Local church’s youth group sees faith grow during summer visit to New Orleans

Hot, humid and hard work were the words used to describe a summer trip involving young people from Mt. Moriah Lutheran Church in Anna.

The young people from the Anna church attended the 2009 Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s, ELCA, Youth Gathering in New Orleans, La.

They joined 38,000 other high school-age young people from across the country and around the world at the event.

The theme of the Youth Gathering, “Jesus, Justice & Jazz,” explained everything the Union County young adults experienced.

For five days, the young people learned through many aspects of Bible study how to apply their knowledge to having compassion for what the people of New Orleans have lived with over the years since Hurricane Katrina.

They learned that many people did not return to their homes after the hurricane.

“In New Orleans, we saw things that I had never even thought about, such as abandoned homes and homeless people,” Jacy Greenwood, a member of the Mt. Moriah group said.

“Because I am so content in my own little world, these things never meant anything to me until I saw them in person,” Jacy said.

The young people were instructed to listen to what the people of New Orleans had to say about their experience during and after the hurricane, which, in turn, taught them to never take anything for granted.

Youth Gathering participants worked on and finished a variety of service projects, including revitalizing parks, schools and neighborhoods, and holding immunization clinics and literacy campaigns.

The served “with compassionate justice” in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans, where they cleared house lots of weeds that were six feet tall.

This allowed tractors with mowers to do follow-up work without hitting the remains of former houses, gas pipes, steps and other potential hazards.

As a follow-up, Common Ground, a volunteer organization which works with Brad Pitt’s foundation, Make It Right, will build new houses on stilted foundations for future neighborhoods.

The work was hard and temperatures were hot, but the young people said the job was rewarding, especially when a family drove up to one of the cleared lots and explained their story.

The family owned the lot and was very grateful for all that the young people had done to help.

“This experience has made me want to help out more for people less fortunate than me,”  said Whitney Beanland, another member of the Mt. Moriah group.

The work done by the young people attending the ELCA event helped to advance completion of projects in the city by three years.

The youth group participated in a world hunger challenge to help raise $1 million and adopted a motto inspired by Christopher Linton: “Change: it’s what we do!”

Group members also said they got “jazzed” by worshipping with tens of thousands of Lutheran young people.

“It made my faith stronger being with all those Christians and seeing how the people of New Orleans used their faith in God to help them through the rough times,” said Alyssa Tripp of the Mt. Moriah group.

While visiting the area, the group from Union County went to the Audubon Zoo, the French Quarter, St. Louis Cathedral and cemetries in New Orleans.

They also tasted beignets and Creole food and heard jazz music, all while strengthening their faith at the same time.

“Katrina is long gone, but the destruction will be there for a very long time,” Jacy Greenwood said.

“We don’t usually think about things that aren’t near us, but just because there isn’t a lot of poverty in our area doesn’t mean it isn’t somewhere else. We helped out a lot, but New Orleans still needs help,” Jacy said.