A Bittersweet Day

6:50am - meet in the lobby

Sick Count - no one else is officially sick, but Morgan sneezed today so she's on the watch list.

7:20am - board our last school bus into Detroit

7:45am - arrive at Cobo Center

We hoped to get breakfast here.  This week they had yogurt parfaits, snack bars, and other grab and go breakfasts.  However, the Cobo Center was nearly shut down.  The life and excitement that was there all week long had died down and only a few groups were scattered inside.  The breakfast shop was closed.

We set off down the street to a place called Hudson Cafe that PJ had found on her phone.

8:00am - arrive at the best breakfast spot perhaps in all of Detroit

We had things like Chunky Monkey pancakes (bananas, caramel, and white chocolate chips), Graham Cracker Crusted French Toast with cream cheese drizzle, Fruit & Berry Waffles, Red Velvet Pancakes with powdered sugar, eggs with homefries covered in cheese, and so much more!  The plates that they served could have fed 3 people each.  Anyone who ordered pancakes received 3 of them each larger than your face.

 

9:00am - make our last walk to Ford Field

Carrying (or resting on) the rest of the diapers to Ford Field

9:30am - Sunday morning church begins

The procession is all of the people dressed in white on the floor

Bishop Eaton

The service was much like the service we would normally have at Hope... except with 30,000 people.  There was a grand procession with paper doves flying overhead, streamers, and dancers.  We sang songs, prayed, heard lessons, listened to a sermon from Bishop Eaton, passed the peace, gave offering, and took communion.  When the bishop says "the Lord be with you," 30,000 voices respond "and also with you."  Beyond the ringing echo of the response is absolute silence.  (This is Dave's favorite thing).  The service also included the installation of a new director of the national youth gathering and the sending off of the previous director who is pursuing her calling as a pastor.  At the end, a local Detroitian (as Paige calls them) read a poem that she wrote last night for the gathering.  We finished off by learning where the next national youth gathering will be in 2018... Houston, Texas.  Get ready all you young ones!  It's going to be another hot one!

11:15am - Church lets out

Ford Field... empty

11:45am - We are kicked out of Ford Field and begin the very far (just across a small street really) walk to the baseball stadium.  There was a long line there as we all had to go through security and a metal detector.  The only casualty was Shaye's selfie stick.  Apparently security wouldn't take her promise to not use it at all during the game.  She asked if she could have it back and he threw it in the trash.  We've quite enjoyed living in our youth gathering world where everyone is nice to you and greets you with a friendly hello, welcome to Detroit!  This man... did not say that to Shaye.  Shaye's biggest complaint was that he called her "ma'am."

1:08pm - Detroit Tigers Baseball Game

Since our plane doesn't leave until tomorrow afternoon, we decided to get tickets to the baseball game right next door after all of the gathering activities were over.  There were many other youth there as well, but the Tiger's stadium wasn't nearly as colorful as Ford Field was when all of the colored shirts were inside.

Notice Ford Field in the background?  See how close we were?

3:15pm - Leave the game a bit early

We were pretty sure that we were about to melt in the sun.  The temperature on the scoreboard said it was 89 degrees, but a quick look at the forecast told the truth... feels like 100 degrees.  We were hot, we were sweaty, our clothes were sticking to us.  We were not all sitting in the same section so Dave sent out a mass text message "Meet us outside of section 212 after the 5th inning for a special surprise destination."  Everyone showed up ready to go and Dave led us on a surprise trip.

Our surprise!

Okay, so we didn't REALLY go there.  But we had to walk through the lobby to get to...

3:35pm - Coldstone Creamery

Without even knowing it, we participated in national ice cream day.

4:30pm - Double Tree hotel picks us up in downtown Detroit to take us back to our hotel.  The Double Tree ran these free shuttles which we took full advantage of and LOVED.

(Tomorrow the kids want to get a picture with Richard, their favorite driver)

5:00pm - arrive back at the hotel... sunburnt (well only those of us that didn't want to put on sunscreen)

The kids had their first true evening of free time throughout the entire trip.  They have been on high speed since arriving getting up EARLY in the morning to get to activities and going to bed VERY LATE at night.  The only time spent in the hotel was to sleep and that was exactly what they did.  Today, they got to swim, draw tattoos, take pictures, hang out, and really talk to each other.  They loved every minute of it.

