New Orleans ELCA Gathering 2009

2009-07-26T10:11:00.000-07:00

ELCA was so much fun! It was a great learning experience and it was incredible to share it with so many other Lutherans my age. I now know that I am definitely not alone in my faith and it was amazing to be surrounded by so many people who believe as I do. I loved reading to the kids and helping second grader, Ariel write her very own "Important Book". New Orleans has opened my eyes. Though the devastation of Hurricane Katrina has deeply affected the people, they are still able to have faith in their community and fill the streets with Jazz music.

Kelsey McDonell

What a day!

2009-07-24T21:21:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone!
Greg here and I've been having a blast here in New Orleans. I don't really have much time to type because I am very tired. I had typed a long thing about all that we did today but then i accidently deleted it and the autosave saved it after i deleted it... So im just going to write a small thing about the "Community Life" activities that happen every night at different hotels.

Every night there is a different thing going on at each hotel. Whether it be a concert, a dance party, or a kareoke. There is always stuff going on. On wednesday night we went to a dance party. Last night we went to a "Lost and Found" concert. Tonight we went to a 70's dance party which was a lot of fun. I have been so tired but I figure I'm only going to be here once so I might as well do as much as I can while im here. Well, Goodnight everyone.

Boogie Nights.

2009-07-24T21:11:00.000-07:00

Hey All!
T.J. here giving you guys an awesome amazing fantabulasle cool update. Today started off late seeing as i forgot to set my alarm. But luckly it did not delay us to much. In the convention center, it was our turn to do the education portion of ELCA. Personally i played with clay, did a maze and watched movies about jesus. Funny as it sounds...i did learn things..

After this we went on the steam boat which if you cannot decipher from the title, is a boat..powered by.. steam.. anyways this was awesome and i had my first experience of Gumbo!

Following this i finally got to meet up with my friends from Texas from last year's workcamp. Then Jon and i ran around the interaction center and played a rousing intense game of corn hole.

All and all today was great and it only got better with the 70's dance party tonight.

So now, i think im gonna go sleep. Night all from the beautifull city of New Orleans

2009-07-23T21:13:00.000-07:00

We've arrived in New Orleans! We've had internet issues at our hotel, so we weren't able to post anything yesterday, but we've also been busy meeting new people, serving others and worshiping together at the Superdome! Today was our "Servant Day", and our project was literacy. We all went to an Elementary School in Jefferson Parish to work with 3rd and 4th Graders on their reading skills. After lunch, the kids went home, but we stayed around and helped with much needed maintenance on the school. Check out our photos so far by viewing today's photo album!

Each evening, we gather together in the Superdome with 37,000 of our closet Lutheran buddies, where we hear great music and inspiring speakers. Later, we have "Community Life" time. Last night, we went to a dance and this evening we went to hear "Lost and Found".

Tomorrow is our "Learning Day". We'll spend several hours at the Convention center learning about ways that the ELCA is working through individuals, congregations and national agencies to make God's love known in the world, and how we can get involved. We'll have more posts from the kids (who all claim to be too tired to write right now!) and more photos tomorrow.