ELCA Youth Gathering

I really, really wanted pictures of Jared's trip to Louisiana.

He agreed to taking his camera with him but there were no guarantees that he would actually use it.  I was so excited that they made a Facebook page so we could all follow what they were doing along the way as well as posting pictures. Yay, I might get pictures!

This was obviously taken out the window of the airplane by someone other than my son.

Two flights later and a 20 min bus ride.....(picture not taken by my son)

Now, Jared did take this picture. This is the view out the window of their hotel room. All Saints took up almost the entire 14th floor of the hotel.  FOURTEENTH FLOOR! Oh my gosh!  He said there wasn't a 13th floor to avoid bad luck.

This was the entire group when they first arrived at the Superdome. There were 35,000 youth arriving for the Gathering.  It rained almost every day. One of the days, it rained 6 inches in an hour.  The youth were told to stay put and not to leave the Superdome due to the heavy rains.

 

Jared wanted to know how I managed to get a picture of him walking on the street. I was so happy to see that the kids and adults were posting pictures to Facebook.  I caught glimpses here and there of what Jared was doing.

Jared helped paint this door.  They spent half the day at a highschool in New Orleans painting the inside.  The school was built in the early 1900's, so it was really old.  The students that attend this school have a one in five chance of being shot than a soldier in Afghanstan. He said that it looked so much better when they were done. Hopefully with the walls freshened it will give the students a little better outlook on their lives. It makes me thankful that we homeschool.

There's nothing like a rock concert for Jesus!

I think Jared even learned a few new moves.  I heard that there might have been a little knee bending going on.  Wow, I would have loved to see that!

When I was young, we would hold up a lighter.  Now you hold up your cell phones.  There is even an app that you can download of a lighter flame.  What will be next?

God's people are masterpieces.

Jared liked this one speech that was given.  The speaker said  that God's people are like one big pot of gumbo. Which Jared had a chance to eat for dinner one night. He liked it.

Jared also liked this plaquerd.  It has a bunch of quotes regarding God.

Awesome!

Now if we could just remind Americans what this country was built on.

He heard thoughts from some great speakers who have had awesome spiritual awakenings, heard some awesome music, even some from Switchfoot, and spent woderful time with old friends. It was an opportunity of a lifetime and he is glad that he got to go.

Thank you All Saints Lutheran Church.