Bethel Youth Group -- 2009 Gathering

I had heard about this during the last couple of days of the Gathering, but didn't realize the businessman quoted in the article was from the restaurant we visited on our first full day: Mulate's.

If you'll recall, most of the STL crew went to their party room and had good food plus music and dancing. I didn't realize their restaurant had most of their damage from vandalism (and NOT the storm or flood), and business has been hurting because tourism has been so low since Katrina.

http://www.wfn.org/2009/07/msg00164.html

Homeward Bound

2009-07-26T10:36:00.001-07:00

We just hit the Interstate and are free of downtown traffic.

Everyone's munching on Subway sandwiches.

The over/under for more than 50% napping is 45 minutes.

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Final Update from NOLA...

2009-07-25T23:04:00.000-07:00

One last update from New Orleans before I pack up this computer for the return trip.

Side note: I've got the TV on in the background tuned to the local cable access channel. I've seen parts of two documentaries on the history of New Orleans schools, including post-Civil War and turn of the century, both extremely poignant after our visit to the Civil Rights Museum in Memphis. Currently the channel is showing the 2009 Annual Martin Luther King Choral Concert. They are intentionally calling this the 18 annual such concert, even though this is the first concert since Katrina. It is yet another heartening sign of recovery, although it's clear there is still so much work to be done. On the other hand, there's much similar work to be in St. Louis and we weren't hit by such a natural disaster.

We had such a full day today that I'm going to jump to a blitz description of our last full day's events. We grabbed breakfast in the hotel's common area (and breakfasts have been quite good), then headed over to the Convention Center (5 minute walk) for our Interaction Center time. Because we had spent some time there the previous day, we chose to spend the afternoon doing a little sightseeing of New Orleans and took the trolley to the far end of the French Quarter. There we split into smaller groups and grabbed lunch and shopped at the flea market.

The afternoon was intentionally light because the group had committed to getting to the Dome early enough to get seats on the floor. We had gotten good seats on previous nights but never on the floor. We were dreading the wait because of horror stories from other groups from previous days, waiting in the NOLA heat for up to 90 minutes and NOT making it to the floor. We were blessed with good weather -- unseasonably mild temperatures (upper 70s) with a stiff breeze. The wait wasn't that bad and after some excellent group maneuvers we landed some choice seats on the floor.

Tonight's program was particularly strong -- and I'll save the details for other posts. But for high points we saw the Flying Karamazov Brothers (yes, the juggling act), a couple of inspirational speakers (as we have each night), plus a mini-concert by The Katinas (and that's not a typo -- it does look like the name of the fateful 2005 hurricane. It was the only musical act that our group decided to remain longer at the Dome to hear an extra musical set and then buy music and t-shirts.

I forgot to mention that tonight's program had two special guests: the New Orleans mayor, Ray Nagin, and ELCA Bishop Mark Hanson. Each were given only two minutes; the mayor was gracious in acknowledging all the youth's gifts to the city, while the Bishop read a letter of recognition and commendation (my words) sent today by President Obama. Hopefully the text of that letter will be available soon.

Eventually we made it back to the hotel, and the teens have showered and mostly packed. Tomorrow we load the buses with our luggage at 7, head over to the dome for the 9:30 worship (with the usual pre-event activities starting at 8:00), and after that (roughly 11:00?) the buses will start our return journey. Estimated time of arrival in St. Charles is 1:00 AM. Looking forward to the last day of this marvelous faith journey, and also to our return to St. Louis (although not necessarily the bus ride itself!)

Final side note: as I wrote this entry I listened to three very good high school choirs. When I popped my head up to the see the fourth choir, I pulled a double-take: it's a special guest choir -- a gospel ensemble who flew in all the way from Norway! Great stuff and I'm glad I turned on the TV -- I was going to boycott it this week but granted myself a waiver to watch the rich local programming.

Creation Care: Toppling "Titanic"

2009-07-24T22:43:00.001-07:00

Download now or watch on posterous

IMG_0906.MOV (3054 KB)

We all named the big (Chinese Tallow) trees that we cut down. Among the names were Harry and Larry (the twin towers), Bud, Bud Light, Goliath, and Titanic. Trunk diameters ranged from 6 to 12 inches. Not sure why we personified them but it made it easier to follow progress on who was working where.

We had a cutoff time of 12:15, and each of the big trees took a long time. Our group had split into three crews and our final trees came down within two minutes of each other. I could video only one of them, so first I'd like to say hats off to the other two crews. It was amazing and chilling (good thing in the Louisiana heat) to hear the three crews hoot and holler in succession.

This video is of one crew toppling the Titanic, the 12-incher, which took 30 minutes to overcome.

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Creation Care: more on invasive species

2009-07-24T22:38:00.001-07:00

Facing south, part of our crew is attacking the tree we called "Titanic". You can see the scarred remains of tree bodies (with no greenery) that remained in place after Katrina. Most of the other trees were completely uprooted and washed up elsewhere, sometimes acting as missiles and damaging structures.

