part one: new orleans

I spent my spring break in new orleans on a mission trip. we went to tutor in schools, rebuild houses and love on the desire st. community. desire st. is a neighborhood in the 9th ward that has one of the highest crime rates in america. a lot of these people are in pain because of the lack of love in their lives so we shared the gospel with them and showed them the glory and beauty through the love of Christ. Richard is the preacher and one in charge of the ministry. he’s this awesome guy with long dreads that actually grew up in the desire st. area. as with most mission trips, I felt like I had many eye-opening experiences that moved me beyond words. unlike most trips where you do predominantly service, here we cared more about the people and learning about their relationship with God. it was really cool to be doing it in America where its very evident that we need Christian influences. we got to witness the power of prayer, hear people’s testimonies and see real life examples of people who escaped the cyclic environment of sin they had grown up surrounded by. I too was very challenged to admit my brokenness and accept that only through God can I be healed and reminded that God does not care about our mistakes but rather the condition of our heart. I would recommend this trip over any other trip I’ve taken so far so if you’d like to hear more details I’d love to tell you all about it.

"Share with the Lord’s people who are in need.” --Romans 12:13

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on the first night we toured of the french quarter and had a ferry ride of the shoreline. lots of technical difficulties with my camera at night... very unfortunate, but I like the light blurs.

{beneighs from cafe monde}

on sunday we had a church service and fun day in the desire st. community to honor march birthdays. look at how precious these children are.

{Richard is the one throwing up the peace sign}

we spent an afternoon walking around the french quarter. architecturally nola seems very similar to charleston houses. fun to see remnants of mardi gras all over the city. I loved the bands playing in the streets.

one of our projects was working on a house Richard owns. someone had come and stolen the copper electrical wiring to sell so we had to knock out the wall 4 ft and below so they could rewire the house.

{the house Richard is building for his family}