ready for tens of thousands of people is quite a project, he said.
"It's a challenge to find enough resources and finances to support this volume of people," he said.
Lutheran Brotherhood, a fraternal benefits society based in Minneapolis, Aid Association for Lutherans, a fraternal benefits organization based in Appleton, Wis. and several ELCA churchwide units provided leadership and financial support for various aspects of the 2000 ELCA Youth Gathering. The American Bible Society and Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod Youth Ministry contributed, as did several St. Louis-area businesses and organizations.
Two Youth Gathering events are already under way. The Multicultural Youth Leadership Event (MYLE), at Southern Illinois University began June 25 and will conclude June 28. African American and Black, American Indian and Alaska Native, Arab and Middle Eastern, Asian and Pacific Islanders and Latino young people will come together with some international guests and White youth from multicultural congregations to celebrate the ELCA's commitment to embracing cultural diversity.
The theme for MYLE is "Let the Spirit Move You." Participants will gather for Bible studies, leadership development, small group activities, workshops and worship.
Another event, the Definitely Abled Youth Leadership Event (DAYLE), also began June 25 with the theme "Here I am Lord, With My Dancing Shoes On. " It will conclude June 28. DAYLE is open to all Lutheran young people with physical, visual, auditory, mental or learning disabilities. Participants will contemplate the theme through Bible studies, small group activities, workshops and worship. The Rev. Lisa T. Cleaver, ELCA director for disability ministries and deaf ministry, Chicago, will lead a general session.
All ELCA Youth Gathering participants will engage in worship, Bible study, community service projects and learning. Each day will feature mass gatherings at the Trans World Dome, and participants will learn from several featured speakers.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu will address the gathering June 30 and July 7. Participants will focus on forgiveness and reconciliation those days. Tutu is the Robert W. Woodruff visiting professor at Emory University, Atlanta. From 1978 to 1985, Tutu served as general secretary of the South African Council of Churches. In 1995 President Nelson Mandela appointed Tutu to head the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and chair the Human Rights Violations Committee. Tutu won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984.
Between the two gathering events, the Fifth Triennial Convention of the ELCA Lutheran Youth Organization (LYO) will be held July 2-5 at Southern Illinois University. Hundreds of Lutheran youth delegates from across the country will conduct the business of the organization.
LYO is the "umbrella" organization for youth in the ELCA. It represents the voice of more than 500,000 young people in the church. LYO is housed in the ELCA Division for Congregational Ministries, Chicago.

[*Michael N. Hoffman is a junior at the University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kan. This summer he is an intern with ELCA News and Information.]

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