(July 24 print edition) When about 19,000 Lutheran high schoolers and some 1,000 adult mentors descend on New Orleans for five days, the economic impact alone is impressive: 38,000 room nights at 45 hotels, according to New Orleans & Company. When about half of those high schoolers participate in community service projects while here, the benefits to the city are multiplied immeasurably in terms of both palpable assistance and goodwill.
The even better news is that New Orleans seems to be giving the kids a ton of goodwill and great experiences in return, leaving them with a lasting sense of friendship for the Crescent City.
The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod has a historical connection with New Orleans, as the denomination’s forbears all arrived in this country via the port in New Orleans in 1839.
Amid a host of events, music and seminar sessions related to the participants’ faith, it is their community services, estimated at a stunning 150,000 service hours, that make the youth gathering far different from most group conventions here.
“Service has always been an integral part of youth gatherings for the LCMS,” said Mark Kiessling, director of the congregation’s national youth ministry. “Our youth are excited to put their faith into action and to get out into communities and serve in the name of Jesus.”
In addition to service projects at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, the kids spread out all around the metro area for 86 separate events, ranging from projects helping coastal restoration to classroom-preparation efforts to neighborhood beautification initiatives and to work in multiple community gardens.
For instance, about two dozen high schoolers went to Gloria’s Garden on the grounds of the ArtSpace campus in Faubourg Treme, where 77-year-old Gloria Ward produces a plethora of collard, mustard, and turnip greens, spinach, kale and numerous herbs — all for free for the community and all while hosting fun events for neighbors, especially children.
There, one group painted paver stones that Ward will use to beautify a new barbecue patio within the garden. Another draped wet, cement-soaked cloths over plastic-covered buckets or boxes; when dried and turned upside down, the cemented cloths will be decorative flowerpots. Other students actually dug in the garden and did weeding…. [For the full column, follow this link.]
