back home!

It is hard to sit here and try to figure out how to do a final summary of the trip. We had such an amazing experience together. Especially when participating in an event with 37,000 other people, you expect that there are going to be some glitches in the way things work, but we really can’t complain about anything. Our hotel was awesome, our service day was more than any of us expected, the air boat tour of the swamp was fantastic, the gathering events were exceptional, but above all it is the group of people from our congregation that have surrounded one another that have made the trip amazing. What a group of people! To sit back and watch (wait a minute…there was much more walking than sitting…) as the group of people that came together from Zumbro as individuals become a group of people travelling as one body of Christ together is always such a joy. Mollie said it best one tired evening when she exclaimed, “Holy Spirit…PRESENT!” Indeed the Spirit was alive in this group. As we return home it is my prayer that the Spirit that this group carries with them will be contagious to all of those around them. Watch out – the Spirit is on the loose!

service day photos

Here's a few more pictures from the trip. I don't think we've posted many yet from our service site on Saturday. We were at a place called Sebastopol Plantation. It was located in the middle of St. Bernard's Parish. The plantation property was very large but in need of much fixing up. The house was beautiful and filled with tons of antiques. The owner of the property, Miss Alberta, is turning it into a non-profit space to become a community center, with hopes of holding community meetings and hosting school groups for educational purposes. It is a beautiful place and Miss Alberta has a wonderful dream for the property. It was fun to be at this true southern plantation and take part in meaningful work.

This front porch is where we gathered for lunch and to take shelter from the storm (see pictures below).

Here's Miss Alberta with Diane.

Jackie and Katie doing a little yard clean up!

Kellen, Cooper, Sam and Graham made up one of the teams that was tearing down some of the chain linked fence.

a note from Shandi B.

Many people thought the New Orleans trip would change us, and that came to be true. We all changed in one way or another. We changed by lessons we learned, making new friends, and growing in faith. Who knew that 37,000 people together could help make a difference? Who knew that one person could make a difference?

A huge thank you goes to Lisa for all her hard work. This trip would have not been possible without her. We all thank her for everything. Whether it is to talking about poop, to forgetting the alphabet, to laughing out loud. We all enjoyed everything Lisa :)

To all the chaperones, thank you so much for your help. This trip also wouldn’t have been possible without you also. You all were amazing. I personally thank you all.

To my fellow participants, this week has been amazing. Friendships started, grew, and became better. I was glad to share this whole experience with this group.

All in all, this trip changed my life personally. I was so happy to have gone on this trip. I can’t wait to go out and make a difference in the community.

the 9th ward and the people in orange

You’d think that by now I would remember that the trip is going to “happen” to me, too. Yet every school year I work on planning out the details of the trip, we do the fundraisers, I collect forms and forms and forms…and all the while I never remember that I am going to be a participant on the trip, too. And every year something happens that hits me like a ton of bricks when I least expect it. This year is no exception. Truly, many of the experiences were more meaningful to me personally than I would have ever expected. (I’m certain that I had even more fun on this gathering as an adult leader than I did as a high school student.) But the experience that completely took my breath away was on Saturday afternoon when our bus stopped in the 9^th Ward of New Orleans. We stopped at this memorial that was created for the victims of Katrina and Rita and I found myself speechless. (Yes, every once in awhile I don’t have something to say.) It was so difficult to stand in a place where we know so many people lost their lives. As I looked at the memorial and looked down the neighborhood streets, the only words that could come out of my mouth were to gather those around me to uplift the people of the 9^th Ward in prayer. What a powerful moment as we stood on this sacred ground and joined hands in prayer.

You may have noticed that on the day that gathering participants did service work we all wore matching orange t-shirts. This means that on any given day of the gathering you could spot 12,000 people wearing orange t-shirts and serving around New Orleans. It didn’t take long for the people of New Orleans to know who the people in orange were (the Lutherans) and what they were doing (God’s Work, Our Hands). As we stood outside at the memorial in the 9^th Ward, cars and cars and cars of people honked their horns and waved as they drove past us. They were saying thank you to the people in orange and acknowledging what we were doing. Pretty powerful.

