Kay, today was a good day :] so far.. We went to Cafe' du Monde, for breakfast, Their frozen coffee is sooo good. I have been eatting well on this trip :] big smiles to that! hehe. Then we had to go to our learning day in the convention center, We built thing outta trash for and environment thing, then we went to a work shop called "love matrix reloaded" it was about how power full and never ending and unconditional and unexplainable gods love is. Then we went to this room where you can write prayers on a huge sheet of paper. We got stamped for all of them and then we showed all of our stamps and then got a bandanna We road the trolley street car to the french market, where we ate lunch, Brad Pitt and Angelina Joelle eat there when they are in New Orleans. We are gonna go down to Burbn Street and look before worship. These beds are amazingly comfortable! I wanna pillow like these for my bed! Its really hot today.. Me and Trevor were talking to these kids that are from Texas, and they said that its been so hot down there that this 80-90 degree weather was sorta cold to them and we were like 75degrees was hot for us! The veiw from our hotel room is really pretty at night! You know whats weird?.. There is a 13th floor in this hotel.. and guess who's room is on that floor!? Ours, yes that right! So far we have been asked 3 times for money.. but we are not alowed to give any, yet if they say they are hungry we can buy then food if we would like. I saw this women and she had 2 kids and they were sitting on the ground and one of the kids were crying, and they had a sigh that said someing along the lines of "homeless, need a place to stay!" ;[ I fee so bad for them that they had to live on the hot humid streets of New Orleans. Yesterday we had our service project and we wend to a place called " Ashe' " it was cultural arts center. we got assigned to go next door to this art day camp for kids. I was a lot of fun, me and Jordyn were playing with the little kids, and they were cute as a button :]. One was Cody, he kept tickling me! then Brock was so cute and playfull. Another cute thing was that Jarvis fell asleep on Jordys leg ;]. after that we went and got snowcones that Ashe' bought us. Then everyone from the three busses went to the daycamp building and we did this thing were the had 15 like African drums and danceing and they would call 15 people up to drum and then 15 people up to dance then they would teach the dance to the 15 people and then they would teach the beat to the 15 people and then they would do it together. I got to drum and dance. The dances and beats were from Africa and South America and New Orleans. The speakers were amazing at worship yesterday, there was one who lived in Congo, and got taken away by the army or what ever its called there when he was playing soccer after school when he was just five. He got put in the back of this truck and then got taken out and then the guy cut his wrist and put a mixture of gunpowder and cocaine in the wound, to like control his emotions I guess you could say then he was blindfolded and given a gun and it was to heavy so he droped it the guy put it back in his hands and put his finger on the triger and was told to shoot so he did, then the guy took off the blindfold and he shot his best friend dead. They were told to attack this village and then they all ran except this kid kept running and running for three days and then eventually found his mama and daddy. His name was Michel shomthing I cant remember the last name. I got to go to worship now so talktoyalater! -Dayin.

Today was our service project day and we got to go see little boys and girls at a camp to play with them. They were sooooo cute! When we got there a lady was doing an introduction telling the kids about why our big group of people were in the city. She told them 37,000 kids were here to help in the city. Then some of the little kids started counting us.... and there was about six of us in the area, and had a look of confusion on there faces and were thinking thats definatly not 37,000 kids. It was very funny. Then later we went to the super dome for worship, there was two great speakers. One of the speakers was from Congo his name was Michel, when he was 5 years old he was taken off the streets and made to be a child soldier. He was playing some soccer with his best friend when it happened. When they got to the place the people cut all the kids arms and put some kind of drug in them turning them against people. The guy said shoot! SHOOT! to Michel, so he shot. When he looked down it was his best friend :(. He tried to help him, but his best friend died. Later when they were let out to go and shoot, he ran and didn't stop til three days until he got to a city and got help and later got reconnected with his family. This was a very interesting story to hear. Its cool to hear so many speakers with all there stories. ~Jordyn

Links to some interesting thing

Watch live video streaming of the evening gathering time in the Dome. Starts at 5:35pm and goes until 8:45pm.

Here's a news report on the Gathering.

Quote of the Day: "It's not a nickel picker it's a pickle picker".

Hello! Haven't had a chance to blog in a couple days :(. When we were in Memphis we had our work day at a lady's house. The program we were volunteering for helped seniors who needed help fixing up there houses so they could stay in them. The people who volunteered the day before had put new siding on the house we were working at. I got to paint and conquered my fear of the height of the ladder. I was way up there painting the trim of the house. It was a lot of fun to do. Now were in New Orleans and it just keeps getting better! There is an interaction center were they have tons of cool things...... zip lines, jumpy things, bumper cars, wheelchair obstacle courses along with a lot of other sweet things. We ate at some great places and have had a great time. Tomorrow we're painting houses as a service project.
~Jordyn

Kay I have not bloged in a while! So in Memphis we had a service project.. and we worked on this lady's house.. her name was Louleeann and her cute as a button dog was named Tilly-poo haha ;] I got to use a caulking gun to do the windows.. the whole house got redone and painted. We cleaned out her shed and dude! it was icky.. haha but she wanted to keep the stuff that she did not need and the suff that she was gonna toss was bad stuff..

We got to New Orleans yesterday. Our hotel did not have our keys ready so the whole synod had to stow our stuff in a ball room to wait for our keys then we went to worship.. with 36,000 people it was amazing.. Today we went to Cafe du Monde and had amazing beignets. They were soooooooo yummy! Since it was Trevor's b-day we went to Emerils and got a 3 course meal for like 20 dollars each that was a good deal. They all set down the plates in unison, pulled out our chair for us and even put our napkins on our lap. I also got a pickle picker!!! Its really fun! ;] We got the new Lutheran study bible, and a canvas bag.. the whole city is decorated for this gathering and this is the biggest convention that has been in this city scene Katrina.
witch i though was really cool. Now we are gonna head to the supper dome to worship!!! -Dayin :]

We had another great day in Memphis. Yesterday was our Servant event, a party on a riverboat with the Mississippi Blvd Church's youth, and our closing worship. I have to say, I never ever believed that while being outside in the middle of July in Memphis that I would feel cool! But that's what happened! The cool Minnesota summer temps have followed us to Peoria and to Memphis. Yesterday it was in the low 70s for a high! I'm not complaining or anything - we got a lot of work done, no one was dehydrated, and it was quite comfortable! Now I wonder if this will follow us to New Orleans - I'm not betting on it! Our evening on Beale Street was a bit of a damp one. The heavens let loose about 3 minutes after we boarded our bus at our service site (that's good timing!) and it poured all evening. Hopefully our clothes have dried out before we have to pack them up.

This morning it's time to pack the bus up once again and head further south to New Orleans. It's time for the Gathering! It's going to be amazing!

Last night Dayin, Jordyn, and Trevor didn't have time to write as we had to pack and everyone was very tired. Watch for their updates soon!