ELCA World Hunger

In the month of November I had the honor of co-leading a social action workshop for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America at a Global Formation event in Olympia. A Global Formation Event is a regional group of Lutherans coming together to learn about accompaniment, to help congregational teams build the skills they need to be an effective part of God’s mission, globally and locally. The event was an opportunity for me to provide witness of my experiences at Immanuel, a very important part of my time at the GFE was to spread word of the work of ELCA World Hunger who provides relief, education, advocacy and development to people all over the world. ELCA World Hunger responds to Christ’s call to “Go and do likewise” (Luke 10:37), serving with compassion people who are most vulnerable, paying focused attention to the full participation of women and the needs of children. I worked alongside Christopher Carpentar of ELCA World Hunger, Mary (Region 2) and Kathleen (Region 9) to teach participants about the wonderful church wide work of God’s Global Barnyard (Alternative Gift Giving), Taking Root (grades 3-12 hunger awareness curriculum) and the Hunger Education Tool Kit (how to design, host and lead hunger awareness workshops).

We also discussed the intersection of climate change, hunger and poverty because climate change is affecting the poorest and most vulnerable of the world by resulting in plant migration, unpredictable weather (droughts and flood) and fiercer more destructive storms (tsunamis and hurricanes). You can read ELCA World Hungers blog, Hunger Rumblings and learn about root causes of hunger and current events.

A special moment for me was leading the closing activity on the first day; we started with a group wide game of catch, then broke into small groups to discuss how we can bring our learnings back to our respective communities and then I spoke on my experiences at Immanuel and the value of having a truly welcoming and open congregation. It was energizing to meet active Lutherans from other communities, I especially enjoyed working with Chris, Mary and Kathleen on the social action track and I am looking forward to my involvement with other GFEs in 2010.

From the Global Formation Event I traveled to Everett where Agape and Rachel Kurtz brought Jesus Justice and Jazz to the Everett Theater, where youth from many Region 1 congregations witnessed powerful music and testimony from the artists. This concert was one stop of a 16 city tour that is raising funds for ELCA World Hunger. This tour stop was hosted by Trinity Lutheran College where before the show a couple hundred youth had a spaghetti dinner. I was fortunate enough to sit at a table and break bread with the performers! It was a full circle type of moment for me, to Agape’s mild chagrin I had seen him perform about 10 years earlier at a Region 1 youth gathering. Agape and I barely had time to reminisce because he had a constant stream of little Lutheran autograph seekers. Agape was charming and accessible, I think when people use the gifts that God has given them the world becomes a more beautiful place and for the benefit of everyone Agape and Rachel are sharing! After the spaghetti and rice krispies treats everyone walked from Trinity to the Everett Theater for to hear Jesus, Justice and Jazz.

Rachel began the show by singing A cappella, she has an amazing voice and instantly held the theaters attention. For her next song she picked up a guitar and sang throwing in some yodeling for good measure. Did I already say Rachel has an amazing voice? Well she can play the African drum too, she did just that and invited audience members onto the stage to sing and dance along with her singing and drumming. Rachel’s set was beautiful; her voice and instrumentals were a great accompaniment to her Word.

Rachel brought Agape to the stage for the most meaningful hip hop performance I have ever seen. Over the 10 years since I had first seen Agape he has grown his God given gifts of rapping and dancing to a level of expertise that shook me to the core. Agape is taking full advantage of the unique space a rap artist occupies in the eyes of a teenager, a person who can speak to them in a way 99% of adults cannot. Throughout his performance he laid many important words on the hearts and minds of the youth through his story and song. Agape’s Words touched on many issues including bulimia, anorexia, self-mutilation, American middleclass attitude towards international service work and racial profiling. Agape is also known as dancing David for a good reason, the dude can dance, if David is ever in your area go see him because he is a precious gift to our Church.