Today was an exciting new day bringing fresh opportunities to find God in the world around us!
We started out with breakfast at the Earhart Dining Hall where we were able to continue bonding with the people in our group. After breakfast, we headed to our delegation group location where we would jump start the conversation of the day (delegation group is the group we came with aka the churches of New Hope Presbytery). We read Luke 10:25-37, the story of the Good Samaritan and discussed the meaning of Jesus's words. Discussion was led through examples of times we have seen the parable of the Good Samaritan in real life as well as what we can do to be neighbors to those in need.
Right after delegation group, we all split up and headed to our separate small groups where we were able to make friends from all over the country (I met people from New York, Tennessee, and California!!) and dive into the Lord's words further. The topic for this discussion was "Stereotypes" and how they affect people. This tied into the parable of the Good Samaritan, as the priest and Levite that passed by the man who was robbed, ignored him, but the Samaritan (the lowest of the low back then) put time and effort and money into this man that he barely knew. The stereotype that a priest and Levite should be extremely Godly and help all those in need was broken since they did not help their neighbor in need. A big point my small group made is that God does not stereotype as he does not have to. We are all created by a God who loves us and there is no need for Him to classify us in groups as humans tend to do. We are all different in our own ways and that separates us from the stereotypes that try to define us.
After small group, I ended up running into a bunch of youth from our group and we walked to lunch together. Keep in mind, Purdue is a massive campus and it is not easy to find our way around, besides the fact it was nearly a twenty minute walk to get back to the dining hall, but we were able to continue our bonding process for sure!
Worship was from 2-4 p.m. today and the theme was "Go! And Do!" Anna Sweet Brockman recognized the importance of stepping back and trying not to identify with the Samaritan, but with the priest and Levite. This parable is as she states, is "a story about the outsiders, about the enemies we falsely believe cannot do the work of God." Towards the end of her sermon, she had a part about typical thoughts of everyday people and what the Gospel says about it. For example, she says, "we have bought the lie that persons that suffer from poverty and homelessness are lazy and shameful, but the Gospel says NO. We have bought the lie that if you are not from here, if you don't look like us, if you don't think like us, if you don't believe like us, then you can't be a good neighbor, but the Gospel says NO." She states that the Youth have to "lead the church in difficult conversations due to our willingness to listen and understand people who are different than us is one of our gifts." The Youth are not the church of the future, we are needed NOW and we must act as good neighbors if we are to accomplish anything.
Day Two is now over and I am so looking forward to see what Day Three is going to bring so stay tuned!!
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