 

Johnny posing Caleb for a picture

The new tattoos... by tattoo artists Bri and Amber

6:30pm - Dinner in our hotel at Grill 39

The hotel put out a buffet for us.  It had two cold salads, broccoli, chicken with tomato, mozz., and balsamic drizzle, red skin mashed potatoes, beef brisket, and fresh rolls.  Everyone found something to eat.



8:00pm - more free time until 10:00

I can honestly say that I'm not entirely sure what went on during this free time, but the kids came back with ridiculous stories of laughter and fun.  They took Stacey's video camera, so perhaps some of it will be documented.  All we know is that they all had a great time spending quality down time together and made many many memories.




10:00pm - Our last Final 15 (okay, it was actually our last Final 1 hour and 15 minutes)

Here are our highs, lows, and our deepest feelings about coming to the gathering...

Highs: breakfast, seeing Molly fall off the bed, being the murderer (wink murder), getting some free time to all hang out together today, we are going to Texas!, a relaxing dinner with time to laugh and goof around, the whole week, singing Hallelujah with Rachel Kurtz, final 15 (+30), baseball game, slam poem, dance party, realizing everyone here is awesome and cares about each other, hearing the Gospel choir since “Can You Feel It?”, making an Australian documentary on Stacey’s camera, being here with the youth, worship, someone in front of us had a spray bottle at the baseball game and it would spritz us sometimes, seeing Richard today,

Lows:  my selfie stick was confiscated, dropping my communion bread in the wine, waking up early, we didn’t find our breakfast spot until today, the gathering is over, after 3 years of working towards this it’s over, the baseball game was really hot, sunburn, my clothes were sticking to me because it was so hot, waking up at 6:58am, I coughed up something weird (it may have been part of my lung), being sweaty, the seats at the baseball game were not meant for tall people, realizing I can’t go to the next gathering, I wasn’t able to eat what they gave me at breakfast because I wasn’t hungry enough, it’s my only year I can go to a gathering, falling off the bed, I have to sleep next to Caleb, feeling sick, pigeons sitting above our heads at the baseball stadium, sweating in places I didn’t know I could sweat

What would you tell someone who is thinking about going to the next gathering, but isn't quite sure?:  it’s a great time to blend with a group of diverse people that works so well together, to worship with 30,000 people singing Hallelujah together, just do it, you can meet new people, experience all you can when you are young because you learn so much from so many people, why not? It’s super fun, come to be open minded – you have no idea what it’s like to be with 30,000 people – uniting with other youth around the country, it’s a fun thing to do that you can’t do later in life… you have to do it now, once in a lifetime experience – with a feeling you can’t get anywhere else, don’t get sick beforehand and then infect the entire youth group, you grow close to people you never thought you’d get close to, you don’t get to be with 30,000 people that believe in the same thing that you do so strongly – and everyone in the room cares for you even though they don’t know you, don’t be afraid to talk to new people because the only thing worse than awkward conversation is awkward silence, go and try new things meet new people and get out of your comfort zone, it’s a great experience to share with everyone – meet new people – and become close to your own church friends, it is unimaginable and it cannot be described until you get here, don’t forget your poncho, the connection and bond that is formed is amazing

Good night, Hope!  Thank you for supporting us through this life changing and AMAZING experience.  We cannot wait to share more about it with you when we return.

Itching & Scratching & Coughing OH MY!

10:00am - meet in the lobby

Thanks again to PJ for arranging special transportation into the city later than normal so we could all get some much needed rest.  Mimi (one of the hotel employees) has been working very hard for us all week and she got us 2 shuttles into Detroit today.  We also got cookies and bottled water again so everyone was very happy.

Sick Count - Today the sick count has climbed again, so we will only list the healthy.

Still Healthy:  Morgan, Jake, Molly, Brandon

Another new development today... BUG BITES.  Apparently we were working in the mosquito capital of the US yesterday in the alley.  Our bug bites are OUT OF CONTROL.  Some kids have lots of little ones and Molly has a huge one (see left in picture - large red bump just above her knee).

Molly, Morgan, Shaye, Sami (in order from left to right)  Stacey also estimates that she has about 20 and many others have one or two.  These seem to be the worst cases.

10:30am - arrive at the Cobo Center

We fill the whole escalator!

View from the Cobo Center

11:30am - brunch at our now favorite spot, Blue Star Cafe.

The blue star cafe is served cafeteria style.  They had 5 or 6 different main courses and lots and lots of sides.  Everyone got to pick 1 main dish and 2 sides.  The meals were served with corn bread and put in to go boxes because the sit down area was crowded.  We walked our meals back to the Cobo Center and ate on the floor.

