Hope everyone is recovering and resting up from the trip. More reflections of our young people on the speakers they heard are below. A reminder to evryone, the weekend of August 22/23rd we will be presenting our experience to the congregation both in worship and at a dessert reception after the 5pm saturday service. Parents, we will need some desserts, and invite friends!!!
Lauren King
My favorite speaker was Michel Chikwanie. He showed bravery and faithfulness in his path to be the person he is today. Running away from a bunch of older soldiers who had guns would be very scary and shooting your friend and making the life he still had worth it meant a lot. I learned a lot from Michel and he defiantly changed my life.
Kaitlyn Everts
Viola Vaugn was my favorite speaker because of all the energy and life she brought on stage. 10,000 girls is a fabulous program she put together to help young girls make a goal and dream for themselves. She is open to new ideas and change, is brilliant and patient. She captured my attention.
Zach Dahms
My favorite speaker for the youth gathering was Michel Chikwanine. He was a former child soldier. The reason I liked him the most is because he seemed to get his words out and allow us to understand what his main point was. He talked about how much he missed home and how HOPE was a strong thing he had. When the African soldiers tried to take away his hope he showed moments of strength that also told me, you have to be strong for/about things you love. Near the end he came to the subject of following his dream and becoming what his dream was about. This gave me a point of view on life saying you can be what you want all you need to do is try and try for it.
AJ Pflanzer
My favorite speaker of the week was Michel Chikwanie. He talked about his experiences as a child soldier and how he has overcome them to be a large part in changing the world. I enjoyed it because he was a powerful speaker and it was a powerful story. I also enjoyed because I have a passion for the issue of child soldiers, and I actually am part of an organization to help free child soldiers in Uganda, called Invisible Children.
Kayla Krueger
My favorite speaker was Spencer West because I found his story very interesting and gave him credit for getting up in front of 38,000 people in a wheelchair without legs. The first thing I thought was “I wonder what is on everybody’s mind.” After listening to his story it really made me realize that everyone is different.
Amanda Whaley
Michel Chikwanine was my favorite speaker beacue I think it would be so hard to run from those people. He had a lot of guts to get back into his life and to be able to tell his story after killing his best friend. It would be so hard and he has so much faith and hope and guts.
Nicole Milkent
My favorite speaker was Michel Chikwanine, the child soldier who was forced to kill his best friend at the age of five. He was my favorite because his speech was so moving and touched our hearts. He showed/proved to me that even If life gets upsetting and your forced to do something you really don’t want to do, you still have to have hope and that no matter the situation, there can always be a good outcome.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Reflections on Speakers
Tonight as part of our final devotion time, the youth were each asked to reflect on their favorite speaker from the many we have heard over the past four days. Below is the first installment of their thoughts, I know that it is a powerful experience for me to read how they have been impacted by what they have heard. I hope it is for you. The rest of the posts will be typed up and placed on the blog as soon as possible.
Tomorrow we begin our journey back to Wisconsin after closing worship at the SuperDome. We ask for your prayers for traveling mercies for us and all of the 38,000 youth, adult leaders, staff and volunteers who have led this gathering.
It has been a powerful experience for our young people and I, along with our adult leaders, are very proud of how they have conducted themselves. They have represented our community well and we are indeed blessed and challenged by this wonderful, intelligent, thoughtful group of young people in our midst.
Brooke Curry
“He placed my hand on the trigger-‘Shoot,’ he told me, ‘SHOOT!’ When he took the blind fold away I looked down and saw Kevin-my best friend-drowning in a pool of his own blood. ‘You’re a killer,’ they told me, ‘your family will never take you back now.’”
-Michel Chikwanine, former Child Soldier
Maybe he wasn’t my favorite speaker, but to be honest, he is the one I know I will remember. His story, among many involving child soldiers are attention grabbing no matter the person, their age or their background. It is a terrible thing to know that stories of this nature is one of the few, few ways to being so many people together; but as all the speakers at the convention shared with us, through tragedy comes hope and a wway to create a brighter future. All we have to do is take the first step.
Luke Christenson
My favorite speaker of the week was Spencer West. Probably what most people picked because he touched a lot of us. When he came out in the wheel chair the first thought we all had was “Where are his legs?” When he told us what happened, I was very shocked. He was my favorite because when people bullied him he stood up for himself and when people tell him that he can’t stand that’s another lie because I saw it happen. When he stood up I was like “Now that’s a guy who is warm hearted and he likes to stand up for himself and all the other handicapped people. To conclude, I’m sure a lot of people picked Spencer West because he touched a lot of us I n our hearts.
