Home and safe sorta

Hello Home safe and sound sort of. Well you can see by the picture below that I had a small souvenior from NYG. It is not broken but sprained on crutches and have air cast. This is going to be short as I am having problems staying awake. I will post more of my insights into the the trip when I am not having to fight keeping my eyes awake.

Shou

Jalensblogmabober

Dear blog?,

Wow to much to say about today, one word to sum it up i think could be hope.
Hope is very important to not only this area at this time but to everyone all the time.
The people of New Orleans and the youth that gather here have hope, hope for a new and brighter future.
Today was our service day and we were assigned to clean a highway and an old ladies house.
Not going to lie the negatives, like hot weather, cranky people, and mesquitos sucked.
Those negatives were easily outweighed by the heart warming feeling you get when you help someone you know cant do anything to help herself or her situauion.
So yupp today was awesome the only thing that could top it would be for the pizza to arrive its 1223!!!! But hey gotta have hope

Day Three: Interactive day

Hey everybody back in wisconsin!!!!!! This is maria, your "blogger of the day"
Today was our interactive day. We woke up early and got a late start (as usual) and ended up being late for the beginning of our day. Our featured section for the day was housing and so we started our adventure at the Thrivent housing project which was a semi that we were able to walk through which allowed us to see what Thrivent financial does for families in need. Then we moved on to the Habitat for Humanity section and all of us worked together to build part of a habitat house. We each only were able to hammer one nail so it wasnt much but it was still a lot of fun. We also toured a FEMA trailer which is what many of the families affected by Katrina had to live in for up to three years. It was just like living in a camper with your whole family with all of your belongings for months and years on end. It was a really eye-opening experience for all of us.

After we did these few activities, we split off into different groups. We all had many different experiences but if I were to explain them all, I would be typing all night so here is just my side of the story....

My group started the day going through an exhibit about homeless teens and we learned statistics about these teens and we sent letters to Herb Kohl and Russ Feingold to explain to them the importance of handling this problems in our own states. Penny, Paul, Ian, Andy, Anna and I all decided to brave the zip line and the screamer. We ended up having to wait in line for over 2 hours but it was totally worth it when we finally were able to do it. We split half and half and half of us did the screamer and half of us did the zip line. The screamer was a rope activity where you swung a straight drop at the ground and slowly swung yourself to a stop and the zip line was just a zip line. We made peace braclets and met people from texas who we shared some of our pins with. We left the building quick to eat at the riverwalk and came back so Kim and I could donate blood but they closed when we got there so we will try that again tommorrow.

We decided to start a new tactic in order to get to the Super dome so we left an hour later than usual and missed the crowd. We had to sit in the back but we all felt it was worth it. The theme for todays service was hope. the speakers were very good as usual and they discussed the possiblities of hope in the world. Skillet was the featured band and we left a little early to try to beat the crowd yet again. We went to the Sheraton hotel and we played on big inflatable jumping jungle gyms. Andy and I battled in the jousting ring and on the tricycle race and I lost both times but it was ok because I was talking big and I probably deserved it. Everybody went off on their own adventures in the "fun room" and we all got back together to eat pizza and we left again for the hotel to call it a night. We all agreed that today was probably the best day so far and we are really excited to do our service project tommorrow. I have to say that I am very surprised by how well we have bonded as a group the past few days and I think we all have some really great stories to bring back to our families, St. Marks and the community.

First Full Day of Youth Gathering

Hi, this is one of the leaders-Paul. Today was our first full day of the youth gathering here in New Orleans and it was packed full. There was never a dull moment throughout the day, starting with waking up a little late in the morning (that was my fault). After that little glitch-our group moved to the convention center for a day of learning. I am not going to tell you all the things our group did today.....make sure to ask the kids and let them tell you the experiences we had. This is my first time at an event such as this and I am in awe of the atmosphere here. Our kids have been incredible and have blown me away with their view of what is happening. I am living in the moment with them and experiencing this event with them. Our group has adopted the attitude of "God's work and Our Hands" and we even videotaped a pledge about this during one of the interactive activities. We started the afternoon with a cool ride on a streetcar and we spent some quality time with the group over an incredible dinner. We went to the evening worship at the Superdome and had a little frustration with crowds and heat and humidity but when 38000 people all praise God's name and are dancing and moving with the spirit...that makes it all worthwhile. We capped the evening off with a great concert by Lost and Found. If you don't know their music--I suggest you look them up and you will become a fan in no time.
Ok...time for lights out and tomorrow is another day......and I am looking forward to what God has in store for us tomorrow....
God is good----all the time....
All the time----God is good!

I

Ian keeping himself busy on the buss

Anna at one of the learning activities making a paper crane.

Thursday In N.O.

Hey, its Adrian. Today, we had a blast in the convention center getting closer to God and Jesus. We spent the whole morning there and attending classes to learn about being a Lutheran. After that we went to a nice restaurant and had a very nice meal paid by the church council. Soon after we went to the superdome and had many guest speakers talk to us. Soon after we went to a concert by Lost and Found and had some great fun there. Today was a blast!

NYG Day 2!

