Opening night was...simply AMAZING!

WOW! I had been told a number of times how until you actually experience a Youth Gathering Dome event I just would not understand the energy and excitement the youth encounter. Well the experience, energy, and excitement was simply amazing! All of the youth were enjoying everything the Opening Night Dome event had to offer.

Our youth enjoying a zip line

But before the excitement of the Opening Night the youth and leaders enjoyed a full day. The day started off by getting registered at the Convention Center and getting a sneak peak at the Interaction Zones. The Interaction Zones are where the youth can ride a zip line, climb a rope wall, playing soccer against other congregation, and much much more. Before we knew it, it was time to start heading to the dome for our rehearsal for the stage show that we were part of. Stopped at a great little restaurant called Mothers for some Po Boy sandwiches. Once again a lot of the kids tried some stuff that was a little different than the school menu's a GHS.

At 1:00 pm we arrived at the dome and started the process of getting prepped for the rehearsal. After what seemed like a long time and a little practice we were on the floor of the Superdome looking up at 80,000 empty seats. It was a that moment most of the youth realized that this was going to be even bigger than what they had envisioned. After learning our dance moves for the night and at least 2 revisions we all seemed ready and excited for the night to come.

The Superdome...an amazing facility

We went out to Champions Square and enjoyed a quick dinner then back to the dome to get staged for the show. Suddenly, thousands of youth starting pouring into the dome to get the best seats for the nights activities. Before you knew it there were conga lines of 100's of youth from across the nation dancing to the pre-event music. I was amazed at the instant energy the floor of the dome. We were blessed with some amazing speakers and musicians and then  the big moment. It was our chance to give praise to God with our dancing skills. All of the youth thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I will share more about that experience later in the week.

Now we were ready to leave the dome and get into our Community Life events. We all were planning on going to see the Peder Eide concert in our hotel. Just before we were released into the NOLA night we were told we were going to be held for a few minutes to let some severe weather clear the area. 45 minutes later we were released into a still rainy night. With a 30 minute walk ahead of us we just gritted our teeth and tried to enjoy the soaking we all got. The night ended with our small groups and bed checks at midnight. A long day was over but it was oh so AMAZING!

We have a couple youth struggling with some colds so please pray for these youth to have their colds go away and that all youth get plenty of sleep. A not so busy day ahead tomorrow.