Mardi Gras '09

Goodness gracious me.  Where do I start?  Perhaps the best place to start is to say, "Thank You Lord for your strength, mercy, protection, grace, discernment, love, peace, presence, and so much more over the past five days.  Thank You for the countless opportunities to engage people, pray with them, tell them of Your love and, yes, care for their physical needs when the revelry left them abandoned and abused on the streets.  Thank You for sending godly men and women to go out into the darkness to quietly love and even compel people to trust You.  Thank You for those places of refuge where Your Word and our worship brought emotional, spiritual and physical rest and healing.  Thank You for always winning even when certain brothers and sisters make a horse's rear end of themselves and the rest of us because they fail to love.  Thank You for sending believers to places we've not been and in numbers we've not had before to touch people we've too long ignored.  Thank You for working in the hearts of men and women who came to this city to lose themselves but instead found You.  Thank you for putting us before drunks, punks and movie stars to share your love.  Thank You for loving every vulgar, intoxicated, puke-soaked reveler enough to die for their sins.  Thank You for loving us just as much."  When it all begins and ends with Jesus Christ, what else is there to say?  

Here are some pics from the Quarter.  

BCM students sharing trough song and testimony 

The Cross 

Breakfast at Viuex Carre Baptist

Off To a Great Start

Churches across BAGNO have been turning in their commitments this week for Sharing the Peace of Jesus and more are expected to submit theirs over the next few days. So far 18 churches and two new church plants have joined together to lift up their communities in prayer and share with them the good news of Jesus Christ. At this point, over 50,000 households representing at least 125,000 people will be prayed for individually by members of BAGNO churches who will take to the streets in a few weeks.

Here's a look at the Mardi Gras outreach event that took place on Sunday, Feb. 15 at Lakeside Baptist Church in Metairie.

This was the first time ever something like this has been done at a Jefferson Parish parade by one of our Southern Baptist Churches and it was awesome. I love the fact that God raised up one of our smallest churches, with and average Sunday morning attendance between 25-30, to start something BIG for Him during Mardi Gras. They did a lot of hard work to make this happen and with the help of her sister churches, First Baptist Belle Chasse and Celebration, this event brought the love of Christ out onto the streets and to the people of Jefferson Parish. In the end, three people made decisions for Christ!

Praying For The Lost

The first phase of Sharing the Peace of Jesus is getting underway. Churches throughout the Greater New Orleans area are considering where God is leading them to conduct their prayer walks. Maps are being poured over by pastors like generals before a strike. On our the master map in my office, significant portions of the city are being filled in as commitments are made. Some churches have stepped up in big ways, one committing to pray for 7,000 households, another for 8,000 and yet another for nearly 10,000. More churches send in their commitments each day and my excitement builds as I consider the tens of thousands for red door hangers dotting our neighborhoods representing tens of thousands of households lifted up in prayer.