Who's building the ark?

8:45 - meet in the lobby for breakfast (yay we got to sleep in!)

9:00 - make other plans for breakfast because there were people in our favorite breakfast spot

9:10 - stumble upon Daisy Duke's

Our group split into smaller tables and enjoyed things like omelets, eggs, grits, home fries, and biscuits and gravy.  We had a very enjoyable breakfast (the adults minus Stacey sat at the bar, but no one had a bottomless bloody mary) and started to get ready to leave.  As we started looking towards the door, we noticed it had started to rain... nay monsoon and it would only get worse.  Everyone donned their ponchos (PJ bought a few more so everyone now had one except Dolores who stuck to her trusty umbrella) and we began the walk in the pouring down rain.

One by one, holes began to form in ponchos, feet landed in huge puddles, heads and faces were drenched by water streaming down from buildings, and manhole covers rattled and bounced off the holes from water pressure below.  Rivers formed in the streets so deep that we were up to our ankles in water when crossing at the corners.  It only took a few blocks for most of us to realize it was hopeless and we began to enjoy walking in the rain and finding the fun in it all.  UNTIL... a huge bolt of lightning struck the ground just in front of us not even a block away.  Devin was in the front of the line and turned around on a dime running nearly smack into Pastor Jami who may or may not have yelled something that cannot be repeated on a Christian blog site :X  We all very quickly sought shelter under a nearby building until the lightning moved away.

Just to the left of the front wheel of that bicycle is a manhole spewing water.

This was just after the lightning struck.  We sought shelter here and waited singing.

Alex and David walking in a river... I mean on a sidewalk

After some waiting and singing (the Arky Arky song) the lightning moved on and we were able to continue although still in the pouring rain and flowing streams, er streets.  We made it to the convention center with sopping wet shoes but mainly damp clothing.  Thanks, ponchos!

In the convention center, we attended a mini worship service with about 3,000 people and then we were set free among various activities including a zipline, inflatible games, blood donation station, crafts, a flash mob practice, sports, ping pong, wall building, water carrying simulation, foot washing, and soooooo much more.  We didn't even get to half of it.  We had lunch in the convention center and the kids made some new friends to play Ninja with.

a much smaller worship

New friends

Carrying water as they would in Africa.  This is why we collected money for wells

Blood givers

Thanks to Dave and Barb, we acquired a van to help us travel in the rain.  Unfortunately Dave didn't make it to the car rental place and back to the convention center in time to get us to Bubba Gump's for our reservations, so we had to walk.  However, it wasn't raining nearly as much as it had been earlier today.

Bubba Gump's provided our Seafood eaters with a chance to try out the famous shrimp and us non seafood eaters to enjoy a cheeseburger, chicken strips, or a chicken Caesar salad and for everyone to enjoy the chocolate cake.  Our waitress Courtney got a special treat when Scott yelled out his phone number to her.  Little did he know how good she was at remember numbers.  She put it in her phone and called him from a booth nearby.

Our waitress, Courtney, calling Scott

Dave drove us to the superdome in 2 shifts so we wouldn't have to get any more wet or get any more blisters on our wet (and some of us were sockless) feet.

The superdome was amazing as usual.  It had a laser light show, had a band, speakers including a Nobel Peace Prize winner and a man who spoke about bullying that some had seen in a documentary in school, a moving rendition of Jesus Loves Me on the saxophone, and a touching ending that cannot even be explained in words.

This Little Light of Mine

The ending

When the lights came up

At the conclusion of the dome, we had to stay later to receive instructions on giving communion on Sunday morning.  We will be giving communion to a whole section of the stadium.

Because it was so late, we did not participate in hotel life tonight but instead went right back to the hotel for the Final 15.

Highs:  the speakers, making out with a straw because you've got to start somewhere, walking in the rain, hugging people, what a great group we are and how everyone always gets along, the closing of the dome, zipline, getting over my fear of giving blood
Lows:  watching ***** making out with the straw, the lightning bolt, wet/cold feet, the rain, not being able to do everything in the convention center

Good night, New Orleans!  We have an early morning tomorrow... superdome at 7:45AM