Holy Trinity at the Gathering

Today was servant life day. It was very inspiring to see all of the shared enthusiasm and every one working working together as a team. Zach, Marisa and I were on clean up duty. We removed trash, tape and staples from walls, doors and windows. I removed so many staples I gave myself a blister! Near the end of the day we were able to help a teacher that was starting in the fall set up her classroom the way she would like it. It was nice to be able to see a finished room, (2 actually) and picture the kids sitting at their desks. What a feeling it was to know what a difference our bus of 40 kids/chaperones made in the expected 250 children starting at that school in the fall. That was only 40, imagine what the other 35960 are going to do this week! We also had the taste of New Orleans’ food today! Have you ever tried alligator sausage?! It’s awesome!

I uploaded more pictures at http://holytrin.com/pages/photos/gathering-2009–thursday.php

Well today we woke up, after a very goodnight rest. We went and ate then we took a short bus trip to a school to a school and got a lot of work done. I wish I could see the kids faces when they walk in and see what has been done to the school.

Today was our dServantLife project, where 12,000 people set out across New Orleans to volunteer their sweat and effort and energy for the day.  We served at the Arthur Ashe Charter School, a school that grew in enrollment by almost 50% this year (from 150 students to 250!), and so had to switch to a new building.  When we arrived, the cafeteria was a sea of boxes, furniture, filing cabinets, tables, desks, you name it.  By the time we left…  it was a cafeteria again!  There were 40 of us serving there; some carried things to the appropriate classroom, some helped take leftover stuff like staples and tape and glue off the walls, and some did special projects like putting up enrollment signs around the building, getting the clocks to run, and the like.  We even got to set up some of the classrooms, and one at least was under the guidance of the teacher who will be actually using it!  It was a sweaty, tiring, fulfilling, exhausting, wonderful day.

After cleaning up and showering, we ventured into the French Quarter for dinner at The Gumbo Shop.  We got to walk around a bit and saw the St. Louis Cathedral, and the 5 psychics camped out in the plaza in front.  (My question: if they’re psychics, shouldn’t they have known that there would be so much competition?)  We caught the last half of the Mass Gathering program at the Superdome, and got to drive past 38,000 people streaming down Poyndras street, trying to get cars to honk, singing songs, hollering at each other, having a great time.

For Community Life we went to the Hilton to see what the Fun Club was about (we were looking for Laser Tag, but no go), and listened to the Gathering Idol.  We were glad that our favorite won!  Now we’re waiting for our Final 15 devotions, and then lights out.  I think we’ll be glad to sleep tonight.

All in all, it was a day filled with different activities, meeting new people (we’re trying to “collect” people from all 50 states), serving, learning, stretching ourselves, growing.  As we walked back from ServantLife I asked the group about the experience, if it’s something they liked, didn’t, want to do more, what.  They responded: “More, we should do more.  I like making a difference.”

And that, is why we’re here.

-Pastor Tim

Hey everybody. We are about to do devotions. I’m a little tired. We just got back from the Hilton Hotel.  There is a lot of fun stuff to do over there. I’ve had a lot of fun so far. Can’t wait to get back and tell everybody about everything.

Today we did our Service Life! We went to a school that was just baught and had all of its supplies such as desks, and tables that had to be moved from here to there! Kalab, Dee Dee, Zach and I all did part of clean up! Kalab had his own special thing to do. Dee Dee Zach and I all pulled stapples. After about 800 stapples Zach and I asked if something else that we could do so they told us to take 28 desks and put them in a certain room.. We brought about 22 desks from surrounding rooms and made it all nice and fancy (not really). We all had to go around in a circle before we did anything and say what we wanted to accomplish and I said to try to have to new 250 students satisfied when they came back, I feel like i accomplished that! Way to Go!

I am so sorry I did not do this yesterday. Well by now you have all heard that we did miss our flight so getting here took a bit longer then planed. But for my first time on a plane i had a really fun time! And at the Superdome you wouldn’t believe how many people are here! Well I’m going to end this with a thank you to all the people who made sure we got down here.