At first all of our crews cut smaller Chinese Tallow with loppers, as close to the ground as possible, then doused the exposed trunk with herbicide. These were along the trails. But this species is extremely hardy, with surviving trees multiplying quickly because the decimation of the indigenous pine and oak tree canopy provides light for the weed trees to thrive. The more mature Tallows sprout many more berry seeds which of course speeds the overall species growth. Our group then decided to go after the bigger trees.

Lilly is pushing the tree forward to provide a better cutting gap for David and Todd, double-teaming on the bow saw.

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Creation Care: invasive species

2009-07-24T22:35:00.001-07:00

Our project was to remove Chinese Tallow from a state park on the north end of Lake Pontchartrain. It's not an indigenous tree and it caused lots of problems, pre-Katrina. Katrina came in and wiped out over 80% of the trees, especially the oaks and pines. That single event changed the ecological classification to something like scrub-shrub something. Bottom line: oaks and pines were felled, and without their canopy, the weed trees took over, creating their own (lower) canopy, blocking sunlight for newer oaks and pines and also robbing the soil of precious nutrients.

In this picture there is a pine in the background, of which only the top ten feet has green. This may be difficult to see because of the Chinese Tallow in the foreground. (I was in some pretty dense foliage and my angles were limited.) To the left is the bare trunk and branch of another Katrina victim.

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A Breather...

2009-07-24T07:49:00.001-07:00

It's not quite 10 am, and I'm still in my PJs in the hotel room, and the youth staying with me are just stirring. It's a well deserved morning in. In the past three days we've awakened at 4:00 am (to leave STL), 6:30 am (for registration and then the beach trip) and 5:15 am (to make the 6:30 workday bus launch, which we later learned had 30 minutes of buffer built in). Today is our Learning day, at the Convention Center -- literally a stone's throw from our hotel since we're right across the street.

We're through the hardest part of our schedule -- almost every minute was rigidly scheduled up through last night just after the Dome's evening mass event. The next 2.5 days -- I just realized we're at the midpoint of our trip -- are our Learning Day and our Interaction Day during which we reinforce our group's chosed theme: environment. During these events our group has much more flexibility in timing and location -- because we're not on a bus miles from our hotel.

It also represents a key milestone for our youth: freedom to choose their attire... that is, no more group t-shirts. Since our beach outing, we've worn the "STL (heart) NOLA) white shirt for the Wednesday opening event, the orange servant t-shirt (Miriam's "favorite") during the day, and last night we wore the teal "Central States Synod" t-shirt.

Everyone's showing their off their individuality today, and they've earned it. It will be harder to follow the entire group (Todd and Rebecca lead our pack during our travels) and I follow up the rear, continuously counting 12 heads in front of me.) At least we got our trip to Bourbon Street out of the way last night with group t-shirts as easy identifiers. From here on out, we count on looking for Daniel as our roving Bethel signpost.

More later, especially if there's time at the Convention Center.

Service Project: Fountainebleau State Park

2009-07-23T07:06:00.001-07:00

We are waiting for supplies and tools and then we'll be clearing a trail of invasive Chinese Tallow (sp?).

Hot and humid, but not overwhelming. Yet.

We're 50 minutes north of New Orleans, about 30 minutes west of Slidell in a group of 120. And there's 100 times as many working elsewhere today. Awesome.

iPhoned

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Press Coverage

2009-07-22T16:02:00.001-07:00

This is the biggest convention in New Orleans since Katrina, making it very attractive to the press from all over.

Below is a link to Nola.com's intro article from yesterday; this paper provided some of the best and most heartfelt coverage of Hurricane Katrina:

http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2009/07/37000_lutherans_converging_on.html

iPhoned

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Another Cajun Dance Video

2009-07-22T15:50:00.001-07:00

The last dance/gasp before going to the Dome

Download now or watch on posterous

IMG_0843.MOV (2845 KB)

iPhoned

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Cajun Cuisine and Entertainment

2009-07-22T14:43:00.001-07:00

Our indulge-in-local culture meal at Mulate's... a big bash in the party room, just prior to Opening Worship.

Included fried gator, jambalaya and great music and dancing.

Download now or watch on posterous

IMG_0826.MOV (2999 KB)

iPhoned

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Wednesday Daytime: The Beach / Sand Art

2009-07-22T11:25:00.001-07:00

Long Beach, Mississippi. We spent two hours frolicking in the relatively mild (90 degrees) weather, picnicking and sand engineering.

Lower left is the "Gateway to the South" and the central pyramid is "What's the Point?" with the answer inscribed on the side: STL (heart) NOLA. And that stands for New Orleans, Louisiana.

Final tally: 1 minor jellyfish sting, no sunburns, no lunch losses to seagulls and 13 happy campers.

Headed back now for dinner at Mulate's and then the Opening Worship at the Superdome.

iPhoned

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Arrived in NOLA Safely

2009-07-21T20:58:00.001-07:00

We all made it to our rooms and are about to conclude our Final Fifteen end of day meeting.

A successful relatively low stress bus ride and everyone's eager to get some rest for our exciting day tomorrow.

iPhoned

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And we're N'awlens bound...

2009-07-21T04:46:00.001-07:00

After packing the bus and taking the initial bathroom break, we hit the road around 6:15. Bus is subdued with some light chatter but mostly filled with folks catching some zzzz's after late night packing and apparently lots of Facebook.

iPhoned

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