Rise Up Together

“We are the church that shares a living, daring confidence in God’s grace. Liberated by our faith, we embrace you as a whole person – questions, complexities and all.”

Have you ever seen 30,000 people come together for one purpose? I have at the ELCA National Youth Gathering in Detroit, Michigan last summer. The youth gathering takes place every three years and is held in a city of need. For two years it was in New Orleans because of Hurricane Katrina. Last year it was in Detroit because of their low economic standing and large amount of poverty in the city. Detroit needed help so the gathering committee decided to go there and help out. There were three days of activities: Proclaim Justice Day (service), Proclaim Story Day (synod), and Proclaim Community Day.

Proclaim Justice Day: 10,000 youth each day went out to do service projects. They would meet at the Hart Plaza and then go off into the community and serve the people of Detroit. Many groups painted old houses to make them look nice. Others boarded up homes that were condemned to live in. Both these two and other activities were to help the neighborhoods look nice and also to raise the prices on homes. Houses and yards were more appealing to the eye and so more people would want to move there. Boarding houses increases people’s desire to live in the neighborhood and increases the cost of the homes in the area. In these homes that were no longer inhabitable many homeless people found refuge and served as location of violent crimes. When these houses are boarded up it prevents people from getting in to them. With less violence around, these neighborhoods are much better off, in turn increasing the value of housing. The people of Detroit welcomed this service.

Proclaim Story Day: A synod in the ELCA church is a region of churches that has a bishop elected and three council officers to oversee the community of churches. I belong to the Southeastern Iowa Synod. On this day everyone got together with their own synod and had worship and filled out a book to get to know one self more. I personally did not like this day because I found it both really boring and I wasn’t feeling well.

Proclaim Community Day: This is the day we got to spend in the Cobo Center where there were stations of different things set up and activities to do. The most memorable one was the Walk for Water simulation. It was a .1-mile walk that you had to carry a 50-pound water jug around a course. The course had different stops to stimulate what happens when women have to go get their water each day. One stop was diseases another was a flood so we had to walk through pool noodles. In many parts of the world women have to walk about 3.7 miles each day to get drinking water for their families. This is a long walk that is crucial for the survival of their family. The simulation and the information gave me an appreciation for the region of earth we live in; we should cherish everything we have and to donate to this cause to help build wells in the villages so women can do other jobs in their communities.

I hope that all youth can participate in gatherings to come.

Camp Tanager

“Keep your head up. God gives His hardest battles to His strongest soldiers.”

Camp Tanager is a camp that was established for kids that were malnourished.  Campers would stay at camp all summer and they would have plenty of nutritious foods. Staff would track the kid’s health and weight throughout the summer and send them home healthier than ever. Today Camp Tanager has three different programs for the summer. There is a normal program, a diabetes program, and a hemophilia program. The normal program is just like all other summer camps. The diabetes program gives diabetic children a place to go and be with kids just like them. They also get to know more about themselves though others and some lectures, plus they get to do everything that other campers get to do. The hemophilia program allows for kids to not be scared of things that could hurt them. Hemophilia is a blood disorder that makes clotting harder and a slow process. Parents are usually over protective of their kids, which makes sending their child to camp difficult. But at Camp Tanager, the staff works together to help hemophiliacs understand that they don’t have to be afraid of everything, and it’s a place to let them be kids in a very safe environment. Camp Tanager is also free to all kids. With no cost, parents have one less thing to worry about especially because many of these families have medical bills.

I find Camp Tanager to be an amazing place. I have never actually participated in their programs but I got to listen to the director talk about camp and the programs they offer. It was very evident how passionate they are about helping these kids. The fact that they have this camp for kids, that don’t really belong and in many ways could be insecure about themselves, that allows them to come together and get to see that there are others like them out there and they aren’t alone is super cool. Hemophilia is not something that you would find more than once in a class or even a school. Therefore kids may feel like they don’t belong and that they are the only ones and no one else understands them. Getting to meet other kids with the same condition could change their lives.

Wonderful places like Camp Tanager don’t always come around. They are hard to find but when you do find a unique place that is dedicated to a cause, it is amazing. The way that this camp focuses on involvement of kids even if they have an illness that many would say holds them back is truly inspirational.

Especially For You

“Hakuna Ma Ta Tas, Team for breast cancer HOPE”

The Especially For You walk took place this morning, October 4^th in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. This was the twenty-fifth race against breast cancer. There were over 15,600 participants. It is a walk or run to raise money for breast cancer services that stays within the local community. I got the privilege to walk in it for the second year in a row. Every person has the same shirt in the walk but each group could design their own shirt idea for the back. The idea behind our group’s shirt design was Hakuna Ma Ta Tas. It is one of my favorite designs that I saw on the walk.  

Before a few years ago I knew of no one who had breast cancer or any cancer actually. Then one of my best friend’s mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. After many treatments she beat it and is considered a breast cancer survivor. It was something that I saw from a distance but it still impacted me through my friend. To get though the battle against cancer there was lots of hope that had to go around and many prayers were said for her and the family.

Hope: the feeling that is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best. This is the perfect definition for hope. When all else fails in your life you have to have hope. When something like breast cancer gets in your way you have to have hope that the cancer will go away and it will turn out for the best. Hope is amazing. It gets people through events that maybe couldn’t be possible without it.

Faith, Hope and Love. Faith is spiritual. Its God’s word and promises. Hope is the mental component. It is the attitude and a way of focus. Love is physical. It is expressed though action. Taking the example of cancer one has to have faith that God is there and everything will be ok. Hope and an attitude that says yes I can fight this. And love of people around you and for yourself. With these three things one can get through anything that life puts in their way, even something as mean as cancer. There are survivors out there and I saw many of them today on the walk. That should give one enough hope to stick though life and to beat cancer.

Under God

“I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” – Pledge of Allegiance

As an interesting tidbit, the two-word phrase of “under God” was added in 1954 because Lincoln was said to have said it in the Gettysburg Address when he stated, “that the nation shall, under God, have a new birth of freedom.” This was also a controversy in itself because only half of the manuscripts of his speech had these two words in it.

Over the past two hundred plus years there has been controversy between religion and the nation. The controversy is about how religion and the country’s government shouldn’t have anything to do with each other. Before 1954 there was no God mentioned in the Pledge of Allegiance, but today there is and many people have problems with this reference. Not all the people who are opposed are non-religious or have other beliefs with no or more then one God. Many Christians also believe that God should not be a part of the pledge.

I believe that there shouldn’t be God in the United States Pledge of Allegiance for two reasons.

First the Untied States was not founded on the premise of a common religion. Although many of the founding fathers were Christian, religion was not their goal in making this country unlike others founders that based their countries on religion. The founding father’s of the United States goal was to make a country that was built off the concept of life, liberty, and the pursuit of freedom. They didn’t want to form a government that was powerful enough to dictate a religion because many of the people came to America because of religious persecution in their home countries. Today the government is not always led by Christians and governmental figures try to stay out of the religion part of people’s lives.

The second reason why I don’t think God should be in the pledge is that this country is not made up of only Christians who believe in one God, but made up of people from a various religions and beliefs. Some of these other beliefs don’t believe in a God or have more then one God that they follow. Saying the Pledge of Allegiance might make non Christians feel weird or uncomfortable. The Pledge of Allegiance should be something that all US citizens can say and believe in.