If you haven't already, I encourage new blog readers to check out the previously published posts.
Q1 - Write about your prayer experience earlier today.
Q2 - What experience in NOLA so far do you wish you could share with family and friends in Bozeman/Belgrade?
Q3 - What are you learning about yourself? How has your faith been stretched, grown, challenged this week?
Q4 - This one is for Ian and Kristin: What has most impressed you this week, about the Gathering? About the CtK group? About the work of God in the world?
I, Robert, have been learning a lot about myself this week. One, how I don't really like to meet new people but when I do, great things come about. New relationships and facebook friends :) Two, when your surrounded by people with the same belief or whatever it makes me love eachother even more. My faith like any mission trip I go on I feel it has been stretche, grown, and challenged, but I don't. Know how. I guess its just by jesuses word and what he has done.
ReplyDeleteMy prayer experience has been INCREDIBLE. We went into this little room at the convention center that had all sorts of really cool prayer ideas. The first one I did was a question prayer, which was a board full of sticky notes of questions that people were asking God. I put my question on there, and I thought that was really cool. The next one I did was a scrabble prayer, which essentially looked like a giant Scrabble board where people would write one word and connect it to another person's word and so on. It was cool. My word was "beauty," but the one I saw the most was "love." Next was the band-aid prayer. I took a band-aid, wrote a quick little prayer on it, and then stuck it on the back of my hand and asked for healing (get it? Healing, band-aids... cool stuff). We were encouraged to ask other people what the reason for their band-aid was and to pray for them. The last stop I made was the prayer map. There were two big maps on the table: one of the US and one of the whole world. People could write on little sticky notes and put them on the map for people or places they were praying for. There were a lot of stickies on Aurora, Colorado. I put two down, one of them in Bozeman. You can see that here: http http://instagr.am/p/NW9gveg28y/. It was such a great experience and I learned lots of new ways to pray and to remind myself to pray throughout each day.
ReplyDelete-Courtney
Hi all, Kristin here (using Minnie's gmail account to log in) for my first post of the trip. I'm apparently less tech saavy than the rest of our group... Everything about the gathering is impressive. I think it has exceeded everyone's expectations. I am particularly struck by the sheer number of Lutherans that I see everywhere I go. We are easily identifiable by our t-shirts, but also by our enthusiasm. The excitement and energy is palpable. I have never given and received so many "high fives" in my lifetime!
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing to think of the planning that has gone into this week. Today we did our service project. We created a library in a community center in the St. Bernard district (ward 7). We finished early and spent the rest of our time picking up trash below an overpass just outside the community center. I had the opportunity to talk to a little guy, maybe 8 years old or so, who looked in on the library as we were getting ready to leave. I asked him if he noticed a change. He nodded his head vigorously. "Yeah, there didn't used to be any books in here. And it was really dirty. And now its clean! And there are books!" I love the fact that ELCA planners sought the input of New Orleans residents in determining the service projects. Our service today wasn't to complete a project that WE thought was needed, it was a project that is filling an actual request. That was really powerful for me as a server. We've been really intentional all week long about remembering that we are God's hands and feet. We even blessed each others' hands and feet today before we left for the service project. I think we're getting as much (or more) out of the gathering as the people of New Orleans!
Kristin
Thanks for all your thoughtful answers!
ReplyDeleteAlright, blog readers - what questions would YOU like to ask our CtK youth and adults in New Orleans? Leave them in the comments here and we'll put some in a new post tonight.