Mercy Response–New Orleans

Here's a fun new adventure that I'm on that I wanted to share with everyone. Me and a team of 12 other people from my church went down to Kenner, Louisiana to join with the Kenner Vineyard and Mercy Response (an organization formed by the National Association of Vineyard Churches in response to Hurricane Katrina and Rita) to help in the relief effort. We arrived on Saturday and got settled in. Today, Sunday, we got to take some time to tour the city and decided to go to the French Quarter, which was quite the experience.

In the first photo is most of the team standing in front of the Mississippi River. We got to talk to a woman whose house was flooded with nine and a half feet of water–three feet into the second floor!

The second and third photos are right at Jackson Square. The first is a picture of a cathedral there with a monument of Andrew Jackson in the center of the park and the other is a photo of the street right in front of it (notice the tarot reading sign).

We also had the opportunity to walk down the famous Bourbon street and had coffee and beignets (donuts) at cafe du monte. The last picture is of two musicians playing in front of the cafe. They were actually very good. Some of the other shops and stores were a lot scarier than the cafe. Many streets had voodoo shops or x-rated bars...not the safest place to be. In fact, we have had at least three warnings (including from the leaders down here) that we ought not to travel in groups of less than four because the "murder rate is pretty high down here".

Tomorrow we're going to begin gutting homes. The one we'll be going to has not been touched since the hurricane hit! It's mind boggling to think of. We're praying that God will give us lots of opportunity to help in any way we can whether that is through doing demolition work or by simply listening to someone's story or praying with them. All in all, we can't wait to see what happens next!