Maddie and Mariah

Our task was to remove all the weeds and plants,
ended up being a lot of shrubs and deep roots
to dig. 

Hello,
     This is Amy's son, Karleo, telling you about who our first servant event went in Lansing.    Today our morning devotion was about not always being the greatest, but to be optimistic and having the heart to serve.  Today was our first service project, so we got off the bus at the Salvation Army in East Lansing.  The tasks were organizing closets and outside work like mowing, painting, pulling weeds, removing shrubs and trees, as well as sanitizing little kids toys (mostly Jeremiah did the sanitizing).  I was painting a picnic table in the morning, until it started to rain, and then we taught kids Sunday school songs.
     Our theme is to know the story, tell the story, and be the story.  Today I thought we set a good example of being the story.  We not only talked about the story, but also helped out East Lansing and bettered the community as a whole group.  I put up a bunch of pictures of us using our hearts to serve.

Karleo

Took three of them to tackle a challenging shrub root.

Jeremiah

Karleo worked on edging the sidewalk, too.

 

Sanitizing the Day Care Toys:  Jacob and Dawson, from Good Shepard.

 

BE THE STORY

We Rise ... art wall in the museum matched the Gathering Theme of "Dig Deep, Rise Up!"

SCOTTY BEAMING ME IN!!!!
Hello,
      Today we went to the Charles H Wright museum in Detroit, MI. The museum was about the whole history of African Americans and slavery.
     My favorite part of the day today was when we went to the museum and we learned some background  information about Detroit before the tour so that we knew more about the area and the African Americans in the area, also about the water problems that people in the area pay nearly more than 2x the national average of the costs. Which their costs are about $200 +. Then we went on our tour where we saw that Charles collected some art from Africa. Then we went on our guided tour about African history and all the stories that were told from Africa to America and then to freedom. And after our tour we had a little presentation from 4 African American women who discussed their culture shock from mostly black to mostly white communities and vise versa.
  



Today our theme was to be the story of Christ's love in the world. This meant to me not to pass judgments, focus on positives not the negatives. This could also mean to live as a community instead of individuals all the time.  Just like Martin Luther King Jr. said:

     "Darkness will never cast out darkness; only light will do that.  
      Hatred will never cast out hatred; only love will do that."

Going to bed all tired and sweaty.
Signing off,
Jeremiah Greene

Prayer Flags

Good morning from MSU!

Every night before bed we will be making prayer flags.  A prayer flag, in the Buddhist tradition, is a colorful piece of rectangular cloth that can often be found strung along mountain ridges and the Himalayan peaks.  This is our first batch of prayer flags that will be flying above us as we experience today's activities and they are reminding us to be open to God's purpose for us today!

P.S. - The breakfast here is WONDERFUL!

HI MOM!!! (this is Madeline)

HI MOM!!! (this is Madeline)
     Hey guys!!!! What a long bus ride (14 hrs!).  Jerry and Karleo had a bet on who would be able to stay up the longest. At about 3:30 am they both crashed (haha nice try guys).
 

     The sunrise was beautiful. At around 7 am we stopped in Gary, Indiana for an interesting breakfast at burger king (trust me burger king breakfast is weird, but still good!).   Just outside Lancing we stopped for lunch and got huge subs!  Kathy, Karleo and I had to split a sub.  They were soooo gooooood! but the water here doesn't taste like our good ol' lake superior water!  The water at the sub shop tasted salty :P
                   
     After lunch we performed an adapted version of "All About that Bass" by Meghan Trainor, which we called "All About that Grace."  We sang and danced to the theme of God's grace for everyone!  If you aren't familiar with the original, there is a version of it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAlz5TiKOCM.
     At about 2 pm we got the lancing!!! yaaaayyy long bus ride OVER!  After some time to stretch out and explore the campus, we had your first closing worship!!!!! (maddie got to lead songs with her fellow LYO'ers! woop woop!)  Some of the things we talked about were who God is and what Christians think of God. In the end, the verse was Col. 3:12 "as Gods chosen one, clothe your selves in compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, and above all else clothe your selves with love"
     In closing we were reminded that we are a child of God, we passed the peace saying to each other, "God is proud of you."

i write this in continuous stress, the boys are being OBNOXIOUS

sincerely,
Maddie with input from the group :)   

Elim 7: All Aboard!

Friday, July 10, 2015       NE MN Synod Journey to the ELCA Youth Gathering, July 10-20, 2015.      The “Elim 7:” We are nearly Packed and ready to Load the Coach Bus at 11:30 pm tonight.  Yes, we are driving all night and as Leaders, Trevor and I are not expecting to sleep much ‘til the wee-hours.  The energy and excitement is there!  There are 5 ELCA churches with 43 kids and adults on the bus:  Elim-Duluth, Bethlehem-Two Harbors, Good Shepard-Duluth, Family of God-Duluth, and Trinity-Hovland.  There are a total of 6 buses from the NE Synod region traveling tonight.  We will be a joining 27,000 others at the Nat’l ELCA Youth Conference.   Keep us in your prayers.

We have spent the past year preparing … fundraising, grant writing, cooking and serving, and planting pink flamingos (ha!) … we’ve been “Digging Deep” to “Rise Up.”  We have spent a lot of time on the logistics and the fundraising, but I believe we’ve had our sights on serving like Jesus.  Thank you for investing in our Kids.   Tonight will be the Fun and Excitement on the bus … but tomorrow will begin a Life-changing JOURNEY:
             “This Journey is about faith formation.
               This Journey is about leadership development.
               This Journey is about following Jesus.
               This Journey is about serving Jesus.
               Every day.  In Lansing.  In Detroit. Throughout our lives.”
               Keep us in your Prayers.

We will be seeing the face of God where ever we are.  My hope is to help our Kids see that face … and for them to remind me to ‘stop and see’ His face … God is already in Lansing and Detroit … ready for us to work thru Him.   Keep us in your Prayers.

All of us have journals to try to record some of what we are seeing and living on this Journey.  We will share our God connections with you thru this blog.  Trevor had a Journey to New Orleans 6 yrs ago as a participant … making a difference and seeing Gods Hands at Work; now as an Adult Leader, he looks forward to see what God has in store for him.   Keep us in your Prayers.

                Proud and Happy to Serve on this Journey,

                      Kathy Esson
                                  With Trevor Esson, Maddie Roberts, Jacob Greene, Jeremiah Greene,
                                                                     Karleo Richards, and Mariah Johnson.

Travelin' ... met some new friends from
Trinity in Hovland, Lauren and Mae.

We were on Bus #4 with other churches from the area ... 43 of us!