Arista is a weekly gathering for high school students at St. Mark that began last school year. We meet at 7:00am on Thursday mornings at Starbucks Coffee in Windsor Heights for breakfast, fellowship, a devotional, and prayer. What better way to start your Thursday?

Arista begins this Thursday, October 1, and we will meet at the same place and time every Thursday that school is in session thereafter. We will not meet during school breaks, snow days, etc.

Underclassmen who aren’t old enough to drive are encouraged to come to Arista and hitch a ride from an upperclassmen to school.

Don’t know where Starbucks is? No worries. Click here for a map.

As the Psalmist says in Psalm 90:

Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.

It has been beyond amazing to see the ways that God has brought me to and through this summer.

I suppose a good place to start is to say thank you to every person who has ever been part of my experience during my 20 years at St. Mark. The people of St. Mark have provided me with unbelievable experiences, from first learning about God as a child during Sunday School and VBS, all the way to providing me with a chance to explore a career in youth ministry during the past summer. The chance to be a part of the staff, especially the youth ministry, at St. Mark has been one of the most enlightening experiences of my life.

While on staff, I had a chance to work alongside Jake Bouma with the high school group, Eikon. I was given an opportunity to sit in on, and participate in, the summer book study over Francis Chan’s Crazy Love. I was also able to spend two hours every week enjoying coffee and smoothies with any of the St. Mark youth who wanted to hang out. However the summer wasn’t all about sitting back and observing as all the other staff worked.

I was also able to take everything I was learning from working alongside Jake with the high schoolers and apply it to the junior high group, CREW. I was given the task of choosing a book and setting up a meeting time for the CREW Summer Book Study. I thought that maybe the questions I had in junior high might still be in the minds of the kids in CREW, so we read a book entitled My Faith. This book touched on subjects such as prayer, what the church is, sharing time, talent, and treasures, and peer pressure. Having an open forum once a week where the kids could ask about anything that was on their minds was eye-opening. The best discussions we had were the ones where all I did was sit and listen, occasionally prodding the discussion in the right direction.

Two of the most rewarding experiences this summer were outside of the city limits of West Des Moines. First, I had to opportunity to plan and participate in the Guys’ Baseball Trip to Chicago. I was in charge of everything from contacting the guys who would be participating to buying tickets to planning the devotional for Thursday morning. Although this wasn’t the easiest thing I had ever done, once we left the St. Mark parking lot at 5:45 am on a Wednesday morning, it turned out to be the most rewarding trip I had taken so far. On the trip I saw that simply having a conversation over a pizza or doughnuts can lead to the most rewarding gift of all, a relationship. I found that the best way to see Christ in others and to be Christlike myself is to initiate a truly Christian relationship.

The second trip of the summer, apart from being the most stressful thing I have ever done, was the biggest learning experience of my life. After countless hours watching Jake stress out over the planning of Eikon’s trip to the 2009 ELCA Youth Gathering, it was my turn to feel the stress. Traveling with twenty-four high-schoolers and five other adults to the city of New Orleans to meet up with 37,000 other Lutherans for some powerful worship, service, and fellowship was awesome. It was fascinating to see the relationships form among our students and leaders. As our group moved out into the city and began to see what had happened to some of the citizens, I was left in awe by the students reactions to the devastation. Rather than just being shocked by the destroyed homes and empty fields where neighborhoods once stood, the students were asking what they could do to help.

For me the learning was not limited to the effects of Hurricane Katrina. I learned a lot about myself. After I had spent a week with very little sleep ushering high schoolers to and fro in the city of New Orleans, I would have thought I would be exhausted and not want to see anything even remotely resembling a high school student for a long, long time. When I returned home, however, all I could think of was the next time I would see the youth and when I would be able to go on another outing. I now know that this feeling is the calling to be a youth minister. I am both relieved and excited to find that I’m finally right about what I want to do.

- Andrew

Forgive me for the delay… Here is the video or our trip home from New Orleans!

Sadly, we’re headed to the closing Eucharist in the Superdome and then leaving New Orleans! It’s hard to believe that our time in this amazing city has come to a close.

Here’s Saturday’s video for your viewing pleasure (also, if you’re one of those lurkers who has been watching the videos but not leaving comments… leave one today!):

Just an FYI: There won’t be a video for tomorrow. I’ll make a compilation video of both Sunday and Monday, since both are mostly just travel.

The soundtrack for today’s video is Starfield’s “Love Is the Reversal”. I thought it a fitting song for a day when we had the opportunity to view both the destruction inflicted by Katrina and the rebuilding – however slow – of the communities afflicted. There’s a line in the song that just about sums it all up:

“But grace reclaims what the world disowns.”

