Interfaithy Things and Christmas Break

Hello, Christmas break. Hello, home. It's been quite the first semester of college, with lots of ups and downs, but I'm proud to say that I'm still alive, I don't feel like dropping out, and that even with all the stress, I've had some really good experiences. Victory! Now I'm just focusing on relaxing(though I still have to practice),until my next great adventure to Atlanta in January. What brings me there, exactly? Well... At Concordia, I got involved with a student group called Better Together. It's objective is to promote interfaith dialogue on campus and in the Fargo-Moorhead community. Now, you might think that both these places are heavily populated by white, Christian Lutherans, but they are actually more diverse than you might think. So we try to figure out ways to reach out to people of different backgrounds and beliefs and do service projects. Like this, for example. One of the things that binds us together in the midst of differences is our faith calling us to serve our neighbors. I wish that more people acknowledged this! Hundreds of Better Together groups are being started at colleges all across the country, and they are all part of the outreach campaign started by Interfaith Youth Core, which seeks to create a international and interfaith movement to bring about social justice. Every year, IFYC hosts a conference for us college-age youth, where we get trained on how to organize interfaith dialogue and action at our schools and in the world. This year it's in Atlanta. GUESS WHO"S GOING TO IT. Yeah, I'm pretty excited. I feel honored and fortunate to be able to go. Not only will it be an extraordinary learning opportunity, but I'll be going with a super great bunch of fellow Better Together-ers as well. I'm hoping to learn from them and their life and faith (or no faith) experiences just as much as from the conference.