Sadie Haines
The speaker that I liked the most was Viola Vaugn because she was very inspiring. She encouraged us especially to learn and use the skills she taught to help build up the young girls she teaches in Senegal. Girls who not only have built a school, but run it themselves.
Jackie Bazylewicz
Spencer West said everything I have felt. I’ve been treated differently and have faced situations others haven’t. He made me realize that even though we are all different, we are the same. Problems, struggles, and tragedies don’t see color, gender, family or past. We are all connected and should find hope in each other. Spencer West you are my New Orleans hero and inspiration.
Connor Trepton
My favorite speaker was Viola Vaughn. Her captivating storey about the development of her school in Senegal captured my attention and held it throughout the duration of her speech. I thought it was so cool that a little girl who didn’t want to fail, pushed her to teach, and after that more girls came. She still is the only adult in her program of 2,500 girls and I hope that she continues to inspire the local youth.
Will Tierney
Spencer West was my favorite speaker. His store was just like so many other Americans who are diabled or just bullied. Even though he lost his lower half of his body and was constantly bullied he figured out how to get through life. He grew up and is showing everyone that being diabled can lead to great things. With him this is no stopping.
Dominic Potratz
During our mission trip there were tons of speakers at the SuperDome. I think Michele Chikwaninie was my favorite. He was a child soldier at the age of 11 and was drugged and blindfolded. He was then told to step out of the truck where he stepped on the skeleton of a human being. He was given a gun and told to shoot, as he lifted his blindfold he saw his best friend lying on the ground bloody and dead. A few months later he was told to invade a town but he ran away. I felt something when he was talking. I would have broke down knowing I shot my best friend. I think I felt hope because he had the courage to run away, I felt a connection with him. Spencer West was also someone I connected to because he had the courage to go up infront of everyone and talk about his disability.
Mariah Everts
Michel Chikwanine was my favorite speaker because I thought his speech and story was so powerful. That at only the age of 11 he had to kill his best friend. I would be so depressed and that would just definitely change my life forever! But to have the courage to speak and tell his story to thousands of people all over the world is pretty amazing and special. And to try to stop other horrible things from happening by talking to all these people is pretty awesome. Michel definitely has an interesting life story that has certainly made an impact on my life.
Tomorrow we begin our journey back to Wisconsin after closing worship at the SuperDome. We ask for your prayers for traveling mercies for us and all of the 38,000 youth, adult leaders, staff and volunteers who have led this gathering.
It has been a powerful experience for our young people and I, along with our adult leaders, are very proud of how they have conducted themselves. They have represented our community well and we are indeed blessed and challenged by this wonderful, intelligent, thoughtful group of young people in our midst.
Brooke Curry
“He placed my hand on the trigger-‘Shoot,’ he told me, ‘SHOOT!’ When he took the blind fold away I looked down and saw Kevin-my best friend-drowning in a pool of his own blood. ‘You’re a killer,’ they told me, ‘your family will never take you back now.’”
-Michel Chikwanine, former Child Soldier
Maybe he wasn’t my favorite speaker, but to be honest, he is the one I know I will remember. His story, among many involving child soldiers are attention grabbing no matter the person, their age or their background. It is a terrible thing to know that stories of this nature is one of the few, few ways to being so many people together; but as all the speakers at the convention shared with us, through tragedy comes hope and a wway to create a brighter future. All we have to do is take the first step.
Luke Christenson
My favorite speaker of the week was Spencer West. Probably what most people picked because he touched a lot of us. When he came out in the wheel chair the first thought we all had was “Where are his legs?” When he told us what happened, I was very shocked. He was my favorite because when people bullied him he stood up for himself and when people tell him that he can’t stand that’s another lie because I saw it happen. When he stood up I was like “Now that’s a guy who is warm hearted and he likes to stand up for himself and all the other handicapped people. To conclude, I’m sure a lot of people picked Spencer West because he touched a lot of us I n our hearts.
Sadie Haines
The speaker that I liked the most was Viola Vaugn because she was very inspiring. She encouraged us especially to learn and use the skills she taught to help build up the young girls she teaches in Senegal. Girls who not only have built a school, but run it themselves.
Jackie Bazylewicz
Spencer West said everything I have felt. I’ve been treated differently and have faced situations others haven’t. He made me realize that even though we are all different, we are the same. Problems, struggles, and tragedies don’t see color, gender, family or past. We are all connected and should find hope in each other. Spencer West you are my New Orleans hero and inspiration.