Miss Alberta, the woman that owned the plantation that we did our service work on, told a story of those people in orange. She told us of how she was out in the city and some people asked her, “Who are those people in orange?” Miss Alberta’s response was, “Oh, I know who those people in orange are. They are our angels.”

"Live, Be, and Share Christ"

We are approaching Iowa and I am feeling WRECKED yet a bit reflective. Wrecked only in a physical way, emotionally I am overflowing with a rejuvenated, hopeful, and joyful spirit. This blog has been a fantastic way to put into writing some of what has happened on our journey this week to seek Justice, learn Jazz and feel Jesus.

Hearing from a man who has no legs call to 37000 youth to stand up for change and service in their community as he leaped from his wheel chair to his hands was one of the strongest calls for Justice I have ever experienced.

Jazz, the improvisation of music taught all of us what Jazz meant in our lives and the lives of residents in New Orleans. Improvisation in faith; to meet and love people where they are at; to add the talents, service and passion of others together to be the change of our world is the only way to address the challenges of poverty, disease, disaster, and despair that is in our world. This week was a true call to the world starting with our 37000 teens for a MINGA; a coming together to do work and service for the common good.

I feel so lucky this week to have experienced feeling Jesus. Sitting in the Super Dome to worship this morning I couldn’t help but to think of the images during Katrina of the place we were worshiping; the numbers of people, the panic, the hurt, the pain, the loss, the feeling of hopelessness. Yet all this week the dome was filled with joyous songs, powerful stories of service, magical moments of the spirit working in that place that brought hope and love, it brought to the dome what this week did for my heart and spirit; it brought a reconciliation, a reason to rejoice, an overflowing sense of rejuvenation and joy.

If you were a youth, had a youth or were an adult on this trip you know just how lucky our community is to have such fantastic youth leading our congregation in service. If you are reading just to keep up with someone you know I can assure you from this experience our future in the hands of these youth could not be better.

Thanks you Lisa Kipp for allowing me to be on this journey, your leadership and love for our youth is an inspiration, thank you. To all you youth remember the call of our Bishop to “Live, Be and Share Christ”.

Worship Pics

Pastor Wayne Counting our Ducks...

The Nineth Ward... Water Level

Tori is 5'10...

What to do... hmmmmm

we spotted a waterspout

Check out these amazing pictures. As we assembled ourselves for lunch on Saturday at our service project, above and beyond the house we saw a waterspout developing. It was incredible. (Disclaimer - we were on the phone with the Gathering Infoline and tracking the weather statements by the National Weather Service the entire time so as to keep everyone as safe as possible.) This was absolutely incredible to see. Yet another something that none of us had ever seen in our lives until now. This is why I love youth trips around the country and world -- not only do we put youth and adults into servant and cultural learning experiences, but we also get to see and experience things that are rare to see in our hometown.

this one is for the back of the bus

This picture is being posted just for those at the back of the bus that want to remember my very special instructions. :)

Holy Spirit...... PRESENT!

Yes, its true... the Holy Spirit was a strong presence this week. I have not had too many chances to blog this week but many others have... and most of them mention the power of the Holy Spirit down here in Nawlins' this last week.

One thing I could just not get over is the amounts of people! It was so powerful to see so many people singing in unision lyrics to all the powerful songs about God's unending love and grace. And with those songs came a lot of dancing! There was so much excitement and it was shown with dancing, cheers, clapping, high fives, and more dancing.

It has been such a blessed filled week. Everything from our service projects, walks together all around town, small talk conversations in the elevator with new friends, was an experience to take with us. Our hearts are filled with the Love of Jesus, the Need to strive for Justice, and a Jazzy attitude to continue our walks to be disciples of Christ!

