Two Olney teens attend Lutheran  Youth event in Houston
Two Olney teens attend Lutheran  Youth event in Houston

Two Olney teens attend Lutheran Youth event in Houston

BY GINA KEATING |

Two Olney teenagers joined with 18,000 kids from U.S. Lutheran churches for a five-day youth gathering held once every three years, to affirm their faith and fellowship and to learn to apply church teachings to their young lives.

Bethany Reeves and Kamdyn Neal of St. Luke Lutheran Church caravanned to Houston last month with about a dozen teens from Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Wichita Falls for the Missouri Synod’s Youth Gathering 2022.

The goal of the Youth Gathering is to teach young adults abouttheir faith, said St. Luke Pastor Sean Reeves, who is Bethany’s father. “Here I am thinking my little Lutheran church in my area is all the Lutheran youth there are in the world. You go and there are 20,000 kids just like you singing the same praises, holding the same things. They can learn to apply their Lutheran identity, their Christian identity to their life and know they are not alone.”

The gathering was held July 9-13 under the theme “In All Things.” The West Texans stopped in Galveston at the Schlitterbahn waterpark and the beach for a day, then met up with other LCMS groups at their hotel in the Houston Galleria. The events at the George R. Brown Convention Center ranged from serious studies such as scripture, leadership and relationships to games, like the treasure hunt that Ms. Reeves won. It involved getting signatures from attendees from every state and a selfie with Matthew Harrison, president of the Missouri Synod. Attendees could drift between stages where bands played and skits were performed. “The main message of the whole Youth Gathering was that God is in all things,” Ms. Reeves said. “They had different sessions each day, where they would have different topics that they would talk about. The first thing I went to was about leadership and he talked about, No matter what you do in your life … you have to have a Christ in the middle of it all.”

Ms. Reeves, 17, is a Wichita Christian School senior at the top of her class this year, and wants to become a physician. She said connecting with peers at the Youth Gathering was a faith-affirming experience for her journey into college and adulthood.

“With today’s society … and social media, you see all these things that you don’t believe in and they’re being pushed on you,” Ms. Reeves said. “But you know there are people out there that still believe the same thing as you, you just can’t see them because they’re not saying it.”

“But when we went to the youth gathering, you saw 18,000 kids that believed the same thing as you so it put that stance that there are still people out there that believe the same things that you do. So don’t give up on what you’re believing,” she said.

Bethany Reeves and Kamdyn Neal attended the Lutheran Church’s Youth Gathering in Houston. The Gathering is held every three years to congregate Lutheran teens from all over the world to affirm their faith. Photo courtesy of Bethany Reeves