IOWAY: Individual Outreach with Adults and Youth

Hello from sunny Los Angeles and Pasadena! 

We were on the freeways by 7:00 this morning after a great breakfast at our hotel.  We arrived at the Rose Palace and were put to work immediately on various floats.  Most of us were assigned to the Lutheran Hour float for a good part of the day.  The float is no doubt the most beautiful I have ever been privileged to work on.  The detail is beyond description and can only be appreciated by seeing it in person.  I hope you can get a glimpse of the stained glass windows as the float goes by on HGTV.  They, of course, are not stained glass, but made of all organic materials like rice, ground flower petals, beans, and many other things!  They do look like stained glass and are rich with special and meaningful symbols of our Christian faith. 

 

Many of us spent the day creating dark, medium and light pink rose displays across the back of the float.  Others spent the day gluing light green silver leaf and creating tiles for the roof, a monumental task!  Yours truly was actually up on scaffolding again this year putting uncounted roses into floral displays towards the top of the back of the float.  The crew chief on the ground would shout directions from her viewpoint to create symmetry and consistency from one spray of flowers to the next. 

 

We drove back to Los Angeles when our shift ended and hit rush hour traffic, but eventually all seven of our vehicles made it back.  After maybe an hour of relax time, we ate our evening meal in the Residence Inn meeting room.  We spent time sharing the highlights of our day with each other as we shared some of the beautiful moments of this day’s adventure. 

 

There was a young lady and her camera man who filmed Pastor Ernst as he was creating one of the beautiful rose displays on the float.  When they were done filming, I talked to the young lady and found that she had a very interesting accent.  It turns out that she is from Australia and was filming for one of their TV stations!  Who would have thunked??  You just never know what to expect on this mission adventure.  Others were able to share their faith with visitors who streamed through the building all day.  Our float is the first one the visitor sees as they climb to the top of the catwalk and peer down onto the unbelievable scenes below.

 

Ellie led devotions this evening and did an excellent job if I say so myself!  It had been requested by the Lutheran Hour crew chief that Ellie call her after devotions around 9:00 this evening to see how the second shift was progressing.  The final judging is to be done at 7:00 in the morning so all work must be finished tonight!  As expected, they need more help through the night and 10 brave members of our group are heading back for another work shift beginning at 11:00 p.m. tonight!  All floats in the building must be completed tonight and Petal Pushers are working on eight of them I believe!

 

Those who are not heading back to work another shift will leave at 6:00 a.m. and be there to see the judging take place.  It is a special time as the whole building goes silent while the judges spend a few minutes at each float for the final judging.  When our float has been judged and the judges bell is rung, Petal Pushers break out with hoots, cheers and clapping!  Sounds a little goofy perhaps but you have to be there to understand.

 

So, it is off to bed tonight for most of the team so we can be up bright and early.  We will no doubt say a special prayer for those in our group who will be heading back to work again tonight!  I will hopefully be bringing another update tomorrow.  Good night from sleepy Los Angeles!

Lynn Menz – Petal Pusher extraordinaire