Eating Lunch

Thanks Annelise!

A bathroom buddy????

12:30am - Synod Day

Today we met with the Northeastern PA Synod.  We talked about how everyone has a story.  God's story can be found in the Bible, but what about ours?  We talked about the story in Mark where Jesus heals the paralyzed man and related it to our own lives.  We worked on time lines to show highs and lows in our lives.  We named people that help us to know God.  We listened to other people's stories and discussed our own with friends.  In the end, we learned that all of our stories are also God's stories.

Working in "our story" journals

We ended the Synod day with worship with Bishop Zaiser.  Pastor Jami, Sami, and Maya volunteered to give communion at the service.  It was a nice day!

Bishop Zaiser

Giving Communion

4:15pm - walk to dinner at The Corner Barrelhouse

We enjoyed a dinner of burgers, meatballs, fish fry, salads, and fries.

3 years later... he hasn't changed :)

5:50pm - Justin makes a phone call for a man to his wife to tell her that he is fine, but he was robbed and his cell phone died.  He is still in Detroit but he will try to make it home soon.  He asked us for a ride, but we've been transporting ourselves with our own feet all week.  We pray for Jerome and hope he makes it home safely.

6:15pm - head to Ford Field for our last night :(

We heard from speakers who talked about making coats for the homeless, gaining a sense of belonging at camp, and bettering the education system in the United States.  We saw a dance group perform, a Christian rapper (Trip Lee), and the band Skillet.  Everyone loved Skillet!
Trip Lee rapped about monolo.  Us adults thought this was something that the youth knew and we didn't, but after a quick survey we realized none of us knew what it was.  Logan was pretty sure it was a place because he thought Trip Lee said he had a cabin there.  Bri looked it up on her phone and it turns out monolo is Spanish for Emmanuel.  Very close though, Logan.

The dancers

Skillet

10:00pm - leave Ford Field

10:30pm - arrive at the busing center... in the rain.  We stood for a little while in the rain, but there was still a long line like usual.  While waiting in the rain, Dave walked over to the bus next to us and overheard that they were going to the Hawthorne hotel which was right across the parking lot from ours.  He called our group over and put them on the bus.
Dave:  This bus is going to the Hawthorne
Steph:  Oh, they said we can get on this one? That's great!
Dave:  No one is here to stop us.  Get on.

We all pile on the bus.  The transportation coordinator got on the bus after noticing us piling on it.  She asked who was going to the Doubletree (our hotel) and a few of our kids raised their hand honestly.  She told us we had to get off because this was not our bus.  Dave spoke his mind and the coordinator hopped off the bus telling us we were on our own then.

Our plan was to ride the bus to the Hawthorne and then walk across the parking lot to get to our own hotel.  Our kind and gracious bus driver dropped us off at the door of our hotel instead of making us walk.  This was one place we saw God today.

We had our final 15, previewed the short movie clip that you will see in church Sunday morning!!!, and all went to bed.

Today, we walked 5 miles in total.  Our feet and legs hurt us from walking, but we wouldn't have it any other way!  We love it here in Detroit.

 

The rest of the diapers arrived.  Thank you Tammy Shupp for taking care of sending those to us!!!  We will walk them to Ford Field with us tomorrow.  

Right now the ELCA has collected  588,000 diapers (not including the rest of ours that arrived by mail).  Thank you for your help!!

Highs:  sleeping in, Skillet, being a communion assistant, walking into the hotel without sore feet, being introduced to Skillet, chocolate chip cookies on the bus this morning, Veronica Scott, eating dinner earlier than everyone else, the last night in Ford Field, worshiping with our synod, Sami being so into the dancing and LOVING LIFE!

Lows:  bug bites, waking up after sleeping in, the gathering is almost over, Skillet ended, being hated for getting everyone sick, no sauce on my burger, feeling sick, swollen leg from bug bites, Skillet & the rapper (Jonny couldn’t understand any word), sounding like a 14 year old boy going through puberty (Brandon takes offense), hearing Caleb cough all day, sleeping next to Shaye, woke up an hour before my alarm, when I got out of bed I realized I’m sore everywhere, being tired, not finding the deli, having the trash can in the bathroom stall on the wall fall on my lap, my laptop.

