Nebraska Synod ELCA

In July, 185 youth and adults journeyed together to live, learn, work, and serve with our neighbors in Nashville. Our theme was “Walking Together” and all week long, we lived out the Ephesians verse as we walked in love. Throughout the week, we explored what it means to live and serve in accompaniment.

In preparation for the trip, we spent time learning more about food insecurity and feeding ministries in Nashville and Nebraska. On the trip,  we served in food pantries, community gardens, food banks, diaper ministries, thrift stores, the Habitat ReStore, nature conservancies, ministries for the unhoused, local parks, an equine ranch that serves youth who have experienced trauma, and so many more. We painted, weed whacked, packed boxes, cleaned chairs, served food, cooked spaghetti, and frosted cupcakes, harvested crops, cleaned tack, destructed unusable furniture, unloaded windows, and sorted clothes.

As a van driver, I got to hear people’s fears and anticipations in the morning as we headed to service sites and hear their joys and learnings when I picked them up in the afternoon.  They often returned to Vanderbilt University (our housing site in Nashville) hot, tired, and sweaty, but also full of stories of the people they met and the passion those people had and the ministries they were part of. Sometimes, we practiced accompaniment not by working, but  by  just being present and  sitting and  listening to stories at Thistle Farms, Room at the Inn, and Jesus Provision Ministries. We heard peoples’ faith stories and how they felt God calling them to specific ministries. We heard about churches outside of buildings, we heard about women overcoming drug and alcohol abuse and we heard about why caring for God’s creation matters.

 We also learned to accompany our Nebraska friends from across the state  on the journey through long bus rides, morning devotions and evening worships, line dancing lessons, a poverty simulation and time to just hang out together. Our 2025 Journey to Nashville was about walking together as God’s children and it is my prayer that we can all continue to live that out in our own communities and our daily lives.