Connor Trepton
My favorite speaker was Viola Vaughn. Her captivating storey about the development of her school in Senegal captured my attention and held it throughout the duration of her speech. I thought it was so cool that a little girl who didn’t want to fail, pushed her to teach, and after that more girls came. She still is the only adult in her program of 2,500 girls and I hope that she continues to inspire the local youth.
Will Tierney
Spencer West was my favorite speaker. His store was just like so many other Americans who are diabled or just bullied. Even though he lost his lower half of his body and was constantly bullied he figured out how to get through life. He grew up and is showing everyone that being diabled can lead to great things. With him this is no stopping.
Dominic Potratz
During our mission trip there were tons of speakers at the SuperDome. I think Michele Chikwaninie was my favorite. He was a child soldier at the age of 11 and was drugged and blindfolded. He was then told to step out of the truck where he stepped on the skeleton of a human being. He was given a gun and told to shoot, as he lifted his blindfold he saw his best friend lying on the ground bloody and dead. A few months later he was told to invade a town but he ran away. I felt something when he was talking. I would have broke down knowing I shot my best friend. I think I felt hope because he had the courage to run away, I felt a connection with him. Spencer West was also someone I connected to because he had the courage to go up infront of everyone and talk about his disability.
Mariah Everts
Michel Chikwanine was my favorite speaker because I thought his speech and story was so powerful. That at only the age of 11 he had to kill his best friend. I would be so depressed and that would just definitely change my life forever! But to have the courage to speak and tell his story to thousands of people all over the world is pretty amazing and special. And to try to stop other horrible things from happening by talking to all these people is pretty awesome. Michel definitely has an interesting life story that has certainly made an impact on my life.
Interaction Center and Big Shirley's
Today we went to the interaction center in the morning where we played games, the guys met Bishop Paul Stumme-Diers, toured a FEMA trailer (which we took our group photo in front of), decorated a concrete paver with our names on it which will be used for one of the 3 houses being built this week through Habitat for Humanity and learned more about, in Ganhdi's words, "being the change" we wish to see in the world.
After the interaction center we took a long trolley ride through the Garden District, past Tulane University to have lunch at Big Shirley's restaurant with the youth from Gethsemane Lutheran in Austin (Pastor Erik's home congregation). It was a GREAT lunch and we are grateful to Gethsemane for treating us.
More blog posts to come tonight...
After the interaction center we took a long trolley ride through the Garden District, past Tulane University to have lunch at Big Shirley's restaurant with the youth from Gethsemane Lutheran in Austin (Pastor Erik's home congregation). It was a GREAT lunch and we are grateful to Gethsemane for treating us.
More blog posts to come tonight...
Friday, July 24, 2009
Solo Blogger
Due to evening schedules, we have a solo blog post coming to us tonight from NOLA. Thanks to Derek for his great thoughts and time. More pictures from today to come soon...
Today in New Orleans we woke up a little bit later than we usually do. Me and Connor were still a bit late (We love showers). So we ended up walking around the French quarter of New Orleans. We stopped at a little breakfast place, That sold French Doughnuts that were awesome, didn’t fill you up but they gave us that happy feeling inside. Dominic got his new nick name other than mini D; we all now call him Mini Diesel because he’s cool like that. After walking for another 45 Minutes we got to the Convention center which has one of the biggest indoor spaces I think I have ever been in. There were workshops where you learn about poverty and living on a dollar a day or making a mask’s. We then got to have dinner with Milwaukie’s Bishop whose son goes to OHS. After talking and learning more from the bishop we walked over to the super dome where I listened to some of the most amazing, deep and touching stories I have ever heard from anyone. A boy by the name of Michel Chikwanie talked about his experience in Africa being a Child soldier and how he was forced to shoot his own friend just so that he would hope of ever going home again. Michel talked to us about when he first came to New Orleans a couple of years ago, he said that it reminded him of when he was with his parents in a refugee camp. He talked about the stories he was told about America and he was shocked when he saw that America is a lot like Africa with the suffering and the pain. After listening to Michel I realized that every single person no matter who you are rich or poor can suffer in any way, I also realized that at your lowest low there can always be hope NO matter what happens. Another man by the name of Spencer West talked to us about his life, he lost his legs at the age of five he had to overcome being laughed at and pushed around. Spencer talked about the things that he tried to do when he was growing up to fit in like sports and clothes and other things like that, but it was when Spencer traveled to Kenya with a group that he realized that there is hope all around the world. Spencer’s speech really seemed to move me because I know that almost everyone in the stadium realized that he’s a person not an object to be poked and prodded with questions that don’t involve the actual person. He talked about how people don’t even ask for his name when they meet they just ask about his legs. That really touched me because I think I do that I judge people before I even know who they are, and I don’t think that there is one person in the world that can tell me they don’t or haven’t done that because it would be a lie.
