Leadership events
Multicultural Youth ‘I love it here. So far
Detroit is bringing better experiences to me and
opening up my horizons. I’ve learned how to be fair with other races and people of other ethnicities.’
—Daquan Baker, MYLE participant
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N.C., was so moved by her experi- ence that she composed in her blog a letter to Detroit when she returned home. By late July, the post had gone viral. In it she admitted she’d been expecting the worst, but wrote: “I saw the opposite of what I
expected. I saw bike riders and people reading books and children playing in the fountain. I saw so much life, even aſt er mere minutes of being there. “I sang in your streets and weeded
your fl ower beds. I talked to your cit- izens. I heard your spoken word and the testimony of those who belong to you. I served and worshiped and learned and laughed in your city. And I fell in love with it.” Emboldening young people like
Mattheis to be storytellers who are “called and claimed as characters in and witnesses to God’s divine story” is a goal described in the Gathering’s
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www.thelutheran.org
Top left: Ketara Teagle, a Multicultural Youth Leadership Event participant from Philadelphia, learns self-defense techniques for women from Mkuu Sharp, a six-degree black belt and director at Alkebu Lan Village.
Above: Ryleigh Mathis and Devin Washington, both MYLE participants from Philadelphia, roll limes as they participate in a cooking demonstration led by students of the Detroit Food Academy.
theological statement. It was also the focus of Proclaim Story program- ming that brought together youth groups with others in their synod and with their bishop to refl ect, discuss and worship. For Jesse Groettum, 18, from
First Lutheran Church, Alexan- dria, Minn., it was a transformative experience: “Over the past year I’ve become very busy and many times it can be easy to put faith on the back burner. [T e Gathering] brought it back to the front and has been a reviving experience.” Young people were also encour-
aged in their faith by musicians such as Lost and Found, Rachel Kurtz, Skillet and AGAPE*, and by speakers such as Steve Jerbi, pastor of All Peoples Church, Milwaukee; ELCA Presiding Bishop Elizabeth
MYLE participants have some fun creating graffi ti art during a visit to the Alley Project, a Detroit organization offering safe, positive space where at-risk youth can engage in artistic and cultural activities. Participants visited a variety of local organizations for experiential learning.
20 ‘They want to be
leaders in the church and they can all do it.’
Leadership Event Prior to the ELCA Youth Gathering, two smaller leadership events were held July 12-15 in Detroit: the Defi nitely- Abled Youth Leadership Event (DAYLE) and the Multicultural Youth Leadership Event (MYLE). Both were designed to empower participants through worship, educational activities and leadership development. “Love Does” was the focus of MYLE, which brought together 500 young people of color and/or whose primary language is other than English.
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