Mount Olivet students and adult leaders made it back from the Gathering in New Orleans this week — in the midst of all the flight delays! Come hear their stories in person on Sunday, July 28 at 10am in the Fireside Room!

Wednesday (by adia)

Today was synod day, and it started off with a quick breakfast in the hotel to prepare us for a scavenger hunt against all the other churches from the Minneapolis Synod. We split off in groups and took off towards the French Quarter, hunting for things such as the St. Louis Cathedral, big murals, gas lamps, and my personal favorite: a local New Orleans dish. My team stopped at Cafe Du Monde for the second time this week because the beignets were so good, once wasn’t enough.

We returned to the hotel for a quick lunch before heading to the hotel for a quick lunch before heading to the convention center for worship with our synod. We prayed and danced and had communion.

We returned to the hotel for some down time. We then had dinner at the mall food court and walked to the Smoothie King Arena for our second mass gathering. The theme was “Created to Be Seen,” and we listened to the incredible speakers Emily Harkins, Rebekah Bruesehoff and Jacqueline Bussie. We finished the night with some great music by Blessing Offor, and then went to bed.

Thursday (by Sarafina)

We started off the day with breakfast after getting to sleep more than other days. Our main activity of the day was interactive learning in the convention center. The convention center is huge, so you can imagine all the different things packed in the mile long room.

We got blessed by a drag queen, played human hungry hippo, and overall had a ton of fun learning and interacting with others. Fast track to later after the gathering some groups were playing music on speakers and some of us snag along until we got to the hotel. Finally getting to the hotel we found we have to get up at 6am for Friday, but Thursday was an overall great day!

Thursday (by Kenley)

Day 5 of our trip we enjoyed a fun interactive learning morning at the convention center full of booths, games, prizes and loving people. We also enjoyed a fun friendly dinner at the convention center full of laughter and silly tattoos. Later that night we enjoyed lots of singing and dancing with our friends and spending time with the Lord at mass gathering. Today was full of meeting and spending time with new people and learning more about who we were created to be.

Friday (By Carly & Megan)

Friday was our accompaniment day. We had planned to volunteer and spend time in the community on a service project, but our plans were disrupted by weather and we had some extra time to spend at the convention center before it was our time to listen to speakers and music and play trivia. So we explored the interactive learning area. Even though Friday morning wasn’t what we expected it to be, we still were able to explore our faith and spend time with our community, listening to stories of faith, and connecting with each other. We then had some free time which we used to explore the other side of the river by taking a ferry. Ironically, the word for Fridays’ mass gathering was “disruptive.” When we have a plan for ourselves, God disrupts it and shows his plan for us.

Saturday (By Quinn)

Today was our last day in New Orleans. While we were quite sad about our short time left, we did start the morning with optimism from the sunny weather and one last hyped mass gathering. This time the event was set up much more similar to Mount Olivet’s Sunday church worship: with a sermon from the Bishop of the ELCA, announcements about the next ELCA Gathering (coming to our home turf in Minneapolis, 2027!), and even an appearance from our own church on the big Jumbotron! As the band put it, we '“rocked it out for one last time.”

The second half of the day saw the weather turn to match our mourning mood over the adventure ending. And after a long drive to the airport and a few delays in our flight — we finally set out to our Minnesota home. The entire journey was an amazing opportunity for us all, and we are so thankful for the support from everyone in the church community along the way.