We are now on our way home. It is 3:00 and we are driving in some rain. We stopped at a Super Walmart for a potty break but also to pick up snacks (mostly healthy) for our journey home! I encourage you all to ask your these group memebers about our trip. We have so much to tell. At the gathering we were all asked to go home, tell the story, spread this news and eagerness to others so we can continue to strive forward to do God's work...with our hands!

A note from Kirsten S.

Hello Fellow Rochesterians!! Today was quite the day. Not only did we have a great service project to throw all of the crazy energy that we have been gathering up into, God was present in many incredible ways. For our project we worked to clean Sebastepol Plantation, built in the 1800s, by hauling debris, gardening, tearing fencework and various other jobs. While working, to the delight of several group members, a storm began a-brewing and soon there were two waterspouts/vortex clouds spinning in front of our eyes. What a way to show God's power. We also visited the Ninth Ward (area hit hardest by Katrina) and as we were walking and taking in the memorial, cars would drive by and honk, thanking us for our presence in "Nawlins" from their cars. Tonights gathering was filled with Jesus and the Holy Spirit, reaching into every nook and cranny in the Superdome. The theme for tonight was the "Jazz" part of Jesus, Justice, Jazz. Jazz represents us as Christians, because it is an improvisation of musical harmonies from basic musical priciples, based on the situation. Now replace the basic music principles with the lessons learned in the bible, and the impromtu musical harmonies become the reactions that we, as Christians do on the spot in any situation where we are needed, following Jesus's example. A night filled with lessons and great music ended our final night gathering and we all prepare for the 24 hour ride home. Yippee!

great day and we're still on the go!

I don't have much time as we're leaving for the evening gathering in 7 minutes, but I'll get some folks back up to my room to blog some more this evening after we're all done at the Superdome. We had a FANTASTIC day! The service project was great. We were in St. Bernard's Parish -- which you likely remember was one of the hardest hit areas when the hurricanes came. We worked on a plantation doing a lot of various projects. As always...this group was wonderful and did great work. Would we expect anything less?!?

Blessings to you all and love from New Orleans! ~Lisa

I have seen the face of God! 37,000 times!

It's Saturday and I am awake but more than that I AM ALIVE! This week continues to get better by the minute, each experience with our youth I get to have just amazes me. I can say that I have never felt so lucky in my life, really how many times in your life do you see the power of the Spirit so strong, the touch of Christ so clear... It is awesome to see everyday the face of God through 37,0000 teenagers! Give God the Glory! Time to go serve. Gods work, Our HANDS!

pics from our swamp tour.

Our guides were all great and shared some history with us as well as a lot of information about the nature that was surrounding us. This cemetery was pretty interesting.

We split into three different groups. The two men in the front are our bus drivers that we treated to the trip. They've taken good care of us.

Look out! This gator is swimming at us...

It really was awesome to see these alligators right up close to our boats.

It was awesome to go on this swamp tour because not one of us in the group had ever experienced anything quite like it. The scenery was unlike any I'd ever seen.

pics from Friday evening

Our whole group!

Final 15 devotions in our meeting room.

"Amazing Grace"

a note from Shandi B.

The speakers at the Gathering today were inspirational. Both of them had childhoods that were rough. One of them was a soldier at the young age of five. He was just having a good life but than he was forced to join the Rebels. He had to shoot his friend without knowing it. He escaped and is now helping kids all over the world.

Another speaker had a rough childhood. He had half of his body cut of from a disease. He was told he couldn't stand up, he couldn't function in life, and he couldn't live out his dreams. His family and him proved all of the doctors wrong. He is now able to stand up in his own way. He asked if the crowd would stand up if the three things he said was something that you did. Almost every single person stood up on the first of the three things.

We have a lot to learn from both of this amazing guys. This gathering has showed us to help, not to judge, and be active in our community.

a note from Katie N.

