Holy smokes…what an awesome week it was in DC with the youth!
22 youth (8 of them from Trinity) spent a week together laughing, learning and listening. There were so many good memories made on the trip but one thing that stands out is the boldness of our youth. A new element for this year’s mission trip was education, learning about advocacy. The ELCA Advocacy office came to us to talk to us about what advocacy is and why it’s important. We learned the difference between short-term and long-term approaches to helping.
For example, providing meals for folks who need them is an important thing to do but feeding people is only putting a band aid on a much larger issue…why are people hungry? That’s where advocacy comes into play…exploring the causes for some of the problems and helping to address those larger issues. We are called to serve AND to advocate!
And then they prepared us to use our new knowledge in meetings with our Congresspeople and Senators. Trinity’s youth met with Congressman McGovern’s aide and Senator Markey’s aide. They were situations that could be intimidating for adults but the youth were super bold and brave! They spoke with confidence, asked difficult questions, engaged in educated conversations and advocated for those who are food insecure. We are so proud of our youth and you should be too!!!