ELCA Youth Gathering 2012

Met a Lutheran Youth Leader while having my coffee. Her name is Kate and she is from Southern California. She was waiting for her husband to bring the van around. They are heading to service and need to be home by tomorrow night. This was her first experience with a large gathering. Last night we learned that there are 33,000 youths here. She said that all of the night time activities are like being at a Rock Concert. They were here since Wednesday. She also said that young people need to know that it is alright to have fun & still be a Christian. I shared with her what I do for a living and my experience years & years ago at an youth gathering at Purdue University, located in West Lafayette, Indiana. At that time, we were the Lutheran Church of America (LCA), Center City Lutheran Parish. Now we are Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Montgomery Conference. We went from parishes to conferences. Kate also said that one of the speakers from Africa said,
                                                   "In the Western World,
                                                         you have watcher.
                                                   In Africa, we have
                                                              TIME"
Kate told me that the speaker was making reference to how we schedule and sometimes we overbook ourselves.