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So, again, I apologize for not getting this done earlier and because of my tardiness my days have run together and I am not sure I can give you the same detail that I wish I could because it isn't fresh. But, I am going to give you some think that I was thinking about during Tuesday bible study. The turning of pages in the bible by thousands of kids sitting in a silent auditorium sounds like a soft rain falling on the grass. It was incredible. You could honestly close your eyes and imagine the rain falling. It was similar to an activity we did during our training. As all YAVs were sitting together in training room, the young adult ministry coordinator for the LCMS came in to talk to us about ongoing ministries. She had us clap as she panned her hand over the group and as she moved her hand over your section you would begin clapping, snapping or rubbing your hands together. It made a very realistic noise to that of raining.
Secondly during bible study, the reverend mentioned that the old testament and all its history, genealogies and boring descriptions of places was meant to prove that these places, people and events were real, not made up. That Jesus truly did exist and that it is not just a story but to testify for Jesus' name. Which brings me to our Gathering theme verse, John 20:31 "but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name." But what is written? It says in the previous verse, John 20:30 "Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples..." He did miraculous signs!!! If the rest of the bible is full of truths, why do we take the miracles as falsities? Because they're not!! Good stuff!!
As odd as this may sound, this is the first time that this idea has donned on me. I never thought to question why the boring genealogies or histories were in the bible. They weren't there because they weren't important, because they are!
Lastly, he also mentioned a quote that was originally stated the night before by our mass event speaker. She said that you "don't need to have all the answers to have all of God's grace." God still loves you as he loves his own son and he doesn't mind if you have questions because through questions come deeper study in the word and an overall better understanding of how and why Christ works.
Tuesday night was our worship event. The most striking thing about the whole night was that the service can be seen every Sunday in our very own church. (except for the 25000 others and the huge stage and band, but other than that it was the same. Haha) What I meant to say was the order of worship was similar. We sang te deum, the agnus dei, there was a sermon, benediction, bible lessons and even communion! It was exactly like here at home. That was powerful to me. I don’t have to explain myself and my beliefs or rituals to anyone else because they all do the exact same thing. They all know these things by heart, the hymns, Lord’s prayer, and Nicene creed were all said by, I assume, a majority of participants by heart. Like me, they all grew up with it. I can’t get enough. If you are a youth who feels alone, this is the place you are meant to be. There was such a kinship emanating from that dome. It was also the first night that I saw and heard the dome staff (non-affiliated with the gathering) singing and dancing to the songs and really feeling the love flowing throughout the building.
We decided to stay up all night. After the worship service we didn’t leave the dome til 1130 and we had to be back there for our final mass event at 630am. It was our last night in New Orleans. When were we going to be coming back? We didn’t know. We did know that we won’t get this experience for another 3 years. We decided to make the most of it. We got hyped up and walked over to Café du Monde, the famous beignet place. It was pretty empty at 1am and we decided staying up all night wasn’t worth it. Haha we headed back to the hotel, got two hours of sleep and went to the dome about 5am. But first, we had some unfinished business with the International House of Pancakes. I will never talk down IHOP’s coffee ever again. I was drained going into the mass event and right as the kids started lining up, my energy was revitalized. I blamed the coffee and am right in doing so. But, God knew we needed energy to be the people he wanted us to be, the energetic faces of the gathering staff. He opened the opportunity for this attitude through the coffee served to us at breakfast. Praise God for his love for us, because every time I thought “there is no way I can give the same energy today,” God seemed to find it in me and pull it to the surface so I could be the person these kids needed.
Morning Mass event was great. Once again, the planners did a bang up job. The highlight was the boom whackers. Boom whackers are plastic tubes, different colors and different lengths depending on the color. As ushers, we had to pass out the 25000 boom whackers to all the participants in a timely manner (4 minutes) and make sure no one begins hitting each other. We instilled the help of some of the participants and knocked it out in about 2.5 minutes. A drum troupe led everyone in different beats and patterns with the boom whackers. Feel free to check out the boom whackers, soon to be posted in the youth room at church. It was a great souvenir for everyone and made for an incredible end to the gathering.
I met up with the Peace youth, saw my buddy who lives there for dinner and flew home today. It is a bittersweet ending. I love my town and know that if these gatherings continued every day, month or year, they wouldn’t have the same appeal or energy. I am already counting the days til San Antonio in 2013 and have memories of new friends, new experiences to hold me over until then. I can’t wait to hear other stories, see photos and videos from gathering participants and keep in touch with all the new friends that I met. (oh, and get some good sleep!)