Hi everyone! We had a great day today, filled with fun activities and experiences! As we ended the day with the nightly worship at the Superdome we experienced a God moment that we'll never forget. All 37,000 of us came together as one to sing Amazing Grace. Just looking around you could see everyone swaying back and forth while singing so beautifully and you could just feel the Spirit's presence there with us. Two minutes each of us will never forget! :):)

a note from Christa J.

We were blessed to experience a well-done tour of the nature in New Orleans. We took air boats through a swamp. The still, picturesque scenery was peaceful, and the types of trees were different than any other trees I've ever seen in Minnesota. We also saw awesome wildlife up close. On my boat our guide captivated 12 foot long alligators with marshmellows. The huge alligators leaped out of the water to snatch the marshmellows. We were so close to huge alligators. We also saw albino alligators and baby alligators. I was on Mollie's boat, who was terrified of little snakes but fearless towards gators. Fortunately for Mollie we only saw one snake. I definitely felt at peace and in God's presence on this breath-taking tour.

Making a Diffrence--post by Tori Kent

Howdy ya'll from nawlins! ;) We've been enjoying our time down here--meeting new people, opening our eyes to new experiences, learning some New Orlean's vocab from our alummni Paula, and teaching Lisa that there are infact 26 letters of the alphabet, and not 39.


Today we made our way to the convention center, where we were able to participate in a number of fun activities while keeping the love of God and the works that we can do for god on our mind. Kirsten and I started off by going to the "Theater of the Oppressed" which was begging for people to come, so we'd thought we'd get some free candy, and help them out. The theater ended up being how to learn to overcome the opression, and was very interesting but quite frankly was very long. We discreetly exited as we saw that 30 minutes of our time was gone. Next we moved around the center and found a booth with tie dye. We stopped over and learned that we needed to color a postcard and write a note. As our time was running shorter we quickly colored the postcards and moved on. I remember thinking, "Man, we sure went to the wrong stations." I was planning on hitting the charaties, places where I could make a difference. But as I thought about it I realized that I was infact making a difference. We may have been a little bored, but we helped out a congregation and made someone's day by attending their booth. While I've been down here in New Orleans I've been frustrated at the lack of work I've done, but today I learned that it's not the quantity of the work done but the fact that the work is being done. And as 37,000 youth gather in a place where disaster and devastation has struck hardest, I KNOW that we are making a difference and being the hands and feet of Jesus.

thank you

Occasionally people look at me like I’m crazy when I tell them I’ve been “doing” youth ministry for 9 years. I sleep on bus floors, I have a bag permanently packed at my house labeled, “Kipp Bed,” because I take it places with me so often, if I stay out late on Saturday night with my friends I always know I have to get up earlier than anyone else on Sunday morning to make it to work on time, I have high school students that text me all hours of the day and night, many days I sit through really loooooong meetings, and the hardest part is that I have to spend nights and days away from my husband and my boys…you get the point. Some days I do come home and think, “God, really? Really? I’m still doing this?”

But I’ve been thinking this week that youth ministry is really a lot like labor. Occassionally, for short bits of time, it really sucks (high school language here). You sweat a lot, you have long nights with little or no sleep, and sometimes you have to get crabby and yell at people. But for all of you parents that are reading this blog, you know what comes after that horrible labor. You get to look in the face of the most beautiful child in the whole world and know that God has called you to love this child. And you forget about that long, sleepless, painful, crabby night.

I woke up this morning and met a group of our youth who chose to get up early to go to worship together at another hotel. And as I sat with our group of high school students and chaperones that came with me, and as I listened to the scripture being read, and as I watched a thousand people jumping up and down and praising God, and as I joined hands in prayer with our small group in the middle of this large room, I was moved to tears. This. This is what God called me to. I get to love kids. I get to love Children of God. And I even get paid to do it. I am so blessed.

Parents, you are so blessed that you get to love these children. Parents, I am so blessed that you share these children with me so that I can love them, too. Parents, thank you for sending your children on this trip. Parents, thank you for loving your children so much that you sold Butterbraids, or served breakfast early on Easter Sunday, or ran around town putting together items for the Silent Auction. Parents, thank you.

