Home, at last

By now, I've not only attended the outstanding homecoming concert at Bethel and (briefly) the lovely homecoming party at the Myerholtz home, but was able to take a l-o-n-g shower and sleep in my own bed.

What a concert, though!  The message of our own brokenness, of the world's tendency to sometimes drown in sadness and sometimes explode in fits of rage came through clearly.  Equally clearly, though, a message of hope came through: no matter what, the youth proclaimed, we can bring our sadness and our anger to God. All along, God has been weeping with all the victims of violence, injustice, and terror -- with the abandoned child and with the anorexic teenager (lyrics to "He Weeps": http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/fireflight/heweeps.html)  Not only is God weeping with us, but he also holds out the promises of salvation, wholeness, and transformation.  The youths faith and trust in God is assuring to watch and gives testimony to the strength of Bethel's youth program -- maybe currently not so much in numbers, but certainly in spirit.

I had a number of brief conversations with people after the concert who seemed sensitized by this Year's Common Ground to pay more attention and to take more seriously what teenagers are going through, given what our world has become.

The tour and this year's theme clearly bore the mark of Katlynn Hoegel's contagious faith and passion for music.  "Thank you," Katlynn!  Thanks are due to many others: to the Common Ground adult sponsors, Mary Deutscher fot the graphics of posters and t-shirts, Jamie Jacobson for driving us and for his friendship, this year's youth assistants, Mary Alexander for inspiring the 2013 CG theme, all CG techies, and (last, but not least), Tom Hoegel for his youth ministry leadership at Bethel.