Greetings from New Orleans!

I am currently in New Orleans and I thought last week was HOT AND HUMID in Charlotte. Wow!

I'm in New Orleans for the National Youth Gathering awaiting the arrival of 32,000 high school students from across the world. We will be experiencing worship, fellowship, bible study, and a lot of service for the community here. I'm overseeing all of the young adults known as Servant Companions. They serve as the guide for all the participants as they go into the community to "Practice Justice". It's a deeper understanding of how we serve in the community. It's much more than just painting a fence or building a house. It's about willingly entering into the life of another where you are both blessed by God.

Some people have this view that we do service work to help others out. We as the 'strong' help those who are 'weak' or 'down on their luck'. It's very much a hierarchy mentality. However, Practice Justice doesn't have that view. We understand that we are all poor in some way. We are all broken. We are all in need. Those who have traveled to Third World Countries, comment time and time again how rich the people really are. They have very little in terms of possessions but rich in life, in love, in joy and in faith! We find out that in reaching out to others, we are truly blessed in ways that we cannot begin to understand or express in words.

That's why the theme for this year's National Youth Gathering is "Citizens with the Saints". It's about God tearing down walls that separate us like economic, race, sex, etc. We are all God's children. We strive to build bridges by reaching out to one another in love. It's as it says in Micah 6:8 "He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."
I pray that our high school students will return from New Orleans transformed by God as they Practice Justice so that they may return home to lock arms with this congregation to Do Justice here in Charlotte.

You can follow their journey on their blog at: http://clcatnyg.blogspot.com/ Neil Christians