TMC PULSE

T M C » P U L S E | A U G U S T 2 0 1 8 31 T M C » P U L S E | A U G U S T 2 0 1 8 Feeding Souls Through Service Lutheran Youth Gathering volunteers aid TMC institutions O n a blazing hot summer morning, teens clad in orange shirts were transported to a Houston Health Department community garden on the city's southwest side, where a lush array of vegetables, herbs and fruit trees grow. Their arrival surprised Hawa Mahamad and Varsha Bhabad— neighborhood residents who rou- tinely work in the garden. "We didn't know that the stu- dents were coming," said Bhabad, a 39-year-old mother of three who was born in India. "When I reached here at 8 o'clock, I saw all of the students and I was like, 'Wow. Good.'" The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's triennial Youth Gathering convened in Houston for one week in June, but the impact of thousands of adolescents volunteer- ing throughout the city will be felt far longer. Volunteers gave two Texas Medical Center member institutions a boost. Dozens of teens worked along- side immigrant mothers at the health department's Southwest Multi-Service Center by helping to fertilize a hearty harvest of okra and other vegetables in the raised beds that the women tend regularly. And across town in the Montrose area, teams of young people and their mentors spent two days clean- ing the school at The Center for Hearing and Speech and turning the agency's summer camp area into a superhero sanctum. • • • At the community garden, the out-of-town youth in their ponytails, crew cuts and short-sleeved T-shirts worked alongside local women who wore scarves on their heads and long-sleeved tunics. "It's fun. It's good," said Mahamad, 40, a cafeteria worker from Sudan who has eight chil- dren. A member of the Darfurian Association of Greater Houston, she uses okra from the garden to make different kinds of soup. "Every season has its own thing. I like tomato, squash. I like the watermelon." A volunteer at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Youth Gathering adds a top dressing to the raised beds of a community garden outside the Houston Health Department's Southwest Multi-Service Center. B y C i n d y G e o r g e The women appreciated the volunteers so much that they left briefly and returned with drinks and snacks. "They're just doing from their heart," Bhabad said. "They are hav- ing fun." Lutherans have been convening young people for summer meet- ings for more than a century in the United States. In 1988, the Chicago- based Evangelical Lutheran Church in America became the nation's largest Lutheran denomination through a merger of three smaller bodies and continued the Youth Gathering. After two conferences in 2009 and 2012 in New Orleans to address lingering needs from Hurricane Katrina, the gathering landed in Detroit in 2015. About 30,000 young people descended on Houston this year. (continued) Volunteers cart nutrient-rich soil in the community garden.

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