Where we saw God:  in the breaking down of Mark, during communion with our synod, sharing our stories with each other, comparing the lesson in Mark to ourselves, in my Clariton-D tablet, the bus driver who took us “illegally” and dropped us off at our door when he wasn’t supposed to, Veronica Scott, all the speakers, in the community, Richard picking us up this morning, in the shower, in this guy clapping for us, someone in the hotel lobby stopping to help Justin hold a box while he opened the door, Mimi from the hotel – she goes out of her way every day to help us and serve us.

Good night, Hope.  We will return very soon.

Our worship service tomorrow with 30,000 people will begin at 9:30am just like yours.  If you are not going to be at the 9:30 service, livestream our service so you can see what ours is like!

Rain or Shine Clean Up Crew At Your Service

6:50am - meet in lobby with breakfast from the lobby on your own before then

Sick Count - the sore throat virus is spreading rapidly through the group.  It currently has a pretty good hold on Shaye, Shuppy, Amber, Kasey, Justin, PJ, Dave, Bri, Dawson, Jon, Maya, Annelise, Logan, and Sami.  That would be 14/23.  Pastor Jami has started her own pharmacy and is no longer allowed to buy Claritin in the state of Michigan because she has reached her limit.  The rest of us are thinking about investing in face masks.

Amber's illness has progressed and Caleb is not any better, so PJ opted to stay back from this day of the gathering with her two children and take them to the clinic to have them checked out.  They spent the day sleeping and then in the emergency room at the local hospital since the clinic would not see them due to not having our health forms notorized.  Surprise!  Most of the staff at the hospital thought Amber and Caleb were PJs twins.  They were in the ER for 4 hours and were discharged around 4:00pm.  Each has a viral sore throat and the doctor warned that since we are in such close proximity it is very possible that others will get it too... too late, doc.

7:25am - load bus from hotel to Cobo Center in the pouring rain

7:50am - arrive at Cobo Center and head for Hart Plaza.

Hart Plaza is where you must gather and wait for your "launch time" on your service day.  Unfortunately for us, Hart Plaza is outside.  Double unfortunately for us, it was still pouring.  However gathering events are rain or shine, so we all donned our beautiful ponchos and walked outside to the plaza.

8:20am - Arrive at Hart Plaza.

So glad we all brought our ponchos!!!!

Don't worry... that creeper in the background is just Stacey

Thanks for making me a poncho, Mom!!

Staying out of the rain

  The plaza is filled with approximately 5,000 youth all waiting for their service day project.  There are signs with bus numbers being held up and we looked for bus 6.  There were over 60 buses but luckily they were somewhat in order.  Once we found our bus, we had to stand in the rain and wait for everyone else (all 5,000 youth) to arrive.  We were being entertained by a man playing songs to dance to and showing us videos.

9:15am - Launch to our site!  Lucky for us... the rain stopped just as we were getting on our bus for our launch.  No rain for us today!

We boarded our bus with Joy, our servant companion who was there to help us, and about 20 other youth and their leaders.  We had the most kids in our group by far!  The other groups on our bus had between 2 -8 kids in their groups.  Once we were driving away from Hart Plaza, Joy told us where we would be going and what we would be doing.  Up until this point we had NO idea what our service project would be.

Our job was to clean up alleys in a neighborhood.  We were told the alleys were overgrown and full of garbage.  Everyone chatted happily on the 10 minute drive.  PJ had ordered us an extra bagged lunch for this day so some ate lunch #1 on the way.  When we arrived in the neighborhood where we would be working, a hush fell over the entire bus.  Hardly anyone spoke as they looked around at the broken and battered area.  Almost every other house was boarded up and the ones that were not had awnings hanging off, busted windows, burned out houses, and vacant lots.  It didn't look like many people lived there at all.  Everyone stared out their windows in disbelief.  How can there be neighborhoods like this that people live in??

9:30am - Arrive at the alley

Joy introduced us to George.  George works for a group called 360 Detroit.  This organization works to better Detroit by working with the citizens of the neighborhoods.  The neighborhood that we were working in used to be a thriving area with primarily Jewish people living there.  Most of the houses were very large!  Henry Ford used to live a few blocks from where we were working.  He provided directions on what to do with each type (well almost each type) of item that we may find.  The kids grabbed tools from the pile and set to work!

The whole crew from our bus!

There was a wheelbarrow, rakes, clippers, saws, thrashers, brooms, and shovels.  We walked to the alley and it didn't look so bad!  It was a little overgrown with weeds sticking out the sides and some growing between the cracks.  There were small trees along the edge and lots and lots of garbage.

