Wednesday, July 22, 2009

 

Day Three

 

From Gators to Mass Gathering

 

 

A balmy night gave way to an overcast morning in New Orleans.  On Wednesday we could start the day slowly as we prepared ourselves for a swamp tour (see the link).  Along our hour long route to the bayou we saw areas affected by Hurricane Katrina that still bear her awful scars.  One apartment building would look brand new next to a gutted out carcass of what used to be many people’s home(s).  The number of buildings still deserving demolition is astounding.  But what amazed me was how much repair work has been accomplished. 

Our tour of the swamp connected us much more intimately with the true flavor of Lousiana.  From the comfy confines of our boat (we kept our hands and feet in the boat at ALL times) we saw its birds, trees, turtles and – of course – it’s alligators.  We saw the female first: a paltry 6 feet long, which looked plenty big to me.  Later we saw how puny she really was when the 15 foot male swam up against our boat (in hopes of a marshmallow).  Some of us appreciated the opportunity to see God’s creation more than others.  The tour truly did provide a wonderful glimpse of the area.  And besides, boat rides are fun.

We returned to the city’s convention center for registration and spent a couple hours roaming its cavernous halls full of inflatables, basketball courts, beach volleyball, an Old Lutheran shop, an Augsburg Fortress bookstore, karaoke, and dozens of other informative booths.  As we roamed we mingled.  Inhibitions and shyness melt away pretty quickly in a context like this.  Leah provided everyone with a pretty good sized sleeve of stickers with “First Lutheran Onalaska, WI” and trust me, many people now have one (or many) of our stickers on their bag, their Bible or their person. 

From the Convention Center we walked to the Superdome which if walked on a normal day by a few friends could be accomplished within a half hour.  But a gathering contains no normal days and we have 37,000 friends here.  So it took an hour and a half.  The downtown area is literally flooded with our presence.  It turns out we are the largest convention group New Orleans has hosted since Katrina.  And that is something to be proud of (especially considering we announced our intention to be here 3 years ago… long before many other groups were willing to commit to this city).  So, New Orleans is happy to have us.  But we sure have messed up their traffic.  I think we’re kind of like having a high-maintenance house guest. 

The walk was muggy, frustrating and sweaty.  Stop, Go, catch the light, wait for the rest of the group, GO!  When we finally got to the Superdome it was more waiting as every single bag (and everyone had just been given a bag at the Convention Center) required a search before admittance.  Our kids who did so well at the cemetery yesterday were balancing themselves out with all kinds of complaints about being hungry, tired and ready to get there.  I can’t say their chaperones were doing much better.  We couldn’t get in to any of the lower sections, or the next sections.  But then finally after a couple escalators we found an opening, and entered the light.

Even above the rattle and hum of the exceptionally loud band the expressions on our kids’ faces rang clear.  Eyes were opened wide and frowns evaporated.  Before them were what we had talked about but could not really communicate with words: 37,000 young Lutherans in the Superdome ready to worship.  All hunger, frustration and fatigue was forgotten (mostly) and the only words I heard for the next couple hours were, ‘Awesome’ ‘fun’ ‘cool’ and ‘amazing’.  We heard from the leader of the St. Bernard project who have helped 220 families get back into their battered homes.  There are still 15,000 more families in need of help, but the theme of the night was be the change you want to see.  Every drop in the bucket contributes toward a cup of cold water.  We also heard powerful words from the leaders of Free the Children who set out to educate young people throughout he developing world.  All of this was meant to help us understand how powerful our drops in the bucket will be as we enter into our service projects this week.  It turns out that together we will paint thousand of homes, dozens of schools and reclaim hundreds of acres from weeds and foliage.  Every child in the New Orleans school system grades K-3 will receive a bag of school supplies from us.  Some say that the amount of work done by our group this week would have taken 3 years to accomplish otherwise.  Our service is powerful and real. 

So we will get to sleep early tonight as we prepare our bodies and hearts for a morning of service done in the name of the Lord for the sake of community in need.  I just pray it won’t be too hot.