“This is holy ground.”
ELCA volunteers, on their feet, belted out the song lyric at worship this morning at the New Orleans Convention Center. Afterward, they took their seats and listened intently to a local ELCA pastor talk about the death and devastation left by Hurricane Katrina four years ago.
“Make no mistake,” Pastor Sean Ewbank of Hosanna Lutheran, Mandeville, La., told them. “You are on holy ground.”
A huge cheer erupted from the 300 ELCA members. They were dressed in T-shirts, shorts and sneakers — a sign that they’d come to the Crescent City to work and to pray. This was their last time to pray together before 37,000 ELCA youths and adults converge on the city Wednesday through Sunday for the 2009 Youth Gathering. (more…)