July 27: Pastor Tim

Imagine a place where the presence of the Lord is so overwhelming, that no one can ignore it.

Imagine busy city streets flowing with a rainbow of t-shirts proclaiming the gospel for all to see, in a hundred local dialects, filling a sports arena for worship, and flowing out of its doors for learning and service.

Imagine the presiding bishop of the ELCA, Mark Hanson, showing up on opening day in a motorized bathtub, and wearing a bathrobe over his bishop's collar, to have fun with the kids and to show them that we are washed by God's Grace in baptism!

Imagine the lights coming down, the music pumping up, and the shouts of 38,000 people, mostly youth but many adults, mostly laypeople but many clergy, shouting for joy at the event of God's people gathering: in English, Spanish, and Sign Language, in all the colors and cultures and styles of music you can imagine, to praise Jesus, seek Justice, and live our lives as an improvised Jazz song using the scales and chords of God's Word!

Imagine people all over the city pulling us aside and thanking us for being that big, orange wave of Justice (required attire for our service project day was an orange t-shirt), rebuilding homes, painting schools, reading to children, pulling up invasive weeds, learning about the ravages of racial prejudice, and just listening to stories, all as witnesses to our faith in Christ.

Imagine five kids, some of whom had never been on an airplane before, none of whom had ever been to New Orleans before, traveling 1,157 miles to grow closer to one another, and experiencing how big the Church really is, and how much bigger is God's love for us and for this world!

Imagine four adults in awe of God's power in the lives of those kids, transforming them and us.

Maybe this is hard to imagine. Maybe it sounds like a momentary mountaintop experience, that will fade as day-to-day life kicks back in. But then, maybe God was up to something big this week: even bigger than what we saw or heard or felt. Based on my experience, I'd imagine so.

But right now, I'm imagining crashing in my own bed for the first time in almost a week.

:-)

Amy DeMarr July 26, 2009

Well where to start... to be able to come to an amazing gathering is one thing, but to be able to also experience this with your teenager daughter was the most memorable thing... yeah with a teenager!!!

I came here not really sure what to expect, but to see this many teenagers that all have the same beliefs was all inspiring.

We got to go to worship services that definitely resembled rock concerts. It was very uplifting.

I now feel that I didn't just have one teenager, I have 5, 2 girls, 3 boys.... who knew.... they make you feel young some minutes and the next way beyond your years...

I was so impressed with how they took to the city and the local "activities" lol... no our kids tried out an arrangement of the local cuisine and couldn't get enough; there was no fast food for these kids.. so when they say "I don't want to try that", they are fibbing.


So to end my side of things, I end with this:

Trip to New Orleans - $10,000

Dinner in the French Quarter - $ 25.00

Drinks @ the Super Dome - $ 3.00

Staying in a Hotel in the French Quarter - $ Priceless

9/24/09 Chris Tito

Servant life day. We started the day like always eating breakfast and getting ready. But there was something special about today, today was the day that we got to truly help New Orleans. So we arrive at the hotel and we find out that we are not doing and actual hard labor for new orleans. We are actually listening to the racial injustices that happened when hurricane katrina hit. So once we listened to the huge speech we went to the imax theater and we watched a documentary about Katrina and about saving the wetlands could have helped slow down the hurricane and wouldnt have made everything so bad in new orleans. After that was finished we knew that it was our job to spread the word about new orleans and all the things that are happening here and to tell people that there is tons of things still left to do here. So if you want to come out and do some volunteer work please come to new orleans and help out. God Bless all who are reading this blog!

Saturday July 25, Brad Davis

So, we had yet another very long and adventurous day today. We started off the morning fairly early, like around 8, so we could get ready have breakfast and take the long journey down to the convention center. Today was our day to go to the Learning Center. The Learning Center required us to participate in three things. Casey, Chris and myself went together. The first one we did was called 'Your Story? Priceless!' This required us to look at our faith throughout our life and write out the past, present and future of our life and God's role in it. I was very surprised when I began to write down exactly how much my faith has influenced my life and how I have become the person that I am. When I wrote down my future, without having to think about it, I included the church in my plans. This was a real eye-opener as to how much my faith in God is a part of my life. The second thing we did was called a labyrinth where we walked in a maze and were meditating and praying by ourselves. It was a time for reflection and when you got to the center of the circle you let go of your problems or whatever was on your mind and you left it there. The last event we participated in was called 'Level Playing Field' where we looked at how we all aren't equal and how we are oppressed and privileged based on our race, gender, education, economic status, and our families. We had to hold hands and move forward or backwards based on the questions we were asked. It was shocking to see how the majority kept moving forward and allowing the minority to fall behind. We sometimes had to let go of their hands, just as society sometimes gives up on a certain group and allows them to fall.
After everybody had finished their workshops we decided to do a little shopping and went to the riverside mall. There were a lot of shops and many memories were made. After that we had an early dinner at the Acme Oyster House. The food was amazing, however it tasted better the first time,(some of our friends tasted it a second time) and we all had such a great time.
Like every night, tonight we went to the Superdome. The cool thing about tonight was that we got floor seats! It was a change to dance and go a little crazy... not that we weren't already running around the city and making our presence known. The speakers were great and the music was really good. Tonight we decided to skip community life events and are having fun back at the hotel. We have met so many great people from all over and are shocked at how our time is almost over. We had an amazing day today and despite the fact that we are all very tired we are still going strong and are being very loud, doing our best to annoy everyone possible. We have all gotten very close and the politeness has worn off, however, we are not taking anything personal and we are understanding of each other because we all feel the same way. NOLA has been so much fun, I'm unsure if Maryland can handle us when we get back!

