While there is not much to comment on right now, we had a small meeting last Sunday to kind of get the ball rolling for the LYO. We did manage to nail down that Sunday School for High Schoolers will be starting on the 13th of September. The first Sunday of each month will be "Fellowhip Sunday" where we will go to the Country Garden restaurant (meals are on your own) instead of being in class. Additionally, we will have LYO meetings outside of regular Sunday School meetings. They will instead be at other times of the day and week. It will be announced when they happen.
We also elected a Executive Committee of sorts. Kirsten was elected president of the LYO and Brittany, Catie, and Taylor are co-vice presidents. They will be the face and voice and governing committee of the FLC LYO for the coming school year. All are seniors and I think, well suited to the positions.
We are planning two fundraisers this year. Selling Little Ceasar's Pizza and Beef House rolls. Funds will go to put some aside for the LYO trip in 2012 and for activities throughout the coming year.
I am excited and hopeful for this coming year. I think it will be rewarding and fun for everyone involved.
More later!
Monday, August 24, 2009
Monday, July 27, 2009
The final full day and wrap up...
Saturday was our day for culture and learning. We planned for a day of sightseeing, touring, and just exploring New Orleans. Most of us went to the French Quarter and explored the sights there. Our kids are, let's face it, small town kids with small town experiences, and seeing their eyes light up at all the things that makes New Orleans the town it is was a real trip for me. For some, it was their first experience away from home or at least Illinois. Many had never seen the amount of "life" that is there to meet in a city like New Orleans. But what I found so amazing was how the city opened it's arms to the 38,000 Lutheran kids that had decended like a swarm upon their city. Everyone was so friendly, helpful, and kind. They knew we were there to help rebuild and renew their town, but we were also there to erase the bad memories of a horrible event that had beaten and bruised their beloved home. We spent our money there, we ate there, we ran and played, and we laughed and loved there. As Bishop Hanson said in his on Sunday, we came into the Superdome, a place that only hold bad memories for the people of New Orleans, and with our celebrating, our music, our dancing, our praising and worship, we chased those memories out of the Superdome and restored it, and many parts of the city to a happy place once again.
While out and about on Saturday, we took trolley rides, carriage ride tours, toured museums, ate some fantastic local cuisine, and we just got to know and get comfortable with New Orlean. I think that many, if not all of the LYO fell in love with the city.
My thoughts on the week came to me when talking and watching the kids from our LYO. Throughout the 5 days, they laid down their walls and let the emotion, excitement, and spirit of the conference wash over them. Some of them who you might describe as having shells around them, left those shells and blossomed. They talked with probably hundreds of other Lutheran youths and adults, spoke with people they would never normally even look in the eye, and made deeper and stronger connections with each other as a group.
All of them benefitted from the conference. I think each of them has a deeper and better understand of what it means to serve and what affect it can have on others. What we did as a group of 22 was the equivalent of doing 2 weeks worth of work in 6 hours for an organization that was incapable of doing what we did in that one short day. And with the 37,000 other students working around the town for 3 days, it was the same as if one person working 4 hours a day, for 7 days a week, 365 days a year for 96.8 years to be able to do the same amount of work. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, said in a speach to the gathering on Saturday night that there has never been a group that has come to New Orleans that has done as much for his town as the 37,000 Lutheran youths did those 5 days of the conference. Our efforts even reached the ears of the White House, with a letter from President Obama thanking us for the work we have done for the city of New Orleans. I can only hope that this experience stays with our kids and they bring that excitement back with them to Paxton.
Personally, I benifitted from the experience. Never in my life did I ever see myself participating in a event like this. I do not wear my religion on my sleeve, and am not a overly zealous celebrator in religious services. I learned something this week. I felt something this week, and I think I grew this week. I hope that I can bring something out of this experience and strengthen my family, my LYO organization, my church, and my community.