Additionally, there’s a fantastic article on NOLA.com (which you can read by clicking here) titled “37,000 Lutherans converging on New Orleans”. I encourage you to read the whole thing, but the quote at the end of the article is spot on:

“[New Orleans'] understanding of death and resurrection is incredible. Joy and Pain. It’s the theology of the cross. You live it. And we thought it was important for people to see it. That’s the gift that New Orleans gives to us.”

As you can see from the videos, our young disciples are having a hilarious time, but the spiritual impact is really beginning to sink in as we experience New Orleans’ culture, history, and stories, and begin to see God’s grace-full hand in it all.

That being said, enjoy the video, and keep dropping us comments!

(Pssst… Click here to view today’s video extra large and in HD…)

We’re super glad you’re enjoying the video updates and the Twitter feed! For those totally addicted, I’ve added a box on the side of this blog with our five newest “tweets” from Twitter.

And thanks for all of the comments! Keep ‘em coming… the youth love hearing from you all.

Enjoy today’s video:

We made it to New Orleans, and the Youth Gathering activities have officially begun!

Before we get to today’s video, I wanted to make you all aware that the big evening events happening in the Superdome are being live streamed over the internet, so you can watch what’s happening here in the comfort of your own home! Just click here and you’ll be taken to the live stream page, which has information on when the stream will commence.

Thanks for all your comments yesterday… The youth love them! Enjoy the video and please leave more comments!

Oh, and don’t forget to keep up with our Twitter feed…

Day one is officially in the books! All told, we traveled 717 miles from St. Mark to our hotel in Memphis, Tennessee.

The highlight of the day was without a doubt the meal we ate together at Corky’s Ribs & BBQ. It was our first true taste of southern cuisine, complete with BBQ pork, hushpuppies, and real sweet tea. The group got their fill and are now resting up in preparation for our first day in New Orleans and the beginning of the 2009 ELCA Youth Gathering!

Enjoy today’s video, and please feel free to leave a comment when you’re finished!:

And finally, a reminder to keep tabs on our Twitter account throughout the week, and if you’d like a general idea of what we’re doing and when we’re doing it, check out the Youth Gathering’s daily schedule by clicking here.

Under twelve hours until our 24 students and 6 adults depart for New Orleans, LA for the ELCA Youth Gathering! Although you won’t be physically with us as we participate in Jesus, Justice, Jazz, we want to provide ways for you to share in our experiences. Here’s how you can:

Scripture and prayer

All of our youth and adults have been provided with journals to help us digest and reflect upon our time in the “Big Easy”. We’re given a small piece of scripture every day to use as a springboard for our thoughts and reflections. You’ll find the scripture schedule below; I heartily encourage you to join in our scripture reading AND to pray with and for our students and leaders (and the rest of the 37,000 youth and leaders in New Orleans this week!).

Blog and email updates

If you’re reading this, you’re in the right spot! There will be a new post here every day of our journey, beginning Wednesday with quick, written updates and videos. Two things you need to know:

(1) At the bottom of every post, there’s a link with the phrase “Leave a comment” or “[Insert # here] comments”. Click this link to leave the group a message. We gather as a group every evening to read all of the previous days’ comments out loud. You have no idea how much they’re appreciated!

(2) If you wish, you can receive these updates via email! You’ll receive an email every morning with the newest post, and you can even forward it to your friends and family. Click this link to sign up for email updates.

Twitter

Several of our leaders and at least three of our high school seniors will be sending frequent updates to St. Mark Youth Ministry’s very own Twitter account. This is a great way for you to follow along with our journey in real-time throughout the days and evenings this week.

You don’t need a Twitter account to see the updates, so don’t worry if you don’t “get” Twitter. You don’t need to! Just click this link, bookmark the page, and check back often!

YouTube

You’ll have no problem watching all of our videos right here on this blog, but if you’re interested, St. Mark Youth Ministries has its own YouTube page. Check it out!

Flickr

Since the beginning of time, any pictures of our youth ministry events have made their way to our Flickr page. We may be too consumed with video filming/editing/uploading to bother with the hundreds of pictures we’ll no doubt be taking, but you can check the SMYouth Flickr account periodically (just in case) by clicking here.

The ELCA Youth Gathering might be getting all the attention this summer, but those involved with St. Mark Youth Ministries have been busy with other activities as well!

During the second week of July, St. Mark Youth Ministries staff and leaders enjoyed two days of baseball in Chicago with four of our awesome high school guys. We saw a Cubs/Braves game at Wrigley Field and a White Sox/Indians game at U.S. Cellular the next day, all while managing to squeeze in a trip to the Sears Tower!

Check out the video highlights below: