2025 NYG

 This morning was not quite such an amazing view out of the hotel window but it was a nice field, as fields go (not sure why there was a light pole in the middle of the field...) We had breakfast provided by the hotel. then loaded up the bus Allison with her brother in law Darryl (our bus driver for most of the trip). We bid goodbye to our hotel, a Fairfield in Marion, AR, which is close to Memphis. Art (in a group of three) went back to look for his water bottle, a very special water bottle as it was a gift from Kendra. He had already dropped it multiple times on this trip, but it appears to be sturdy. When we saw him walking back without it, we thought he had maybe left it at a previous stop, but in fact it was by his seat on the bus! 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 We sang some songs ("Every Move I Make I Make in You, Jesus" and "You are My All in All") then a cartoons video went in (NAPTIME). Then each of us individually took some time responding to reflection questions in our...

It started out as a cloudy morning. This is looking out my hotel window toward the I-90 bridge (over the Mississippi River) near the Convention Center.  Pastor, Vicar, Micah and Karsten had left at 7AM to walk to the Superdome, as they were going to be a Communion distribution team. The rest of us loaded the bus, grabbed something to eat quickly from the suite portion of my hotel room, then made our way down to the ground floor to walk to the Superdome. Here we are by the hotel elevators before the count off to make sure everyone was there. Our shirts say "Give us this day...Our daily beignet" (although there was no time for beignets today!) Huddling together for the count off (Oh when the saints...go marching in...Oh when the saints go marching in...oh Lord I want to be in that number ...1...2...3.......33...Oh when the saints go marching in! I think this song will be stuck in my head for a long time - I find myself humming it as we walk along.  At the Superdome, we went to ...

The day started out with everyone stopping by my room for breakfast items, then going to the  third floor area where we were last night to eat. Pastor bought beignets (both powdered sugar like last time and praline type) and we ate there  (until we were told we couldn't meet there, at which point we relocated to the 3rd floor "food court area" where there were tables). Kaja briefed us that there were going to be protesters this morning at the convention center when we got there. They are from Westboro Baptist Church and are known to target large scale Christian events. The initial part of he walk was like any other day -sunny and humid as we followed our frog.   Just outside the convention center, we saw the protesters with their signs. It was unclear to me what exactly they were protesting specifically with regard to the Youth Gathering, but they peacefully held their signs. One group walking next to us sang "Jesus loves you" as they passed by the protesters. A...