Pastor Scott's Message
I’m finally back from 2 weeks abroad. This last week I was at the LCMS national convention in Tampa, Florida where I was a pastoral delegate representing our circuit of 8 churches. Next week I will tell you all about it in Glimpses and in Adult Bible Class. Two weeks ago I was in Minneapolis for the National Youth Gathering. On Sunday, I, Sue Schultz, and the kids will tell you all about it during the Sunday School Hour.
We partnered with Concordia Kirkwood, joining our 6 kids with their 60 kids. We packed two large buses and hit the road on Wednesday morning. We had to exchange a bus due to maintenance issues. My bus had the freshman and sophomores who were a little quiet. They didn’t know each other yet. We arrived that evening at our Hotel, the Marriott City Center. It was a high end hotel (the NYG assigned it to us) but somehow didn’t have a pool. They put us on the 23rd through 25th floor. I thought I could feel the building sway.
The next day our group of Sue, Abbie, Faith, Luke, Lillian, Max, Miles and I ate breakfast together and toured the city on foot. We walked the sky way which connects down town buildings together, found the Mary Tyler Moore statue, took a picture in front of the Bob Dylan Mural, and checked out the convention center where much of the action would start the next day. We ended up taking the metro to the Mall of America where we rode a roller coaster, shopped, got lunch and saw hundreds of NYG kids. That night was the first mass event in the US Bank stadium which is shaped like a Viking ship. Our group of 100 sat together and worshipped, watched videos, heard people testify to the faith and played games. The Theme for the week was REAL. PRESENT. GOD.
The next day started in Bible study with 5,000 others in the convention center. It was wonderfully led by Shelly Schwalm, a DCE from Concordia St. Paul and Scott Giger, a Pastor from Indiana. God is REAL so we can be REAL was their main point. Then we loosed the kids on the convention center where there were games like hamster battle, nine square, remote car race, soccer, and dozens more. There were also speakers like Lutheran NBA player Sam Dekker. That night we hit the food trucks and went to the stadium. More great speakers; more great worship.
Every day was like that; big Bible study in the morning, at the convention center in the midday and end at the stadium at night. We would walk en mass back to the hotels, filling the streets with Lutheran kids who were on fire for Jesus. You would have been so proud of our kids. They looked out for one another, counseled those who were upset, sacrificed their own fun for others, and saw their faith grow.
We thank you for supporting us in this trip. Come this Sunday morning to hear it from the kids themselves. Come and hear about our REAL. PRESENT. GOD.
