I want to write down everything that happened on KRUP before I forget. It’s kind of been a long journey; the person I was freshmen year isn’t the same person senior year, and I see so many things differently. I’ve seen the pain in New Orleans, in people, in the community, and in the neighborhoods we lived in. I learned over the summer about us, as people, how we can enter into a place to serve, without realizing our own need for healing. For me, I’ve realized that I let the weight of all the problems overwhelm me. Whenever I saw issues clearly, I forgot about how big God was, and I let those issues overwhelm me. There’s a passage from the Cross and the Switchblade that comes to mind now, when Pastor Wilkerson meets with his grandfather about what he was doing in New York. The grandfather tells him, I’m afraid for you. You’re going to see a lot of things down there that you’ve never seen before, things that are really ugly. But wait until you see the transformation that can happen in people, like a snake shedding its skin. For me, I’m learning a little more that there is hope, precisely because God can take any situation and transform it. If we stare at the problem too long, we forget this, because we’re so small. But if we look at it from God’s eyes, we have hope, hope that God is so good, any interaction with Him can change any situation.
One really cool experience to see was this church service on Sunday at Bethel Colony church. Many of the people who attended that church were ex-drug addicts, or were in the middle of drug addiction treatment programs, but the main thing I remembered was how the service was conducted. Someone called it “raw”, but I think the real term was desperation. The service was real, and the worship was real. The people needed Jesus, and they were glad to be there at 8 am in the morning. They offered up prayers for their children, and were not afraid to go to God to share those concerns. I think I was humbled by that, because I knew that I was supposed to live each day, desperate for God, hungering for Him, but I did not live life like that. Could I genuinely say, God, I want you more than anything else in this world, and if I don’t get You, I won’t be satisfied? The service itself was interesting. It wasn’t perfect, with the type of great music and instruments, and dignified services we see at home. But I was comfortable there, and enjoyed it, because it was sincere. When I think about how desperate the people who always went to Jesus for healing were, I can never understand how desperate they must have been, to beg for Jesus’ help, to put their hope in Jesus. When I hear about Jesus preaching that blessed are the hungry, for they will be satisfied, I don’t think I can really understand, because I have never been put in that place, where I am starving, and the only thing on my mind is a bite to eat. But sitting there, it reminded me about how much I need God, how much I need to seek Him.
I also heard an amazing story from one of the pastors in the neighborhood, Pastor Burnside. Pastor Burnside wanted to hold an event for the youth in the neighborhood, and preparing for it was one of the coolest things we did on the trip. Pastor Burnside has a cool story himself, about how God redeemed him, but I remember walking around the neighborhood, telling people about the event. I would tell people, I’m with Pastor Burnside, and they would all know who I was talking about. His church had a presence in his community. One time, as we were working on setting up huge tents in the lot we were going to be holding the event in (props to Larry, Joe and Nathan…the man crew), Pastor Burnside told us how the church got the property for the event. He told us that about one to two years ago, there were a lot of crimes taking place in the area, from murders, to drug deals, and all this stuff. So he felt that God was telling him to try and solve that problem. So Pastor Burnside gathered pastors from around the city, and started praying the area for six months at 7 am in the morning. In the second month of those six months of prayer walking, someone from the police brought Pastor Burnside in, and told him that that month, there had been zero murders committed. Someone in the neighborhood saw what Pastor Burnside had done every day, and because of that, gave him the property right next to the lot we held our youth outreach on.
As I look back on these past four years of KRUP, I’m very grateful for the opportunity to serve New Orleans, and for the ways I’ve grown, and seen people grow. I’ve always enjoyed the opportunities to hear stories on this trip, and to make friends that I would have never made before. I’ve loved meeting people in the community, and spending time with friends, and I’ve loved eating the food, and just spending time doing work with my hands. God has taught me how to love more, and to see more like He does, and I am grateful for how He has changed me in this process, even as He changes New Orleans. God, thank you for what You have done. Teach me how to hope, teach how to love, teach me how to live by faith.
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