ASLC Devotions -- Friday

James 1:11
¹¹For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the field; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. It is the same with the rich; in the midst of a busy life, they will wither away.

The book of James (which Martin Luther had little use for, by the way) supposes a community that most modern scholars indicate was made up of the poor. Verse 10 indicates that "the believer who is lowly" and seems to negate the possibility that "the believer" could be rich and instead will perish like the flowers of the field. By world standards, we are the rich. Doesn't matter how you compare to your next door neighbors, here in the United States, we are the rich. So what can we learn and take away from a verse that seems to condemn us to a death? 

Well, we (like Luther) could dismiss the teachings of the book (though Luther had stronger reasons related to salvation than righteous indignation). Or we could take to heart the observation of withering away in the midst of a busy life. How's your schedule today? How busy are you? Could you take some time for something that's 'un-busy' ... phone call to family? longer lunch with a friend? departure from routine for the kids? What would it look like for you to 'un-busy' your life and halt the withering? 

Peace, 
Pastor Jenn 

Food, Pictures, Stories

Thanks to all who supported us on this journey.
Be sure to attend the picnic after worship on Rally Day... September 13th about noon. There will be food, some authentically New Orleans and some standard barbecue fare. We'll have pictures of our trip, and stories, and we'll even teach you a few new songs.

Look forward to seeing you there and thanking you all!

Leader's post

Well, we made it back, and all in one piece. Thanks be to God.

Since each of the youth traveling to New Orleans had a chance to help post on this blog, I wanted to get my two cents in, too. First, I want to say THANK YOU to each of the youth who went, for being such great people, and a joy to spend 5 days with (I say this after about 12 hours of sleep-- I might not have had such nice things to say in my sleep deprived state yesterday!). They each contributed their own unique talents and personalities to our group, and it would not have been the same without any one of them. One of the joys I get out of working with the youth in our church is that they teach me as much if not more than we teach them, and on this adventure, I learned something from each one of them.

Second, an equaly big THANK YOU to the other adult leaders who were equally sleep deprived as I was, but skillfully helped to corral our very excited contingent. I learned something from each one of you as well.

We have said it multiple times, but a third and very huge thanks goes to our congregation, the parents of these wonderful church, and to all of you who have contributed either money, time, talent or prayers to help us in our journey. We definitely could not have had this amazing experience without all of you.

With our bags now mostly unpacked, smelly laundry in the washing machine, and our new Harry Potter-weighted Bibles put away on the shelf, it would be easy to say that our work is done. BUT the message we all took away from this Gathering is that the work has only just started. With the waters from Katrina long since dried, it is easy to look at New Orleans and say that the city is back to normal. But to scratch beneath the surface is to find schools that are baorded up never to open again, car dealerships gone, industry abandoned, and two-thirds of downtown residences vacant.

The message of our trip is about the stories. We heard many stories, stories of Hurricane Katrina, stories of the Creole culture and heritage, stories of the magnificent place New Orleans once was. While we were not assigned a "traditional" service project, our mission, I believe, is to continue to pass on these stories, so others outside of this place do not forget.

Thanks again for reading!

Karen Goodlow

Today was our last full day down here in New Orleans. We started out the day with worship, sleeping in, and some shopping. Our activities for the day consisted of heading over to the convention center and enjoying the learning center. We had a great time visiting different workshops, self- guided learning activities, and integrators (informational learning centers).
As we were all wandering the convention center, Pastor Seth went on an expedition in search of food. When he got back, as he put it, “He had met Jesus when on his search.” He was lucky enough to come across the sweetest woman. Her name was Bettye and she lived a few blocks away from the convention center. She was nice enough to not only give Pastor Seth a recommendation for food, but she invited all of us to come visit her house and eat there. She welcomed us with open arms and treated us as family. We all sat around, ate lunch, and enjoyed Bettye’s stories of Hurricane Katrina and heard what she and her family went through at the time. We couldn’t be more grateful for the hospitality Bettye provided us with, and we will never forget.
The festivities at the super dome included speakers with moving stories that gives us all chills, an amazing juggling act and fun, upbeat musicians. Not to mention, President Barak Obama had personally sent a letter to all of us down here in New Orleans thanking us for all the work we had done the past few days and how much it was and will continue to be appreciated. One other highlight of the evening had to be the closing song before the band The Katinas came on. As “This Little Light of Mine” was playing, the entire dome was asked to light the screens on their cell phones one row at a time. After about a minute, the entire super dome was light up by the light of cell phones. It honestly looked like something out of a cell phone service commercial.
Over all, today was definitely an amazing final day to our trip.

Here are some pictures of us in Bettye's courtyard and with her in front of her store and home.

See you soon!

Lauren Berggren, Amy Berggren, Becki Bolinger, Katie Bolinger, Amy Grasso

Tonight at the Superdome, after the two guest speakers, Spencer West and Michel Chikwanine, who both spoke about hope and the importance of loving each other, we listened to a Christian heavy metal band called Skillet.


After we dined on free pizza provided by Carthage College, we struck a pose for a group picture showing off our Servant Life t-shirts.



Part of our Servant Life day was visiting two sugar cane plantations located outside of New Orleans. This picture and the one below show us what each house looks like. The top one is still a working plantation and is owned by a family corporation. This house is more of a European-style plantation house. The white paint on the house is an indication of this.

This Creole-style plantation house is easy to identify because of the bright colors used on the exterior of it. A popular Creole phrase is " Our business is our family, and our family is our business." This illustrates that the family was always in business together. Unlike the European plantations, Creole plantations could be operated by women. The child who was most capable of running the business would inherit it, regardless of sex.

People around the city easily identified us by our bright Service Life t-shirts and our desire to serve. Each group wore these t-shirts on their Service Life day. Here we are waiting for the bus to take us to the plantations to learn about the cultural differences of the two plantations.

Elaine, Bethany, Jessica, Danielle, Tara, and Jenna

Day 2 of NEW ORLEANS!

Ellie, Becky, Jenna, Jessica, Danielle, and Tara got 3rd row seats in the superdome to watch the performers and speakers during the mass gathering. They got to look behind them and see the rest of the 37,000 teenage Lutherans in the superdome praising God.






A street performer poses with Becky, Ellie and Emily in the French Quarter. He was a really fun guy! There were many other statue men, fortune tellers, palm readers, artists, and musicians. We really got to see the culture of New Orleans.








Real gas lamps light the streets of the French Quarter of New Orleans!









Jerod, Jonathan, Becki, and Katie helped put up a wall of a house for their service project.

"Help make quilts for Katrina Victims and Lutheran World Relief" For their service project today at the Interaction Center, Ellie and Becky helped tie and cut quilts to support the hurricane victims.

We are all having a blast! More updates tomorrow.

-Ellie, Becky, Emily, Katie, Kim, and Brittany