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.