The Young Adult Perspective

As one of 17 people representing the ELCA in India this week, I was asked to share my perspective on the delegation’s blog. This is (a slightly edited version of) what I had to say:

My name is Charlotte Erickson. I am 23 years old, and I have been working with the ELCA’s Young Adults in Global Mission (YAGM) program in the Indian state of Kerala (just west of Tamil Nadu, where we are now) for the past 10 months. At home, I am a member of the Northern Illinois Synod, and Bishop Gary Wollersheim kindly invited me to join the delegation from our synod for this celebration. So I took a night train from Kerala, and here I am.

I feel blessed and honored to be here celebrating this event, but I was not prepared for the magnitude of what is going on here in Chennai. I look around me often, and, as I turn this way and that, a small voice whispers in my ear that, in the midst of so many great people at such a great event, I ought to feel small. But I don’t.

After the inauguration ceremony that we attended tonight, I had an opportunity to chat with ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark Hansen. He asked me about my work in Kerala and about the experiences I have had in India over the past 10 months. While I answered his questions and talked openly about both my challenges and my growth this year, I was thinking that, of all the people in that room, I had to be one of the smallest, one of the least important. And yet, for the few moments that we stood together, Bishop Hansen – you know, one of the big people – acted as if I were the only person, not just in the room, but in the entire world. He’s either a really good actor, or he just really cares. I wholeheartedly believe it is the latter.

And perhaps it’s not the big deal that I’m making it. I mean, at the end of a long day, Bishop Hansen is, after all, just another human being. But his actions, I believe, are symbolic of the Lutheran Church’s ministry, and that is why this big man’s genuine interest in my small story and my small life is so meaningful.

This genuine interest in and concern for those people whom society deems small and unimportant is a huge part of the Lutheran Church’s ministry. I believe that to be true of the ELCA. And I have now witnessed it in the UELCI (United Evangelical Lutheran Church in India). Here in Chennai, I have seen Lutherans working with women in poor communities, not just handing over tokens with which they might begin to build a brighter future, but also equipping them with knowledge that empowers them to build that brighter future on their own. I have seen Lutherans in Chennai battling tirelessly against the incessant enemy of HIV/AIDS. They have developed a program to combat the disease through their National Lutheran Health and Medical Board. India is one of many places where HIV/AIDS has gone on a rampage, and it is only through programs like this one that the small people can become big enough to fight it.

This is only a small sampling of what Lutheran churches around the world are doing, but it is a large part of what the Lutheran Church is about. The people at the center are reaching out toward the people on the margins. And as those marginal people stand up to join the circle, we realize that all people, whether big or small, are actually exactly the same size.

As part of this delegation, I have been given an opportunity to experience what the Lutheran Church is really all about. Sometimes, it’s about charity. More often, it’s about empowerment. Always, it’s about love.

(To read blogs from the other members of the ELCA delegation, go to http://lutheransinindia.blogspot.com/)