Holy Cross Evangelical Lutheran Church

Greetings! I would like to share with you my experience at the Women of the ELCA’s Triennial Gathering. I was invited to go as a leader at the Triennial Gathering in Spokane, Washington by Elizabeth McBride, director for intergenerational programs and editor of Café, Women of the ELCA’s online magazine for young adult women. She received the full funding for me to go (airfare, hotel, registration, and a per dium check for food)! I was apprehensive at first but talked with the women of Holy Cross at a WELCA meeting. They replied that I must go, that it is an honor to be asked. So I went. I have never been to a Triennial Gathering before, so I had no idea what to expect. When I arrived in Spokane, Washington, I went to the Camp Café exhibit and helped out. The exhibit was cute with a foam board fire pit, an inspiration message board, and Café style tables with coffee mugs filled with s’more jelly beans of which I could not stop eating!

The idea was for women to fill out a piece of paper with their info and prayer concerns. They then had to put their paper in their generation box and pull out another persons paper from another generation box and email them about their prayer concerns. At the Camp Café exhibit, I met a women who was helping out. She talked to me about her struggles with her church and how she was thinking of leaving the church because she’s distraught. She told me because her church is struggling financially and with few people attending she was well….drained. She told me that she has been continually trying to start up a bible study group but people just don’t come. However she said that coming to the Triennial Convention and Triennial Gathering somehow put a spark back into her. She listened to my story of starting up a Café group and since she was helping with the Café exhibit, she said she might want to try the Café group in her church. My prayers go out to her and her church.

Later that day I attended the Meet-and-Greet with Presiding Bishop Mark S. Hanson in a picnic atmosphere with live band and free lunch. The line never seemed to get shorter, so I did not even try to meet the bishop, however I did get up close to snap a few pictures of him. Instead I picked an empty picnic table and a couple came up to me to sit with me. Their names are Ted and Corinne and they were a hoot and an holler! They drove all the way from Wisconsin to Spokane. They told me that they go to the Triennial Gathering every three years. She saw the tag I had to wear of Triennial Leader and asked about that. I explained to her I had to do two workshops tomorrow. She said unfortunately there was another workshop she had planned on going to tomorrow but her husband said he would go. As it turned out when I started my first workshop, they both showed up! Because they were there, I felt that I had the support that I so desperately neededJ

That night I attended the Chocolate Lounge: A Young Women’s Gathering. I met a lot of wonderful women at this event. Boy was this a fun event! Over 40 women in their 20s, 30s and some a little older, were present. Over drinks and dessert (ripe strawberries, banana slices and marshmallows plain or dipped into a chocolate fountain) we discussed our lives and faith, as well as issues we face as young women in the church and society.

The next day was the big day with two workshops back to back called “Building the Organization through Creative Programming” with Elizabeth McBride. Both workshops were packed. When the seats where all taken, people sat on the floor along the wall or stood in the back. Boy was I nervous! The idea of the workshop was using creative ideas on getting new and younger women involved in their WELCA units. I had to speak about our Café group at Holy Cross and answer any questions. The first workshop went great. Beth asked the group to raise their hands if they saw our Café webpage on the Holy Cross website. Wow! So many women raised their hands! They said “Oh it’s so wonderful”! I had many women come up to me afterward with hugs and praises. One women gave me a token from Alaska and she actually had tears in her eyes! Another women asked me how she could get the younger women to start up a Café group in her congregation. She told me she was the youngest woman in her WELCA group. I told her that she should and she said really?…and I said why not? Then she got so excited and asked me how to start with invitations and such. The next workshop didn’t go as well. I didn’t get many questions about the group. Many women didn’t understand what Café had to do with WELCA. I felt bummed. No hugs afterwards. No positive feedback.

That evening was the Café dinner at Azteca Mexican Restaurant. I sat with three women pastors all in their 30’s! Pastor Julia from Anchorage, Alaska, Pastor Megan from St. Paul Minnesota, and Pastor Beth from Marietta, Georgia. Pastor Megan did the sermon for the closing worship and can be viewed at
http://www.elca.org/Growing-In-Faith/Ministry/Women-of-the-ELCA/Triennial-Convention-and-Gathering/Triennial-LIVE.aspx under Gathering Meeting Saturday Evening. I would very much so recommend watching it!!

The pastors and I enjoyed conversing over dinner. I learned that both Pastor Megan and Pastor Beth have written articles for Café Stirring the Spirit Within.

Pastor Beth was asked to come to the Triennial gathering to host the 5K run/walk/roll, as well as host the “athletic field”. I missed this event. If only I had brought my tennis shoes!
After many wonderful stories, the pastors handed out their cards and we all connected on Facebook. So I made some new friends. GreatJ

The next day I was approached by a woman who attended the second workshop the day before. She wanted to thank me. She said that her church had too few young women participants and she has four daughters that do not come at all. She told me that she is going to take everything she learned back to her church in hopes of bringing some life back into it and to encourage the younger women to get involved in her church. It touched me very deeply. I was glad to know that the second workshop was not as big a failure as I had thought. That someone had gotten something out of it that would inspire her to try to get the younger women involved.

That day I went to the In-kind gifts presentation and listened to Bishop Mark S. Hanson speak. He said something that left an impression on me. He said that he was in the airport wearing his clerics and a woman asked him what denomination he was. He said he was Lutheran. She said “Oh, I love the Lutherans!”. He asked her why she loves the Lutherans? She told him that she works for FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) and the Lutherans are always the first to arrive and the last to leave and they don’t leave until they get the job done.

I ended my trip with closing worship. It was quite something. Big, colorful, powerful sermon, people waving around big green streamers, huge choir, clapping and singing, big screens and plus half of the offering that was received went to the Malaria Campaign. It was a beautiful service. But as I reflect, I prefer worshiping at Holy Cross. It may be small, no clapping, no screens, but it’s where I feel the closeness with God and my church family.

As one women told me from Virginia, the WELCA Gathering three years ago was almost void of young women. She was pleased to see that the number of young participants was greater this year. Let’s pray that in 2014 in Charlotte, NC, the number of young participants will be even greater!

Your Sister in Christ,

Jessica Gill