"There Are No Levees On The Other Side"

Last Sunday, Amy and I felt led to worship at a congregation in the neighborhood that we have been working in, so we went to worship at the Franklin Street Baptist Church in the 8th Ward, right around the corner from Eddie's home. They were flooded with upwards of 10 feet of water which destroyed much of the church building. As the majority of its members were displaced to other cities due to the storm, rather than disband as so many of the churches have done, this congregation decided that its ministry and outreach would continue, so they started worshipping in a temporary facility in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and Houston, which is where most of their members were relocated to immediately after the storm. They also simulcast their services on the internet so that all of their members could still worship wherever they had moved. It wasn't until April of 2008 that the renovations were completed and the building was reopended in New Orleans. Today, there are nearly 4000 people that worship every Sunday, and last Sunday, we were blessed to be two of them.

The worship experience was awesome! It was a Southern Baptist service complete with a huge choir, dynamic preacher, and Wurlitzer organ to back up the pastor as he spoke. As we went on through the service, there were two things that really started to stand out that definitely left an impression on us. The first was the simplicity of the worship. There were no hymnals or songbooks. There weren't even words on the overhead screen. The entire group of believers were singing songs from their heart with hands in the air that they either knew by heart, or occasionaly, someone would call out the words, but it was worship like we have never experienced before. The Pastor gave a great sermon on Gods' Grace, and it was during his message that the second thing really started to stand out... the difference in the physical and spiritual needs of the people of New Orleans. The service started with the Pastor saying "Are you happy that the Lord put breath in your lungs this morning"? "Do you feel blessed that the Lord woke you up today?" Not a word about the economy or the job market or the Swine Flu... Simply, are you happy that you are alive and breathing today? As he was wrapping up his sermon, the pastor started talking about the "other side". He said, "On the other side, there will be no hurricanes" (which was met with a chorus of Amen's) ... "On the other side, there will be no levees (which was met with another chorus of Amen's) ... "On the other side there will be no FEMA trailers"... The needs down here are so immediate... so basic... We stood there with our mouths open (literally) and exchanged a glance with each other and experienced a faith in God that we hadn't experienced before. Not a faith of excess or comfort, but a faith of true trust for provision and daily necessities... a faith of life and death that they had all been experiencing since August of 2005. It was humbling and I truly thank God that we were allowed to be a part of it.

We had a great week at Eddie's home. There were no other volunteers in camp at the beginning of the week, but Amy and I were able to put up a bunch of baseboard, do some painting, hang some cabinets in the bathrooms. On Friday, we were joined by Skyler, a 22 year old from Nebraska and we were able to clean piles of debris from the outside of the house and mow the lawn for the first time in years. Inside and out, his house is starting to look like a home! He and his wife are visibly starting to get excited and are starting to pick out furniture locations rather than picking up lumber and windows from Lowe's.

Now - I realize that was kind of a heavy entry, so just so you don't think that life is all serious and that we aren't having any "fun" down here, take a look at the video clip below. This was part of a Mother's Day song that we wrote. On Friday after work, Amy and I went around to different spots in New Orleans and filmed each of the verses and made a bit of a spectacle of ourselves in the process, but we had a lot of fun doing it. This was verse 4 that was filmed in the middle of Jackson Square which is the heart of the French Quarter. ...and yes... I'm playing the harmonica!

So once again, thanks for all of your prayers and support! Please keep the prayers coming... We really can feel them. We miss all of you more than you can imagine... especially our Mothers this week. Love you all. ~Dave and Amy