Holy Trinity at the Gathering

Today was a learning experience. Yes, I learned that they close the doors to the plane 10-15 minutes before boarding time…but most of all I learned that our youth is strong in patience, supportive and understanding. Once our youth knew what choices we may had to of faced today, they didn’t get sad or angry-no, they jumped in and started giving input to a solution! I’m so proud of our youth, I wish they would give me 5 minutes on the stage here! Oh and Peggy, I can’t thank you enough! One more thing, I think the walk from the hotel to the super dome will seem alot shorter tomorrow!

If you’d like to follow along with what’s happening in New Orleans, the ELCA Gathering folks are posting a live video feed of the mass gathering activities (evenings).  Check it out at http://www.elca.org/Growing-In-Faith/Ministry/Youth-Ministry/Youth-Gathering/Live-Video.aspx

It all started when we got off the plane in Atlanta. We decided that it would be a good idea to eat.. Well that was a bad idea. We missed our plane! However we got a way magically to get to Golfport.. Thank You Jesus! We made it to New Orleans with very few problems. People got slept on, we missed our flight but we made it in one peice and we each got a new grey hair!

I’m about to go to sleep. I’ve only had a total of about two hours of sleep in the past day and a 1/2. Goodnight everybody.

It’s been a complicated day.  I’ll let the others tell you details on how everything happened and how it went down and how they felt about it, but here’s the quick summary:

• We missed our connecting flight in Atlanta
• All remaining flights to Gulfport, where our luggage was sent, were full for the day
• All other options involved an additional drive, whether long (Atlanta->Gulfport) or short (Mobile, AL->Gulfport)
• Switching our tickets was looking ridiculously, prohibitively, jaw-droppingly expensive, until Mama Bear Peggy (Weissfuss) went on the rampage, and intimidated the airline enough to switch our flight without fee
• We wound up flying into Mobile, AL without any clear idea how we would get to our luggage and the waiting rental van

But, the most important thing: we’re now in New Orleans, we’re now checked in and registered with the Gathering, and the group is on their way back from the first Mass Gathering.  I’ll let them tell you all about it.

-Pastor Tim