As in the past few days, the team basically split up into two groups: some who worked on the shed, and others who continued to finish up on the demolition work. The roof got finished in the morning, and then we proceeded to work on siding the rest of the day. In the evening, we grilled out and enjoyed some of the last bit of Louisiana sunshine we’ll be getting on this trip. We ended the night with a walk through the Garden District.
Today we continued on with the demolition work and the end is near!
We had a group installing the metal roof, some people prepping for siding tomorrow, and another group cleaning out the basement of the church. We had beautiful sunny weather today!
Thank you for your continued prayers. Please continue to pray for safety, energy for continuing the work, and that fruit will remain from this work!
Today was another great day of demolition and construction! We started working on the roof of “the shed” and are halfway done! We prepped it for new metal shingles installation tomorrow and finished the all four windows. We had half the team working inside doing more demolition, breaking down walls, ceilings, and termite-infested floors! We had some conversations with people walking by, and Philip dropped by again and we got to eat lunch with him. Please continue to pray for safety and strong unity amongst the team. God’s been very good to us.
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!
We are headed to Chicago! The winter weather gave us a head start to leave a day earlier. But as God would have it we get to stay with some old friends at Jesus People overnight to catch our train tomorrow. Meanwhile in NOLA Tim and Sharon getting things ready for our arrival. Keep everyone in prayer as we roll with the changes!
Street Level has been planning a mission trip to New Orleans for Spring Break… We’re boarding the train in less than 2 weeks! Please pray for us as we finish up the final preparations and head south for 10 days!
Note: If you would like to follow along with updates and photos of how the trip is going, we’ll plan to post updates in the newsfeed on our website!
Street Level Ministries is holding our annual game of Broomball on Saturday, February 4th. Members from all of our campuses (UW Stout, UW River Falls, UW Superior, and UM Duluth) will descend upon an unsuspecting ice rink in Menomonie, WI for a day of sporting glory!
Interested in how to join this event? Email streetlevel@jfbelievers.com.
