New Orleans: Day Three

We started our day off at the Interaction Center inside the Morial Convention Center, just down the street from our hotel. We spent 2 hours strolling through the inflatable bounce houses, sand volleyball courts, karaoke stations, organization booths and the Old Lutheran Store. Nathan and I even recorded a song in the recording studio!




After our morning, we had some rest and relaxation at the hotel pool, and met up again to ride the streetcar to the French Quarter for dinner. We had an amazing meal together and celebrated Ryan, Kalen, and Nathan's birthdays with a birthday song and brownie and ice cream.



We made our way to the Superdome and heard some amazing speakers that were very inspirational. The music was great, and the evening ended with a performance by Skillet, a Christian rock band.



After the Superdome, we headed back to the hotel and split up for activities and dances
within our hotel. Nate and I walked down to see who we could find, and look who we ran into!

Stay tuned for more updates!
God Bless!

New Orleans: Day Two

Let me take some time to recap our first full day of the Gathering. We spent our morning hours in the Learning Center, which was comprised of several smaller workshops, classes, movies, and hands on activities. There was even a New Orleans brass band there to entertain us on our way to the classrooms.


After the morning of learning, we ate together as a group at an authentic New Orleans restaurant, Mulates, which was located just across the street from the convention center and hotel. I am pretty sure someone ordered alligator!


After lunch and some relaxation time, we headed out for a tour of New Orleans. Our tour guide was wonderful, and new the city inside and out. He took us to several places in the lower ninth ward and introduced us to some harsh realities of Katrina.

I will post several pictures of our tour at a later time and recap the second half of day 1...

I am headed down to meet the group in the lobby!

Blessings!
Faith

New Orleans: Day One

ST. ANDREW'S NEW ORLEANS UPDATE

Well, we made it to the Big Easy! We arrived in the city around 10:00 AM yesterday. After dropping off the other groups at various hotels, we settled into our hotel and began touring the interaction center which is located just down the street from our hotel. There are so many activities inside this space we did not even come close to seeing it all. But, we have another full morning on Friday to experience it as a group.


Here is a picture of some of us 'in jail' - we learned about praying for the 500,000 youth that are in juvenile detention centers across the country.


We all can't believe just how many people there are packed into the downtown area. There is a great vibe among the different churches, and everyone has been so friendly!


Last night was pretty amazing at the Superdome. It was surreal to see 36,000 Lutheran youth and leaders gathered into one huge place to be together as a children of God and talk about how to help the city of New Orleans. The music was fantastic, the speakers were inspirational and the set was beautiful.




This morning we are getting ready to meet down in the lobby and walk to our Learning Day. We will update again tonight or tomorrow morning.

GOD BLESS!