From E to V: Our Trip to New Orleans: ELCA Youth Gathering, Citizens with the Saints, July 2012

In a continuation of my photo dump from July 2012, I wanted to touch on the trip my DH and I took to New Orleans. Shortly before our wedding, the pastor of our church e-mailed me to ask if I would act as the third chaperone during a mission trip/youth gathering in New Orleans in July. He said I was the first person they thought of when deciding to ask an additional chaperone to attend (yes, I was shocked by this!). I was pretty harried at the time and said "sure" but only if my soon-to-be husband could come as well. My pastor said "yes" and like that, I was suddenly about to be in charge of a bunch of teenagers when I often feel like one myself!

Suffice it to say, my husband and I both agree this trip was life-changing. Along with with our pastor, our friend C, the hubby and I ~~herded~~ chaperoned 17 (yes, seventeen) kids ages 14-17 from the Main Line to New Orleans. We learned so much during this trip--patience (something I don't have ~~any~~ much of and God definitely used this trip to test it/develop it), a little about the culture and feel of New Orleans, grace, the mission of the Lutheran Church, and a bit about what it's like to be a teenager in the Twitter/Facebook age.

The theme of the youth gathering was "Citizens with the Saints" and it was eye-opening. We were invited to come to New Orleans and I believe there were about 33,000 teenagers from all around the U.S. (not counting the chaperones) and the city and people of New Orleans were incredibly gracious hosts to our massive crowd. The gathering centered around service projects (ours was cleaning up LaFreniere Park) and various activities to open the eyes of the attendees to be more accepting and loving of our peers. The speakers at the gathering were absolutely amazing and proof you don't have to look or act a certain way to identify yourself as a Christian. I loved this message and it really spoke to the teenagers from our church as well. I was particularly impressed with Nadia Bolz-Weber and Shane Claiborne and their messages of acceptance and Christ's love.

I kept up a live Facebook page during the gathering so our generous church family who helped raise the funds to send 21 of us to New Orleans could follow along. I think I took a couple hundred photos, and I wanted to share some for posterity. In light of privacy of our chaperonees, here are some photos of our trip: