I just have a few minutes to reflect on our youth trip to New Orleans for the National Lutheran Youth Gathering. We're here July 22-26. There are 37,000 Lutherans here, the biggest convention to come to the city since Hurricane Katrina.
Of course it's hot and humid but there are more important things to say. So, a few highlights so far.
The gathering folks divided kids into three major groups (gold, green and purple, Mardi Gras-style). Each group takes one day at each of three activities. The first day we did a servant project, day two we visited the learning centers and day three the interaction center.
For the servant project, we all donned orange T-shirts and went throughout the city doing good, or as best we could. Some visited schools, some built homes, others did yard work or weeding. I cannot imagine the logistics it takes to coordinate 12,000 volunteers each day. And they gave us lunch!
We volunteered at a traditionally African-American cemetary where graves are dug by hand just four feet deep and bodies are buried atop each other. The plot was covered in weeds and stones all akimbo. We spent about four hours yanking up weeds, bagging them, and setting headstones right again. Each stone is a life story, a web of relationships and it was powerful to brush off the dirt and place it right again. We hoped someone would keep working to beautify the plot long after we left it.
More later; it's time to get back to "my kids" as I call them and onto the next event...
1 comment:
Wow. And I thought 8000 Mennonites in one city was a lot. That's a big convention. I hope you are having a good time.
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