And...we're off!!!

Excited...blessed...and ready to roll! We are on our way to Detroit! 

What a great night last night as we hosted two youth groups from Virginia and North Carolina who broke up their trip to have fun with us and prepare for the journey with our one last lesson. 

We enjoyed (in great Lutheran fashion) a potluck of delicious food. We played a game to get to know one another a little better ran by Pastor Aaron. 

  Now we are on our way to Detroit! We loaded up three vans full of people and luggage and away we went! We will be checking into the hotel, take the Rouge Factory tour (where Ford F-150s are made), grab some dinner, then make our way to Ford Field for the big kickoff of the Gathering! 

Lost and Found will be playing the tunes and the Presiding Bishop of the ELCA and Cleveland native Rev. Elizabeth Eaton will be the keynote speaker along with Mikka McCracken, who is a South Korean adoptee and life-long Lutheran, lives in Chicago and serves as a program director for ELCA World Hunger. Mikka believes it’s possible to end poverty and hunger and that the church plays an important role. Mikka has worked with the ELCA Justice for Women program, advocates for gender justice and serves on The Lutheran World Federation International Council. 

Another speaker will be the Rev. Dr. Luke A. Powery, dean of Duke University Chapel and associate professor of the Practice of Homiletics (a big word for preaching) at Duke Divinity School. Named one of the 20 outstanding black ministers under the age of 20 by the African American Pulpit, Luke is a passionate teacher, preacher and writer with degrees in music and theology. He has authored two books, “Spirit Speech: Lament and Celebration in Preaching” and “Dem Dry Bones: Preaching, Death, and Hope.”  In 2014, he was inducted into the Martin Luther King Jr. Collegium of Scholars at Morehouse College for his ethical and spiritual leadership in the academy, church and broader society.