LUTHERAN YOUTH DEMONSTRATE GENEROSITY

     NEW ORLEANS (ELCA) -- It will be hard to call Generation X selfish after learning that 25 tons of non-perishable food items and more than $325,000 were collected from 30,000 high school students during the worship offerings at the triennial Youth Gathering held by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America here July 23-27.
     The 25 tons of food were collected for Second Harvesters Food Bank, New Orleans, which collects and distributes food worldwide.  Items such as canned tuna/meat products, peanut butter, soup, evaporated milk, canned vegetables and fruits arrived in droves as kids approached the Louisiana Superdome for worship Thursday evening.  Summer months are slow times for food banks; so the gifts were designated a "Christmas in July" offering.
     One group of young people from St. Mark Lutheran Church in Springfield, Va., became an example of generosity through an unforeseen circumstance. After raising money for four buses to bring them to the gathering, a few kids dropped out of the trip.  The young people then decided they only needed three buses and, rather than take the $4,000 that the bus cost them for themselves, they decided to put the money into the gathering's Sunday collection.
     The $325,000 collection will benefit several ministries: + Tanzania - The Mwangaza Educational Resource Center serves a population in which only six percent of teenagers have access to secondary education. + U.S. Homeless Ministries - More than two dozen ELCA ministries help homeless people with food, shelter, health care and counseling. + Resources for Members who are Blind - The ELCA Braille and Tape services provides brailled Sunday School, Vacation Bible School, confirmation and many other resources. + Ministry to Street Children in Brazil - The Lutheran congregation of Santo Amaro began the Children's Reconciliation ministry which provides health care, basic education, vocational instruction, clothes, food, recreational activity and religious instruction. + Corridor Ministry along the Rio Grande Valley - This ministry will focus on identifying, selecting, training and utilizing grass-root lay leadership as missionaries in this field. + Prison Congregations of America - This organization is responding to the biblical command to "visit the imprisoned." + Pastoral Interns for U.S. Inner Cities - A special fund supports internships in communities that cannot finance them on their own. + The Amity Foundation - Founded by Chinese Christians, this organization provides medical care and rehabilitation to victims of the 1989 polio epidemic in rural China. + Native American Ministries - The ELCA has seven congregations largely or exclusively Native American.  Financial support is used to train lay ministers to spread the gospel. + Community Mission and Development Project in Colombia - Three barrios represented in the community hope to purchase a building where they can gather for worship.  Housing improvement is another major project of the community. + The Ashram Ministry to Women - This service provides a home and skill training that allows ostracized women to become self-sufficient.  Many of these women later return to their communities to minister and proclaim the gospel.
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For information contact:
Ann Hafften, Director, News and Information
http://www.elca.org/co/news/current.html