It was a fantastic experience and one I hope to repeat many times over. I grew stronger in my faith and my fellowship with those who went with me, and you know what, I grew closer with all those other thousands of people who attended the conference with me.
It was a fabulous time and I thank you all for making it possible for us to go and a huge thank you too all the LYO kids. I felt like a teenager again being with you, and think you guys are the best!
There is so much more that I could tell you, but I learned something there in New Orleans... why don't you come to me and ask me what I did or saw. Come talk to me like we talked to others in New Orleans. When we talk with each other we learn about others and we begin to understand them better and get closer with them.
Thanks!
Deane
Deane
While out and about on Saturday, we took trolley rides, carriage ride tours, toured museums, ate some fantastic local cuisine, and we just got to know and get comfortable with New Orlean. I think that many, if not all of the LYO fell in love with the city.
My thoughts on the week came to me when talking and watching the kids from our LYO. Throughout the 5 days, they laid down their walls and let the emotion, excitement, and spirit of the conference wash over them. Some of them who you might describe as having shells around them, left those shells and blossomed. They talked with probably hundreds of other Lutheran youths and adults, spoke with people they would never normally even look in the eye, and made deeper and stronger connections with each other as a group.
All of them benefitted from the conference. I think each of them has a deeper and better understand of what it means to serve and what affect it can have on others. What we did as a group of 22 was the equivalent of doing 2 weeks worth of work in 6 hours for an organization that was incapable of doing what we did in that one short day. And with the 37,000 other students working around the town for 3 days, it was the same as if one person working 4 hours a day, for 7 days a week, 365 days a year for 96.8 years to be able to do the same amount of work. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, said in a speach to the gathering on Saturday night that there has never been a group that has come to New Orleans that has done as much for his town as the 37,000 Lutheran youths did those 5 days of the conference. Our efforts even reached the ears of the White House, with a letter from President Obama thanking us for the work we have done for the city of New Orleans. I can only hope that this experience stays with our kids and they bring that excitement back with them to Paxton.
Personally, I benifitted from the experience. Never in my life did I ever see myself participating in a event like this. I do not wear my religion on my sleeve, and am not a overly zealous celebrator in religious services. I learned something this week. I felt something this week, and I think I grew this week. I hope that I can bring something out of this experience and strengthen my family, my LYO organization, my church, and my community.
It was a fantastic experience and one I hope to repeat many times over. I grew stronger in my faith and my fellowship with those who went with me, and you know what, I grew closer with all those other thousands of people who attended the conference with me.
It was a fabulous time and I thank you all for making it possible for us to go and a huge thank you too all the LYO kids. I felt like a teenager again being with you, and think you guys are the best!
There is so much more that I could tell you, but I learned something there in New Orleans... why don't you come to me and ask me what I did or saw. Come talk to me like we talked to others in New Orleans. When we talk with each other we learn about others and we begin to understand them better and get closer with them.
Thanks!
Deane
Deane
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Friday, July 24, 2009
The Service Day
Today was our Servant Event day and we were told we were going to be reading to underprivildged kids, but boy were we wrong! Instead we ended up at a YMCA that caters to a number of older people and very young kids. Instead of reading we were weeding, raking, mulching, cutting, trimming, chopping, busting rocks, hauling trash, washing windows, sanitizing and just about anything else that was needed. There is only one person that worked there as the groundskeeper and custodian and it was evident that he was getting way behind on his work. Well, never fear, FLC-LYO was there! There was great group from Chicago too that we worked with us and it was great fun. Kaleigh gives her impression of today's event. And there will be lots of photos for the next couple of blogs.
