KANSAS CITY, Mo. — For the first time in many years, the Junior High Youth Convention was held within the convention center instead of at
Hannah Yoder, 17, of Freeman, S.D., described how she saw it: “You don’t have to achieve something or somehow meet some qualifications. Jesus will come to you, and he’ll walk with you on the way. I think of that as on the road of life.”
Pink Menno, a group committed to being a visible and vocal presence at Mennonite gatherings, operated out of a room around the corner from the delegate hall.
It might have been the pain of exclusion due to sexual orientation. Or of feeling the church has agreed to tolerate sin. It might have been the pain of sexual abuse. Or of concern for the future of a church sharply divided on how to relate to sexual minorities.
Speaking before a joint gathering of youth and adults, Claiborne said institutions of all kinds are losing young people at an astronomical rate because people see how little institutions do and how much individuals can.
