National Youth Gathering in New Orleans

It is a good thing we took a bus because it rained all the way from Minnesota to Mississippi, finally stopping by the time we got to Louisiana. It was a deluge through most of the lower Southern States. Once we got to Louisiana though, the weather was perfect, albeit a little on the warm side.



Here we are, riding the bus on our way to Louisiana. We got to the hotel and they were not ready for our group, so they took us to this big huge room and had us wait there.

On our first day, they took our group plus a few other hundred kids, into a room and talked to us about the week to come.

This is our group, Jared, Haley, Tessa, Emily, Sabrina, Jen, Abby, Missy, Cody and Rochelle.

One day was spent in the interaction center. They were many neat things going on, too many to mention here. There were art projects, justice exhibits to make one think about other people's circumstances like the lack of water, trafficking of people, poverty, etc. There was so much to learn.

One day Missy, Rochelle, and Cody went on a tour of the French Quarter. Missy's husband's cousin joined us for part of it and gave us a tour. We also got to taste the famous beingets (spelling?). They are wonderful pastries, actually fried dough, smothered in powdered sugar.

We wore orange shirts for our service day. We spent our time in Mandeville, 22 miles outside of New Orleans. We did yard work and helped paint a community center. What mattered a great deal was our presence in the community. Many times while we were working, people slowed down and waved and thanked us as they drove by. It was very humbling. This is our group all dressed in orange.



This is one of our "evening gatherings." We saw many signs by youth advertising free hugs, so Jared decided to make up a sign of his own, he met with success, although mostly from guys.


Donald, Rochelle, Abby and Jen and I spent a few hours in the French Quarter while the others went to the aquarium. We got Rochelle to sit for a sketch. It was a lot of fun. Abby and Jen wanted to shop, so we let them go and do that while we looked at the art. We found ourselves in a restaurant called the "Rivers Edge."

Our last day there, we were exhausted from the heat and no sleep. Our day culminated in one last Sunday service with Bishop Hanson giving the sermon. There was a lot of great music performed; one group the kids loved was called "Skillet." Another person was Agape, a hip-hop Christian artist from Minneapolis. The Flying Karamazov Brothers also performed, they performed a skit called "Juggling Jazz." Don and I had a chance to hear Lost & Found and we thoroughly enjoyed their music and their humorous presentation.

It was a great week but it was so good to get home and sleep in our own bed again.
Blogged by Anna with the help of Don