Living Savior Youth

Living Savior Youth Attend 2007 Gathering

Last month, 12 youths and 3 chaperons from Living Savior Lutheran Church attended the 2007 Gathering in Orlando, Florida. This three day event was attended by more than 25,000 other Christians.

For the past year, the youths and adult sponsors conducted fund raisers to help make the trip possible.  These activities included car washes that the kids got cleaner than the cars; selling pizzas, cookies, bake sales and more.  The Living Savior youth truly earned their way to Orlando.

Through National Youth Gatherings, The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod has provided opportunities for "youth and adults to boldly come together in the Name of Jesus Christ, rejoice in the fellowship of their Church, and be affirmed and nurtured as God's people through Word and Sacrament."  Over its thirty year history, more than 200,000 LCMS youth and adults from every district of the Synod and LCMS partner churches throughout the world have participated in the National LCMS Youth Gathering.

Living Savior youth Rachel Edwards said, "The 2007 National LCMS Youth Gathering was probably one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. Twenty-five Thousand youth and adults came from all around the nation to celebrate and share their love of God and Jesus Christ. All of us centered around the theme of CHOSEN. Can you even imagine being in the same room as 25,000 others who share the exact same beliefs that you do? It was quite the overwhelming experience."

The "Hear It" sessions and the Mass Events were favorite activities on the trip. There was a wide variety of "Hear It" sessions that our youth attended each day. Different speakers led the discussions about various topics, like 'Questions You Can't Ask Yo Momma;' 'When the CHOSEN feel lonely;' 'Perversions in the World;' 'The Jesus Painter;' 'The Gutter;' 'Trust' and many more. Edwards goes on to say, "They were interesting topics that often touched each of us individually. The Mass Events really were pretty amazing, with all 25,000 of us crammed into one room to worship together. I thought it was so awesome when they got all of us to do the wave; it was pretty cool to watch. Even though we all had a great time, I believe it was also a real eye opener for some of us."

"Alison and I added up how much we were "worth" (adding up the cost of braces, clothes, iPods, phones, etc.) and figured out that each of us could sponsor a whole third world generation. It made us even more aware of the situations that other people are in…We all had an amazing time creating memories as our bonds with each other became stronger, and so did our Faith and Love of God," states Edwards.