Mama Lisa

and a few more photos...

photos while waiting for the Interaction Center to open this morning

THIS!!!

What happens after you eat Crayfish

The Claws

a few pictures from yesterday

At the Gathering you need somebody tall to follow. Turns out it is easier to see the man in front if he has a lobster on his head and big sunglasses on.

A few more pictures from lunch yesterday. Joe eating one of Paula's crayfish.

Yes...you've seen it all now. Pastor Wayne did NOT order a burger for lunch. I looked at him before we ordered and said, "Pastor Wayne, we need to talk. Please tell me you aren't going to order a burger at this restaurant." :)

Here's our native girl from Louisianna. Go Paula!




Mmm...Mmm...Mmm

Good morning, everyone! I've got to get downstairs to meet some of the group to walk to a hip hop worship service this morning. I should have some time later this morning to blog a little more. Thank you for your prayers. The Spirit is alive in this city and present among our group!

A note from Josh Kent

Crayfish also known as the "mud bug" are one of the foods that attract people to this great city of New Orleans, but I think I had an experience that most likely no other tourist has had. That amazing experience was eating that crayfish, but i didn't eat this crayfish like any other, because I ate the brains and claws of it. You might think that eating the claws are a normality for crustaceans, but these are smaller and less plentiful of meat. So what you have to do with the claws is just open you mouth and CRUNCH into the claw and suck the flavorful juices out. The next question is how to eat the brains but its simple just another CRUNCH of the neck and the orange color meat is is in between you and the yummy, but small, meat waiting for you. That was my exciting experience from yesterday.

LOVE

Wow... Yesterday was yet another day that moved me in more ways than one but I only want to talk about one... Love, the love that is here in New Orleans is incredible, youth in service, youth in prayer, youth in song, the hugs, high fives and cheers fill the streets, the convention center, hotels and the dome. Yesterday at 7:30 am I learned C.O.D, the Cost of Discipleship. At Agape worship the scripture shared was Matt 25:31-44... "Truly I tell you just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to onto me"... The scripture that talks about feeding, clothing, and providing water to a thirsty Jesus... The premise that we need to look for Jesus in all people and care for everyone as if Christ was standing asking is the Cost of Discipleship, C.O.D. Ok I am going to make this post short the other thing that struck me was during the gathering a few statements grabbed me. They are; Love people where they are at; Love is as strong as death; and offerings we are not worthy of, that are filled with beauty, joy and worth ,which carry us to places we could not imagine, truly is the definition of LOVE. Christ gives us all this...Christ is Love.

a note from Madi L.

WOW! Today was completely amazing. Starting off the day with a huge variety of interesting cuisine, including crawfish, jambalaya, crab, and gumbo, which actually was all very, VERY good! After, we hit the French Market to do some shopping. We headed to the convention center to do some learning about our lives and how present God is in them. It was a very eye-opening experience, especially seeing a video of how horrid New Orleans truly was after Katrina...so bad that dead bodies weren't a priority to clean up, so there were tons left on the street corners, in flood waters, and even on the interstate. Then, we started off to the gathering for another amazing night of music, dancing, inspirational stories, and worshiping. Everyone at the whole entire gathering, all worshiping together, was an overwhelming symbol of how touched we truly are by God and how He is so present in the lives of everyone. Tomorrow is going to be another hot and humid day. Time for some sleep!

pics from RHETT!

Who needs Mardi Gras to celebrate!!?

Ready to go on the road! the talented trio!

Lunch at the Crazy Lobster!

What did you ladies get? po'boys? Gumbo? Salad?

Mollie Got Crab and everyone just sat and watched her eat it! Such a site to see!

This is our meeting room at the hotel! We lucked out BIG time!

Our theme for the Week! This was displayed at the Superdome during our evening Gathering!

THANKS RHETT! or should we say... Rent?