Our youth jumped right in clipping down trees and branches that were in the way, hauling mattresses and concrete pieces out of the alley, thrashing down tall weeds, bagging everything, and hauling it away to the curb or the very large dumpster.  Some of the kids found some interesting treasures and all in all we had a great morning!  It looked like we were making progress.

A dirty old mattress found in some trees

12:30pm - lunch time!

The ELCA provided lunches today which consisted of a sandwich, chips, an apple, and water.  We all sat under a tree and ate the lunches... with the ants!  Luckily they didn't show up until we were nearly done.

1:15pm - Back to work!

One of the other adult leaders in the group pulled us aside to talk about "the big challenge ahead."  We didn't really know what she was talking about since we were at the back of the work train in the alley, but we soon saw.  The next section of the alley was the real problem.  A car would not be able to drive down that portion of the alley. The trees had grown thick and the road was so covered with dirt, weeds, garbage, and moss that you could barely see the asphalt.

She thought they were pretty!

Carrying a bucket filled with concrete pieces

Although tired from the morning session, the youth took on the huge challenge and hoped to get it all done before we had to leave at 3:00pm.  We were moving along great until...

Joy came to tell us that we had to stop what we were doing and leave the area because George had a special assignment for us.  We looked at her with blank expressions and asked if we could finish what we were working on.  Then George came and told us to drop everything we were holding, bring our tools, and leave the area immediately.  Little did we know that Maya had just discovered a garbage bag with a large bone and lip gloss inside.  The bone was too large for a dog bone, so the police had to be called.

Maya was called over for questioning, but all the hubbub died down when the police identified it as a cow bone.  We were called back in to finish the job we were working on and then board up the bus to go back.

Proud of our mud stained gloves

2:40pm - Take bus back to Cobo Center (not the hotel where we would have loved to go.  We had to go the rest of the day dirty and smelly.  We were wearing our smell with honor!)

3:00pm - Lie down on the Cobo Floor right in front of Bobby Siegfried who played in the Cobo Center for a few hours.  Boy we were super sleepy today!

Watching Bobby play

He played so well he put them to sleep

5:30pm - Dinner at Niki's Pizza in Greektown

A favorite meal choice!

Grape leaves stuffed with beef and rice

Hey!  Who ate Morgan's food?

7:30pm - Mass Gathering at Ford Field

Tonight included  a hiphop group, a speaker on a mission trip to Jerusalem, a preacher from a church for Christians and Muslims, a woman who created a dinner church where members eat together at tables with discussion, and a pastor who lost a 13-year-old youth member to racism.  The evening also included a special Motown Group there to entertain us.  Johnny Barber was the first one on his feet clapping when they announced that the group consisted of 1 Miracle, 1 Contour, and 2 Temptations.  The music was amazing and everyone was dancing and singing to songs like Shout, My Girl, Do You Love Me, and ABC.

the Motown group :)

The night ended with Rachel Kurtz and some young kids singing about building bridges to love others.  Volunteers came from all over Ford Field with lit up beach balls and red glow sticks.  The beachballs formed crosses on the stadium floor and the red glow sticks made hearts based on where they were sitting.

Can you see the red heart formation?  These were all over the stadium seats.  The white lights are cell phone lights

10:00 - leave Ford Field

11:30 pm - board the bus back to our hotel

12:00am - final 15 and bedtime!

Highs: finding out the human bones were cow bones, picking up trash in the alley, leaving the hospital, NIki’s Pizza, Motown Singers (the Temptations), getting out of the parking lot before midnight!, following Stacey, hearing the speakers, cleaning up the alley/pulling out mattresses, the light up crosses tonight, staying dry in port-a-potties, Ford Field, swinging from a tree branch, listening to Bobby play, taking pictures of Caleb in the hospital bed, friendly hospital with heated blankets while you wait, Rachel Kurtz’s song, hearing the stories from the service day

Lows:  being told I found human bones, spilling water on myself at dinner, bussing, waking up late, breakfast, the barking dogs at the alley, first poncho ripped, being bit by bugs, being dirty all day because of service day, waiting in the rain, massive headache, still feeling sick, waking up sick, the orange shirts (it was hard to stay with our group because so many others were wearing orange), not getting to participate in service day

 


We all would like to thank PJ for arranging later transportation for us tomorrow so we all get to sleep in a bit.  We are very tired and dragging this week.