Sunday Gleanings

by Mike Camin

I don't remember 'blogging' as part of the criteria for the trip, but every time I think of diaries/blogs I think of a quote attributed to King Louis the XVI from July 14, 1789, "Nothing to note". Some may recognize that as the date the French Revolution began. As the ruler of a splintering nation, I'm sure his later thoughts on that day were significantly more complex, but history will simply remember 'nothing to note'. When thinking about this trip, the quote came up a little more. Around a year ago, Pastor Dave asked me a simple question: "Do you want to go to New Orleans?" I said sure without really thinking about it.

I still can't remember what day or month PDK asked me to go on the trip. My life changed quite a bit, my involvement in the church expanded significantly, and yet… I have no idea what happened that day. Now I wonder what significant events have happened on our trip to New Orleans; will I be able to identify them and will I be able to know what future events started in NOLA?

We woke up this morning and went on a scavenger hunt for coffee. Unfortunately, we couldn't find an open coffee shop. It is Sunday, and most of the shops are closed for the day or have very short working hours. After seeing bits of the night life on previous days (nights) and a local describing the city as Corinth, we were a little surprised that they would honor the Sabbath. I think it is a southern city thing, but we still thought it odd you could pretty much buy anything on a Friday night, but you can't buy coffee on a Sunday.


It turns out our Bishop, Mark Hansen, is a pretty good speaker. It's almost as if he does it for a living. It was quite impressive to hear him give a sermon. He had several messages, but they all generally centered on going home and continuing to make a difference. New Orleans needs help, but our world needs it as well. We shouldn't leave what we have done in New Orleans. We should take it home and expand our service there.

Major talking points were environmental awareness, race discrimination, and religious extremists. (Not necessarily in that order, but I'm an environmentalist and it stood out) He discussed utilizing religious awareness and common ground to minimize extremist actions. I would have liked to hear more on the subject, but we didn't really have the time.

Another major theme was action only needs one person and it doesn't matter what kind of person we are. The Bishop pointed out that God used Moses for some fairly big jobs and he was a murderer. Neither is youth an excuse. I can't remember exactly what his words on youth were at this point, but he pushed for youth involvement and future actions by our younger members.

Last of all, as a side note, the Bishop vaguely resembles George Carlin and he has a pretty good hip-hop dance groove. I would have loved to get a photo.


Large church services are neat. I would definitely like to keep it to a once or twice in a lifetime event as I think it loses some of the family atmosphere of our congregation, but seeing 36,000 people at a worship service was a sight to behold. Also, pyrotechnics make church better and I will talk to Pastor Wandrey about incorporating a few into the 8:30 service…


We saw a white tiger at the zoo. He was pretty cool. The white alligators weren't as interesting, but mostly because they didn't move. Plastic statues may have been used as stand-ins.

A major rain storm hit at the zoo, but didn't slow our intrepid adventurers. It turns out my jacket isn't actually waterproof like I thought. And wood does indeed become slippery when wet. Thankfully, Amanda packed a first aid kit. However, it sounds as if life and limbs were risked getting the first aid kit to the wounded party member through the torrential downpour.


Kristen found something she likes to eat in NOLA. It is a good day for her.


More intrepid adventures into French Quarter… Jocelyn did a duet with a pretty cool street performer. We're not sure of the going price of a song, but he was pretty good and did a Christian worship song. We were all very impressed.