Saturday, July 25, 2009

Day 3: Hot and Ready to Rock

Day three in New Orleans at the National Youth Gathering was once again a new experience. We began the day much like the last with breakfast and a long walk but this time it was into the interaction center. We entered a large room with a few thousand or so of our new friends and listened to a speaker talk about our service area which is literacy. We then proceeded into the massive grand hall for hundreds of different opportunities for us to learn and have hands on experience with taking action and being the change in the world.

Some of things I saw the youth doing included: letter and post card writing to our state representatives about poverty and the environment, painting, learning what it's like to be in a wheel chair, making masks, decorating murals, and signing petitions. But that wasn't all there was to do...oh no my friends. There was ping pong, beach and hard court volleyball, soccer, dodgeball, ultimate Frisbee, mini golf, karaoke, and a parade New Orleans style.

I could go on and on about all the awesome things but it is late. After our time at the interaction center we decided to head to the dome early to get floor seats for the evening program. Our path took us down some side streets and as we were rounding the corner for the dome a women approached us and told us that we didn't have enough beads. She proceeded to open up a box and pull out some of the most amazingly huge strands of beads for us as a gift. She even had the exact amount for out group. This was an amazing moment for our group. One comment made this evening was how we haven't even done anything yet as far as service and people are already thanking up for what we have done or will do. Amazing.


Our group and the woman who gave us the beads!

As we walked in the mid day heat I knew we were going to have a difficult time because the door we wanted to enter from was on the sunny side of the dome. Luckily, there was some shade we could share and the time went fast. One of the coolest things that happened while there was at 4:24. Every day we stop and pray at that time, so we did and people must have talked to God about the heat because the wind picked up and two frozen lemonade vendors came around the corner right after we said amen. Wow God is good.

The doors opened and we made a mad rush for the seats hoping to be on the floor. Not only did we make it to the floor we had great seats. The speakers were awesome and the music was powerful and rockin! Skillet played and lit up the stage with fire and amazing songs.

The night ended with a fantastic pool party where most of the chaperones were thrown in to the pool. I love it when the youth do what I tell them to. We had the nightly Bible study in the pool and it was off to bed.

Tomorrow we go out and serve!

Pictures are up on my flickr page so check it out.

Also, the national press for this gathering is amazing and you should read some of the articles that are out there. Here is one I ran across.

Peace,

Dain

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