Hello! This is Anna! Well day 2 in New Orleans has been a very eventful and exciting one. After having a bit of a late start for some (Paul's room ;) ) we headed out around 7 for our learning day at the convention center. Before beginning our workshops and activities, we stopped for a 730 church service. The music was beautiful (which seems to be a common trend here) and there was also great scripture and communion was served. Then we headed upstairs in the convention center to start our workshops and learning activities for the early part of the day. We split off into groups and went to many workshops including ones about the 'Love Matrix', making strangers our friends, sharing our personal stories with those that we meet, and daring to be different. We also did hands on integrators and learning activities that taught us about how the media interprets service, how to make room for others in our lives, and exploring and sharing our faith through service. One of the highlights of our day was a covenant that we created for our TUUG youth group. We created our own 'mission statement' that shows our commitment to truly making a difference in our community and the world.
After experiencing our 'learning day' in the morning, we stopped to grab a snack and headed out of the convention center. After stopping at the hotel for a few minutes to regroup we boarded the trolley to get to Copland's restaurant where we had reservations for dinner/lunch at 300. The food was delicious and lots of us got to experience a true New Orleans meal. After our food we boarded the trolley once again and walked the superdome for another fantastic worship service. It is really an amazing sight to see 37,000 teens praising God together. The speakers, once again, were very inspiring. After the service all 14 of us stayed together and walked to the Mariot hotel for the 'Lost and Found' concert. We left the concert around 1030 and had to stop in the middle of the street to do our 1045 devotions before heading back to the hotel. After a long day, now we are all relaxing in our hotel rooms getting ready for bed and preparing for another long and exciting day ahead tomorrow.
I am so amazed by all of the fantastic people we have met on this trip. Even only on day 2 we have an amazing sense of comradery among all of the NYG youth. As a group we are all really becoming a family and are helping each other out with the hurdles we've had to overcome together so far. We all have met many people, and learned a lot about God, and other cultures and people. We are all truly opening our mind and opening our eyes to the word and works of Jesus.

First day of gathering

Hello All,

One tired leader hear. This has been an exciting and tiring but fun. We have met people all over the country. We attended our first worship service. It was overwhelming with all the people and the excitement. There was fireworks and a light show all part of the worship service. The bishop arrived in a bathtub. Ask the young adults about that. We heard about the people in New Orleans still needing help repairing from a disaster. It is hot and I have learned to bring my water bottle with me everywhere. We got lost on our way to the community life activity which wiped us all out. Where we came back and did our final 15. We also found that communication between roomates is important when leaving one's room ask the kids about that. I have found that these 11 kids can be fantastic. They are where they need to be and are gracious to others. They have stayed together as a group. They do need to work on moving more during worship but this is all new to them and we are working on baby steps. We got wonderful bible and bag. Which some of us have found out that the bag is made for decoration only and can not hold what a jansport backpack can. We have laughed and argued and cried today.
I hope that god is able to move in these young adults. The holy spirit in one can move a mountain in all 11 the world could be changed forever well at least Neenah could be changed.
Well it time for lights out and I don't want to break anymore rules to day. JWalking is a rule that was broken a great deal. Tomorrow night I will add pictures but tonight we need to get some sleep as we will be attending worship at 7:30 am tomorrow.

Good Night

And remember God Is good and watch out for powerlines

First Day - Part two

Hey this is Andy. We got in at about 10:30 this morning and right away we were all excited. After settling in in the hotel, which was rather uneventful, we went to lunch on the Riverwalk. They had all the different styles of Louisianan cuisine! Then we got our nice bags and five ton bibles. We went to a worship service that had an amazing opening light show and lots of speakers with great messages about helping people and our faith. We tried to go to a little shindig this evening and our map reader-Penny- got us lost... in the complete opposite direction. But it was fun... maybe a little too much fun but fun none the less.

First Day In New Orleans

Hi this is Kimberly! Well the bus ride was extremely long and boring and all of us had a hard time sleeping so we were very tired as we rolled in to New Orleans. We checked into our hotel and had a little much needed down time before we walked around town for a while. Pennie went to an orientation meeting and the rest of us waited for her by attempting to get food. There were so many people inside the building and we had to wait forever to get a slice of pizza. At 5 we headed to the super dome to go to the worship service. Getting inside the dome took us longer than expected and everyone was hot and sweaty. The worship service was really cool. There were cool lights, fireworks, and musicians. The three speakers gave motivational talks about how important we are in helping the community of New Orleans and how we can do more. After the worship service we broke into two separate groups and went to different activities. On the way to the activity my group chose to go to we ended up going the wrong way so it took us twice as long to get there. When we finally got to our activity we relaxed there for a while before heading back to our hotel. At the end of the day we had our final 15 devotions as a group. The first day was tiring but very exciting too! I'm sure the rest of the week will be amazing =)

Leaving for NYG

Its almost time for us to leave to begin our trip down to New Orleans for the ELCA National Youth Gathering. I know all of us are going to have an incredible time and we will share as much of that fun and excitement with you on this blog. Keep checking for more updates daily. Talk to you soon.