Karen Brown 7/25/09

What a wonderful week that I have had so far with the youth of St. Paul's & Grace. Today was our last day of activities which included the kids spending time in at Workshops for a good part of the day. I think that we have officially become a little "family" - I feel like I have 4 new children!

We have heard some spectacular speakers, awesome bands and met some wonderful new people. I have been so impressed with the outpouring of Lutherans and words nor photos could capture the things that we have experienced. I feel truly blessed to have been a part of this trip.

We are seeing the fun part of New Orleans but there is another part of New Orleans that is still raw from the devastation of Katrina. I think I came down here under the assumption like so many others that New Orleans is finished business. We have heard so many stories of the hundreds of thousands of people who are still displaced, the neighborhoods that are still not rebuilt and so many other heartfelt stories.

We were all very anxious yesterday as we headed off to our service project. Once we got there, we soon discovered that our project was to become the voice of New Orleans. We have one of the hardest jobs because we need to spread the word of the stories that we learned here this week. New Orleans is still healing but what a strong city this is - these people have lost everything and they are some of the happiest, friendliest people I have met.

What a great week this has been and what a wonderful group of kids and pastors that we have. I have so enjoyed my time here in New Orleans and with these awesome kids. We can't wait to get back and share our stories with everyone!

Serving like Jesus

Much of what we learned today as part of our service project was hard to hear. It would have been easier to be outside in the heat and humidity swinging a hammer than to listen to the truths that were shared with us today in Professor Hill's presentation on racism in New Orleans before, during, and after Katrina. One man who was part of our service group had a particularly tough time dealing with what was shared. Following Professor Hill's presentation, I overheard him speaking to one of his small group members (they were sitting directly behind me) about what Professor Hill had said. It was pure rubbish. I became so angry sitting there listening to that man, my brother in Christ, talk about the displacement of poor black people in New Orleans following Katrina, also my brothers and sisters in Christ, and how doing away with their communities was what the white people had to do to prevent the mayor of New Orleans from creating a "chocolate city." I have never been so offended or so ashamed in my life: offended by the ignorance and hatred he communicated, and ashamed that a fellow Christian, called to do God's work with his own hands would behave in such a fearful, unchristian way while serving as a representative of the Church and as an advocate for justice in the City. Yet, as angry as I was, what did I do? Nothing.

My own fear prevented me from serving like Jesus at a time when it was critical that I do so. After all, the youth attending this Gathering with me are looking to me to be a model of Christian living and discipleship and when it mattered the most, I did nothing. Our service project might have been the hardest of them all, and when I had the opportunity to serve by advocating for justice and providing a voice for the voiceless, I did nothing. Serving like Jesus is not easy. It requires a great deal of courage and faith to take a stand for what is just. It means emptying one's self as Christ did so that our own fears, prejudices, and insecurities don't stand in the way of God's work in and through us. And, when sin gets in the way as it always does, it means trusting in God's promises to bring life out of that which is dead, to plan over sin for good.

In my failure, God was present opening the eyes of our youth to see that their pastor is human and is as bound to sin as they. It provided us with the opportunity to talk about the decision I made and the circumstances surrounding it. It allowed the youth to have a first-hand look at a real-world instance of Christian decision-making and to process together what they and I could have done differently in that situation. We are all better-prepared advocates for God's justice, mercy, and love now than we were at the beginning of the day. At the end of the day, what more can you ask for?

Danielle Brown July 24, 2009

After a long night of dancing, walking around, and standing, we all went back to the hotel and crashed. We met up for breakfeast at 9:30 and left for our service project at 10:30. Our service project started at the Hilton Hotel. We were handed gazoo's as we walked in and opened up with songs played by them. Then we heard a story from Mr. .After he talked to us, we all had subway subs and sat in a circle and ate while we talked about what Mr. was talking about. Then we walked to the i-max theater to meet up with every one again. We heard a preview on Mike's story and then we went in to the theater to watch a movie about Hurricane Katrina, and the impact it had on people's lives. After the movie we sat and talked about what we saw. It was pretty life changing and put things in perspective because when you hear about it, because you don't realize how bad things really were. After the movie we went back to the hotel to freshen, and then went to dinner at a pizza place. Which by the way had no bread, lettuce, CHICKEN TENDERS, plates, or anything. Which pretty much frusterated us, and a few of us were in moods. Then we walked to the super dome and had to go allll the way to the top row which was very high up. We rocked out. Then we left to go to the Sheriton for the community life and dance. Then we came back to the hotel and had our devotions. Hopefully no one will get frusterated tomorrow and that it will be a good day. This trip has been extremely fun so far, and looking forward to the rest of our time in New Orleans