Well, we had planned to read books to little kids but we ended up at the YMCA doing yard work. We washed window, trimmed trees, bushes and pulled weeds. We also mulched and beautified the area. We also had a group from Chicago with us! We all fought the nasty fire ants and the heat along with the wasps. But we had fun meeting new people from Chicago. I felt good about what I did today. I thought that maybe the work we did would have been in a place more devastated by the hurricane, but I was more than happy to work and help here. We did make the place look much better and after realizing that the grounds and building keeper was the only one who did work, we helped him get about one week’s worth of work done in one day. I would definitely do it again. I am very excited to go to the worship service tonight and touring the French Quarter. Kaleigh Frichtl
Well, we had planned to read books to little kids but we ended up at the YMCA doing yard work. We washed window, trimmed trees, bushes and pulled weeds. We also mulched and beautified the area. We also had a group from Chicago with us! We all fought the nasty fire ants and the heat along with the wasps. But we had fun meeting new people from Chicago. I felt good about what I did today. I thought that maybe the work we did would have been in a place more devastated by the hurricane, but I was more than happy to work and help here. We did make the place look much better and after realizing that the grounds and building keeper was the only one who did work, we helped him get about one week’s worth of work done in one day. I would definitely do it again. I am very excited to go to the worship service tonight and touring the French Quarter. Kaleigh Frichtl
Thursday, July 23, 2009
A view from the kids...
This entry is composed completely written by some of the kids. It is their trip afterall...
Today was our turn to go to the interactive center which was huge with all kinds of things to do and learn about. One of the goals that we had was to get our shirts signed by as many people as we could so that we could meet new people. We got almost the entire open space on our group t-shirts signed by people from all over the country. We even got Bishop Hanson to sign it! We met a lot of people by handing out our LYO wristbands which was really cool. The speakers at the service were awesome, especially Mrs. Vaughn from Senegal who was pretty inspiring. The one thing that really hit home for us was that she said to not spend time with the “walking dead” as they are only a waste of time. The last band called Group 1 Crew was excellent. They were kind of a mix between rap and metal and hard rock. It was really cool to be part of a gathering with 37,000 other LYO kids in this city. It is really great to walk the city streets and meet people all the other people who are here for the same thing as we are. One cool thing that happened to us was that a security guard from the SuperDome saw our shirts that said, “Life is Fragile: Handle with Prayer”. It touched him because he just lost his wife in May and she used to say the same thing. We gave him one of our shirts and he was wearing it today when we saw him. We also met a Chinese man who was 87 years old and was a D-Day veteran who landed on Utah beach. He told us stories and told us that we should visit the veteran cemeteries around the country to show respect. He also told us that he never got an education and we should try to be in the top 10 percent of our classes! It was a great day! New Orleans is a great city to visit! Walking around this city is very cool! Thanks for sending us.
Julian Geiken and Esten Watson
Today was our turn to go to the interactive center which was huge with all kinds of things to do and learn about. One of the goals that we had was to get our shirts signed by as many people as we could so that we could meet new people. We got almost the entire open space on our group t-shirts signed by people from all over the country. We even got Bishop Hanson to sign it! We met a lot of people by handing out our LYO wristbands which was really cool. The speakers at the service were awesome, especially Mrs. Vaughn from Senegal who was pretty inspiring. The one thing that really hit home for us was that she said to not spend time with the “walking dead” as they are only a waste of time. The last band called Group 1 Crew was excellent. They were kind of a mix between rap and metal and hard rock. It was really cool to be part of a gathering with 37,000 other LYO kids in this city. It is really great to walk the city streets and meet people all the other people who are here for the same thing as we are. One cool thing that happened to us was that a security guard from the SuperDome saw our shirts that said, “Life is Fragile: Handle with Prayer”. It touched him because he just lost his wife in May and she used to say the same thing. We gave him one of our shirts and he was wearing it today when we saw him. We also met a Chinese man who was 87 years old and was a D-Day veteran who landed on Utah beach. He told us stories and told us that we should visit the veteran cemeteries around the country to show respect. He also told us that he never got an education and we should try to be in the top 10 percent of our classes! It was a great day! New Orleans is a great city to visit! Walking around this city is very cool! Thanks for sending us.
Julian Geiken and Esten Watson
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