But other than that we are all having a blast in the SUPER HOT weather here in New Orleans. I hope that we can make as big of a difference as everyone is saying. But I have hope.
P.s. I am proud of Dominic because he wore shorts AND IT WAS BALLIN
-Derek Potratz
Today in New Orleans we woke up a little bit later than we usually do. Me and Connor were still a bit late (We love showers). So we ended up walking around the French quarter of New Orleans. We stopped at a little breakfast place, That sold French Doughnuts that were awesome, didn’t fill you up but they gave us that happy feeling inside. Dominic got his new nick name other than mini D; we all now call him Mini Diesel because he’s cool like that. After walking for another 45 Minutes we got to the Convention center which has one of the biggest indoor spaces I think I have ever been in. There were workshops where you learn about poverty and living on a dollar a day or making a mask’s. We then got to have dinner with Milwaukie’s Bishop whose son goes to OHS. After talking and learning more from the bishop we walked over to the super dome where I listened to some of the most amazing, deep and touching stories I have ever heard from anyone. A boy by the name of Michel Chikwanie talked about his experience in Africa being a Child soldier and how he was forced to shoot his own friend just so that he would hope of ever going home again. Michel talked to us about when he first came to New Orleans a couple of years ago, he said that it reminded him of when he was with his parents in a refugee camp. He talked about the stories he was told about America and he was shocked when he saw that America is a lot like Africa with the suffering and the pain. After listening to Michel I realized that every single person no matter who you are rich or poor can suffer in any way, I also realized that at your lowest low there can always be hope NO matter what happens. Another man by the name of Spencer West talked to us about his life, he lost his legs at the age of five he had to overcome being laughed at and pushed around. Spencer talked about the things that he tried to do when he was growing up to fit in like sports and clothes and other things like that, but it was when Spencer traveled to Kenya with a group that he realized that there is hope all around the world. Spencer’s speech really seemed to move me because I know that almost everyone in the stadium realized that he’s a person not an object to be poked and prodded with questions that don’t involve the actual person. He talked about how people don’t even ask for his name when they meet they just ask about his legs. That really touched me because I think I do that I judge people before I even know who they are, and I don’t think that there is one person in the world that can tell me they don’t or haven’t done that because it would be a lie.
But other than that we are all having a blast in the SUPER HOT weather here in New Orleans. I hope that we can make as big of a difference as everyone is saying. But I have hope.
P.s. I am proud of Dominic because he wore shorts AND IT WAS BALLIN
-Derek Potratz
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Thursday Night
This is the first post by the youth on the trip. Over the next three nights different small groups of youth will reflect on their day. Today we hear from Luke, Amanda, Sadie, Kayla and Nicole...
Today we five, Amanda, Kayla, Luke, Nicole, and Sadie, all helped out in the St. Bernard community by picking up trash along the highway. It was a very big eye opening experience. A lot of people honked at us and gave us thumbs up for helping out their community. Although we were hot, sweaty, and gross, we felt good about what we were doing. While we were working we met a lot of people from different places including Connecticut and Ohio. When we were done with the work we took a tour of St. Bernard parish. It surprised us that after three years there was still a lot of buildings and houses that were still abandoned and needed work. After our hard work, we arrived back at the superdome and walked back to the hotel to get squeaky clean! When we were clean we walked back to the superdome to congregate with over 37000 youth. We left the superdome after about two hours. On our walk back to the hotel we came across a woman sleeping on the side of the sidewalk between two doors. To wrap up our amazing and experienced day we went to the Hilton hotel on the Mississippi River to enjoy the activities and dances they had going on. At the end of the night, we came back to the wonderful hotel room to enjoy ice cream for Zech and Kayla’s birthdays!
Love the five of us ;-)
Servant Life Day...and Zach's B-day
Today was our servant life day where we went out into the community to do some work. We had a dirty job cleaning highways and chopping weeds and other debris from the gutters. The youth did great. Check out pictures below, youth commentary to come later tonight...
The birthday boy working hard!!!
The birthday boy working hard!!!
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