Day Six 7/21/25

 What a beautiful sunrise this morning, as viewed from my hotel room window. 

"This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it" (Psalm 118:24)

We gathered for breakfast.

then rode down the two different elevators. Today we are wearing our NOUN shirts and we were each given 15 NOUN bracelets to give out as mechanism to facilitate evangelism (telling someone about Jesus!) You ask someone "What is a noun?" They will likely say a person, place or thing, then you say "Yes - the person is Jesus, the place is the cross, and the thing is salvation for you and me."

Out on  the street , we saw a streetcar (named Desire?)

(The play written by Tennessee Williams was set in New Orleans)

We proceeded to RiverWalk (just outside the hotel) to do the church clap

We broke into "family groups" and had prayer time.

Then we proceeded on to the convention center, and our Bible Study room.

The worship band from Concordia Irvine is the band leading us in worship songs.

Then we split up into groups of three or more to attend sessions and the interactive center. This was from the interactive center - it was called "learning the language of lament", and you walk through a series of posters which depict what some people of the Bible were lamenting over (the shame Elizabeth felt during her long childless state before she bore John the Baptist, the agony of Job as he suffered through losing his most of his family and livestock in one day, etc)  The posters were laments, but the back side of the last poster (shown below) points to a glimmer of hope. (Job's faith is cracked but not gone...)

After walking through the posters, you picked up an index card and wrote a lament on it from your own life, then on the back side of the card, you listed things that you praise God for. This reminds us that even in our darkest moments, God's grace and goodness remain....You then hand your card to a YAV, and he/she enters your laments and praises into a word salad on a laptop, which then live updates on the large screen and cross in the room

We looked for opportunities to share the gospel message and a NOUN bracelet throughout the day.

At lunch, we met Pastor Neldo who speaks three languages - His first language was German, then Portuguese and then English. He had been a pastor in Brazil (where he had led services in German and Portuguese), but emigrated to the US more than 10 years ago. He was quite a story teller and related to us the story of his immigration, which he emphasized was LEGAL, through the green card process.

Here we are working the Iowa District East booth. When people came up, we said something like "Hi!  Where you'all from? We're from Iowa District East, which is part of the Great Lakes Region. Our question is "What great lake borders the state of Iowa?" When they answer (right or wrong), you stamp their book.) An amazing number of people said Lake Michigan, one said the Mississippi River (which is not a Great Lake!) but there were a few who said none (the correct answer)

People in our group went to various sessions today. From the discussion that I heard, some sessions they liked were the one on Human Trafficking and the one on World Religions, among others.

We came back to the hotel for mint juleps (non-alcoholic) and dinner (take out pizza), which we ate  in the 3rd floor conference room. A group from NE had most of the tables, but we got a few tables at the edge of the room. Luke Scheele's church (9 people) joined us for dinner. 

Here we are toasting the mint juleps: (ginger ale or Sprite) with mint syrup and a mint leaf. There were also tea and crumpets that we made. The tea was Southern sweet tea, and the crumpets were peach jam from last fall's youth sale) on an English muffin half.

Then we walked to the super dome, passing along the was this restaurant. This will help with the pronunciation of the name of the street: What do you do with a hammer or ax? What do you call a hammer and a screw driver?  Put them together and you get

Chop'-a tool-a

Nora proudly carried Sir Philippe de la Pond and we all followed.

The sunset was a sight to behold.  Only God could have created that...

From the rising of the sun to its setting,
    the name of the Lord is to be praised!

(Psalm 113:3)

The YAVs greeted us all along the route and inside the Superdome with high fives.

There was a game of DUCK, DUCK GOOSE (using giant inflatables) going on when we arrived.

There was a mix of  songs and speakers.

The theme for tonight was that we do not endure alone, but rather we endure TOGETHER. We need each other. They showed a video depicting that many things in life worked better together rather than separate (such as playing battleship, weightlifting, playing tennis, etc) The church is not an individual sport, but rather the church is made of many bricks/people, with Christ as the cornerstone.

Over the last several nights, we were introduced to this guy who was nicknamed "the marathon guy". He is portrayed as a plain guy (fairly clueless) who just wants to go out and run a marathon with no training. Today he wore a RUN JIM RUN shirt. So now we know his name is Jim. Several of the characters in this skit ask him if that's short for "Jimithy" ...The stadium was deafening with "RUN JIM RUN" The idea being that when we are all cheering for him, he will run faster/better. We need to do the same for our brothers and sisters in Christ and those we meet who are no Christion, encouraging them and pointing them to Jesus.

A

Each night our worship time at the mass event ended with the following responsive shout:

We endure IN JESUS

We endure TOGETHER

We endure TO THE END

(Due to where we have been seated, tonight was the first night we could actually see the words for it on the screen.)

Next up was Rend Collective. We took a selfie in between worship and the concert.

Rend Collective:

My lighthouse, my lighthouse
Shining in the darkness, I will follow You
My lighthouse, my lighthouse
I will trust the promise
You will carry me safe to shore

Back at the hotel, we did his and lows in the third floor open area... The last thing before lights out is always Kara and Denise, bringing tomorrows shirt and a bedtime snack.

Lord, remind us that we were not created to be individuals only, looking out for our own needs, wants and desires, but rather You designed us to be in community, Your people looking out for and supporting each other. When we are lonely,  anxious, overwhelmed or afraid, remind us that we never have to go it alone, that You hear our prayers and that You have created people who can share our burdens with us. When life is going well for us, help us to see that we might be just the person someone else needs. Open our eyes to those around us and give us willing hearts to do Your will in our lives. Amen.