Believers City News

Finally, after days of travel and anticipation, we got to work on the future location of New Orleans Baptist Church! Since we are so many in number, we were able to divide into multiple groups.

One team cleaned out some of the rooms inside the main church while another team demolished the interior of the side building with sledgehammers, sawz-alls, and brute force. Thankfully, no major injuries occured amidst the falling plaster and exploding toilets. Another group worked on “the shed” – installing windows and prepping to install new siding.

Philip, one of the men who occasionally attends the church, dropped in to help throughout the day. Please continue to pray for safety and unity as we head into day two tomorrow!

This morning we jumped up after a great night’s rest, and got to join in on Pastor Kyle’s Sunday morning class and church service. He preached on Melchizedek. We met members, like Rosaline and George, and guests who do full-time missions in Sudan. We were thankful to be able to be, inexplicably, a part of this church’s soon-to-be history. Tomorrow, we will begin the work.

The afternoon was spent walking downtown and taking a train car to the historic French Quarter. Everyone we passed by as a group was so friendly, always stopping to see what so many people were up to!

We grilled outside for dinner and got our hearts and minds ready for the main work ahead. We look forward to seeing just what God has in store for us.

After a night on the train, the team rose to watch the sunrise, read, and play games until arriving in NOLA. Once in the city we made our way walking and by bus to NOLA Baptist Church. Kyle welcomed us in and told us the story of their church. He also gave us a word of encouragement for the messy job of demo work ahead. 

Our team shared the morning with the Jesus People and got to hear more about their story and different ministries. A couple of us served lunch in the community shelter, while the rest of us helped sort out clothes for their free store. Afterwards we headed to the Union station, walked around, got dinner, and waited to board the train. ¡Adios Chicago!