We started the day with Carolyn's explanation of the different reasons that different parts of New Orleans flooded. Several of us - upon Carolyn's suggestion last night - decided to go worship at Beecher Memorial church. So around 10AM Sue, George, Liz, Marilyn, Joan, and I piled into the car and headed over to Beecher. The service there was so unlike anything I had been to. Even though it was a UCC Congregational church they way that they approached the worship service was quite different from what I was used to in Bedford and any other church I had been to. Even though there sanctuary is still not finished - they still don't have sheet rock up - except for a very small area in the front corner - the spirit that is with the people of that congregation is incredible. They proclaim their faith in such an open way that was a little uncomfortable for me because it is not something that I feel I could do so openly, but it was also very powerful to me.
The pastor that preached the sermon did an incredible job. It was based on Deuteronomy 1:6 and she talked about the parallels between the Israelites listening to God and moving forwards with their lives and how Beecher needs to move forward in their journey. It seemed like it was a kick in the pants type of sermon. She basically said that they all need to band together and work to move forward and put the church back together - whatever that means. That you can't be a baby and drink milk all of the time. You need to eventually grow up and eat meat. It was like it was a sign for us to be there this morning. It sounds like Beecher is slowing getting ready to really want to put their building back together.
After church we came back to Good Shepherd and had lunch and did some prep for tomorrow's education program. Carolyn took us on our tour. We started at the 17th street canal and wound our way to Musician's village and then to the Brad Pitt houses in the lower 9th. We then drove down to the bayou and saw her son Ronnie's house. We got the bayou shortly before sunset. Standing on Ronnie's porch we could see the sun setting in one direction and the full moon rising in the sky in the other direction. I so love the bayou. The peacefulness of the water just brings me great joy! If it wasn't for the pesky gnats I could have sat out on that porch all night!
Reluctantly left and came back to church for a wonderful dinner and conversations. Gonna try really hard to get to sleep at a reasonable hour since we have an early early morning tomorrow. Have to be at the school by 7:30! Gonna go to the Amistad Research Center with about 20 8th grade students from the Carver elementary school for a program. Should be an interesting day!
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