New Orleans - Day 6+

Pastor's Portion Tina will be adding her section later. We didn't blog last night for two reasons. One, we needed Internet access and two, they wouldn't let us out of the Super Dome. There was a huge thunder storm. We just got back from our service event and finally have a little bit of free time. Yesterday was everything you expected a registration to be when you have 34,000 people. There's training to attend, forms to turn in, and lines to wait in. We finished around 3:30. We tried to secure dinner, but were limited to soft pretzels and a few hot dogs. The food plaza outside the Super Dome still needs work. However, we were in time to get on the floor for the openning evening. As the song says, it was going to be a good, good night. There was an hour of music and dancing prior to the night's celebration. Our kids joined the fun and were up on the big screen more than a few times. The house band was amazing and you spent the entire time up on your feet singing, dancing, or just swaying to the music. The openning speaker, Rev. Yeheil Curry, spoke of us all being a large bowl of gumbo where everyone is welcome. The Bishop of the Texas-Louisiana, Rev. Michael Rinehart, joined Bishop Mark Hanson of the ELCA in welcoming us to the Gsthering. However, the person not to be missed was Rev. Nadia Bolz-Weber. Maybe it's because she has sleeve tattoos and reportly curses like a truck driver. The more compelling reason is her personal grasp of the Gospel that has so shaped her life from substance abuse and animosity of the faith to a transformed and committed life. If you can, go the the ELCA Youth Gathering website and watch her video, if they have it posted. After her presentation, the weather rolled in and we weren't allowed to leave. Even when they let us go, it was still raining. Since the hotel is a mile away, we got a little wet. We held our closing worship in the lobby and went to our bedrooms to crash. We knew we had an early day the next day, so everyone wanted a little extra sleep. I will leave off here and let Tina fill in the other details. We'll cover today either later tonight or early tomorrow. Tina's Turn: I'm late on this post for many reasons (mostly the fact that I woke up at 5 am this Morning!). Today, we left Peace early in the morning to arrive at NOLA by late morning. We spent a while waiting for the advisers to return from the airport (other advisers had to drop off their rental vehicles), and after that we went to the River Walk to explore. We saw a few interesting shops and the outside of the aquarium. At the super dome, we had many amazing speakers. The main speaker was a woman who (despite many doubts) is a Lutheran pastor. She has many tattoos and is definitely not the stereotypical Pastor, but she was fascinating and an amazing speaker. For day 7, we practiced justice through service. I don't have time to go into more detail at the moment (it's bed time, finally!) but I will give more tomorrow! Tonight, at the super dome,