Meet Emma Sieling.

She’s 17 years old and from Alexander, Minn. She’s attending the 2009 ELCA Youth Gathering in New Orleans with about 30 other teens from her town.

They’re hoping to do volunteer work on Saturday at a health fair being held for the people of New Orleans.

Emma arrived in the city last night, wide-eyed and hungry. While her friends ate pizza, she shared the sobering things she’d learned on the ride from the airport to the hotel.

“Our bus driver gave us a little history of New Orleans and the big hurricane,” Sieling said. “I couldn’t believe how bad things looked in some places. It surprises me. It’s been four years. It just makes you want to work all that much harder to help the people.”

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It’s time for lunch, so let’s talk food.

New Orleans is famous for its restaurants. Yesterday, I enjoyed an yummy and affordable meal at Lil Dizzy’s. It’s in the Treme neighborhood, a culturally rich area — one of the seedbeds of the African American community.

Hurricane Katrina brought water to the restaurant’s doorstep, but never ventured inside. The Treme neighborhood is adjacent to the French Quarter, the high traffic tourist area that was largely spared in the storm.

Lil Dizzy’s serves gumbo by the cup or bowl. You can order off a menu or from the buffet line. And you can get plenty to eat for under $10. The restaurant is owned by Wayne Baquet, from one of the celebrated families in New Orleans cuisine. (more…)

Willie Franklin hadn’t been home for four years. He fled to Texas the day before Hurricane Katrina struck.

Franklin’s small house is on a patch of land not far from the Clairborne levee. The levee was high enough to handle the soaring waters. It just wasn’t strong enough. When the water broke through, it swallowed nearly everything in Franklin’s neighborhood, the Lower Ninth Ward. (more…)

“Lifting, Loving, Learning” read the headline in this morning’s New Orleans Times-Picayune.

Underneath was a large photo of Lutherans streaming into the downtown convention center. A long story about 2009 ELCA Youth Gathering followed.

The event is a hopeful sign to the city because it’s the largest convention booked since Hurricane Katrina struck four years ago. Secondly, the youth gathering is sending out thousands of youths and adults to work on recovery projects on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Here’s an except from the article:

After Katrina, “there was no way we could not come to New Orleans,” said Donna Wiegel, a Lutheran planner and an early, passionate advocate for the city in the critical days of 2006 when church leaders had to finalize their 2009 meeting plans.

To order a copy of today’s paper, call 1-800-925-0000.  It will cost $2.15, including shipping.

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Pastor Sean Ewbank told a room full of youths that Lutherans are scarce in the New Orleans area.

With only a few congregations around, many people aren’t aware of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

But this week, they’ll learn. ELCA members will be evident everywhere working in the muggy heat to help the area with ongoing Hurricane Katrina recovery. The teens will be working in schools, cemeteries, wetlands, parks — just about everywhere — in hopes of making life a bit better here.

Some 37,000 ELCA youths and adults are expected in New Orleans for the 2009 Youth Gathering, which begins Wednesday. The 300 volunteer leaders of the Servant Life projects, as they are known, met this morning for a final worship service together.

Ewbank spoke to the volunteers about the ELCA tagline, or motto: “God’s Work. Our Hands.”

“We’re here to be those hands,” he said.  “What an amazing witness that is.”     (more…)

With heads bowed, ELCA volunteers prayed.

“Whatever we’re engaged in, let it be an act of worship.”

“Even today, even in the midst of last minute planning….”

“Wherever we find ourselves… let it be an act of worship.”

The 300 volunteers are leaders of dozens of work projects across New Orleans to help with Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts.

They gathered one last time to pray before the 2009 Youth Gathering begins on Wednesday in New Orleans. Some 37,000 youth and adults are expected to help in projects across the area.

“While we’re here in New Orleans, let’s worship God in all that we do and all that we say.”

“[Even] If we find ourselves at a work site and the tools aren’t there.”

“Let’s let everything we do be an act of worship.”