New connections established

"Tune into peace, amplify your courage" - that was the motto of the international youth encounter organised by the Ev.-luth. Mission in Lower Saxony (ELM) together with the Landesjugendpfarramt of the regional church of Hanover from 23 April to 7 May, which 36 young people from eight countries filled with life.

During the first part (23-30 April) we were in Abbensen in Wedemark. Here, the group got to know each other, explored the topic of peace in a variety of ways in various workshops, self-designed devotions and an excursion to the Bergen-Belsen memorial site and - regardless of their previous knowledge - grew together to form a choir under the direction of music teacher Soraya Eberle from Brazil. The YMCA site with its log cabins in the forest, basketball court and campfire facilities provided a wonderful setting for this part of the programme.

From there we travelled to the second part, the German Protestant Church Congress in Hanover. From 30 April to 4 May, we were accommodated in a school - typical of a church convention. The choir was able to show what it had learnt at several performances (ELM reception, Friedensorte concert in the Gartenkirche, caravan stage in the Young People's Centre on the exhibition grounds). Apart from that, they explored the Kirchentag with its huge range of concerts, creative hands-on activities, church services etc. and also the city.

The third part (4-7 May) took place at the Sachsenhain youth farm in Verden. There we reviewed the past days, sorted our impressions and expressed our emotions creatively. For example, participant Lotte said: "Now two weeks are almost over. The best two weeks of my life. It makes me sad to think that in a few days we won't all be together anymore, singing together, teaching each other traditional dances, supporting each other when we weren't doing so well or celebrating our faith."

The results were presented to the regional bishop Ralf Meister and Spiritual Vice President Ralph Charbonnier of the regional church of Hanover, who visited us in Verden, before the day came to say goodbye and the participants either travelled to their church partnership contacts in Germany or flew straight home.

But we are sure that new connections were made here between Namibia, Latvia, Malawi, India, Brazil, Tanzania, Germany and South Africa that will continue!

The international young people were selected and invited via partnership groups of the regional churches of Hanover, Braunschweig and Schaumburg-Lippe or via the partner churches of the ELM. On the German side, young people aged 16 and over from the participating regional churches were able to take part.