We were so thankful to be able to work with and bless Sydney & Rebecca, but knew God was calling us to move on. He had given one of our team a picture of a hummingbird flying quickly in and out of a flower and on to the next. So, on to our next projects from God.

On Wednesday, we helped upload a truck with ten pallets of food from the food bank, to be used at the Friday food distribution. After that, we did as we felt God had spoken & confirmed to us to do – paint the badly cracked and worn floor of the sanctuary at the Central City Missions center. Some of us did this and others met & connected with some local kids in the community through chalk, jump roping and general conversation.

On Thursday God had spoken to us to do a women & children’s tea and craft hour to connect with and show God’s love to the people in the neighborhood. However, through each prayer time God spoke clearly to Tiffany about walking around Jackson Square in the French Quarter, which seemed to be in conflict to what God spoke to everyone else! But God kept speaking clearly about both the craft hour in this neighborhood and to Tiffany to go to Jackson Square, and eventually God spoke to another person to go with Tiffany. The scripture passage they got was Psalm 22, the prayer of a suffering man, and Luke 10, to go and take nothing with them…So they did as God directed and went downtown and walked and prayed, taking nothing with them except $10 given to them by one of the ladies from Michigan as she felt God directed. They met this suffering man, who had lost his wife and daughter in Katrina, received only $150 from insurance for his ruined house when he expected closer to $150,000, having no other family or friends and no place to go… They got to pray with him and encourage him. God did many other amazing things through them but it would take pages to describe all of it, so if you want to know more, ask Tiffany Bowers or Sarah Schubert! As far as the craft time goes, that was a success, and we had many, many children coloring, learning, conversing, dying Easter eggs and more.

On Friday we opened our doors to the community for the purpose of prayer & food distribution. One encouraging thing prior to distributing food was to know that every other week, not many people would come because they had gotten their paychecks. This was encouraging for us because one big prayer was that we would not perpetuate poverty by enabling a dependent mindset. We had worship music playing during this time. At one point, a guy walked in and we all noticed his feet – he had one shoe on and a plastic bag on his other foot, with an un-matching broken shoe on that foot. Sarah, one of our team mates, felt strongly impressed from God that she needed to give her shoes to him. She checked his size and it turns out he wore a 6 ½ in men’s and she wore a 8 ½ in women’s, perfect size! So Sarah gave him nice Nike tennis shoes (bought in the men’s section, I might add, so perfect for a guy) that she had brought to work in and included with that a pair of socks. It brought all of us so much joy to see him leave with some nice shoes. We also got to share the gift of some baby supplies like diapers, baby food and a cute outfit with some poor mothers. After food distribution ended, we left to head home – this time with a lot less excitement than on the way down (thank God!) – although God did do some cool stuff.

Monday we began the task of removing the fallen cedar tree in Sydney’s yard.
It was such an enormous task we truly needed the grace and empowerment of God to make any major headway on it. James (on our team) & a local guy named Adam worked two saws all day as all of us girls dragged the branches out by the street. When we were done, the pile was 5 feet high, 50 feet long. Both Sydney and his neighbor, Rebecca, are believers. We had a strong sense that they are both called there to be lights to their neighborhood. Rebecca is actively being that “light” in her neighborhood and knows that is her calling right now. Sydney is still in the process of God working with him to bring him back to his New Orleans home to live.

The biggest impact of this project is the impact on the people - on Sydney, Rebecca, Adam & the others we connected with in food distribution.

The food distribution, was an incredible time! We included with the food a book written specifically for people who went through Hurricane Katrina, called God is in the Hard Stuff.

Monday, Linnea & Sarah went along with three from the other team (who were from Michigan). They prayed with many people: Louise (she was blessed by the book and got copies to give to her friends), Gertrude, and many others. One woman came straight up to us and asked us for prayer because she realized she really needs God right now - she is homeless & really struggling. She said “just don’t make me cry,” and we replied, “no promises…” and she did cry! That’s what happens when God is present & working.

We met another little grade school girl named McKayla who was so quiet and shy…but later on that day she probably made a detour to walk by the house we were working at and came straight over and gave Linnea a big hug and then left again. It was so precious.

The second day of food distribution, our whole team went (minus Linnea, James, and Shelby). They had an awesome time and gave out a LOT of supplies to local families. We also had a lot of opportunities to pray and talk with Rebecca, Sydney & Adam. God truly did a lot in their lives, I am positive.

Even though his life has been difficult since the hurricane, Sydney has been amazed by God’s grace & favor in his life. A family of squatters broke into his home and threw all his belongings on the curb before they took over for a couple weeks. His story was on the news until finally the police got the squatters to leave. Sydney got his house back, but only after they had robbed him blind. However, he has seen God’s helping hand through the hardships. Even when his very expensive heart medications were stolen, an organization called Operation Blessing replaced it entirely, AND gave him refills for another month for free! That was truly the blessing of the Lord.

When the hurricane came, Sydney left town but only after going to his neighbors and begging them to go with him. They refused, staying instead during the hurricane to ride it out. They were stuck in their homes alone, with no access and no power for a whole week. However, God truly blessed Sydney & Rebecca as theirs were the only homes in their entire neighborhood that weren’t flooded & destroyed by mold! They prayed for God’s protection and He gave it.

It has been a privilege to meet & grow to love these people and hear their stories. It is awesome to minister to them and show God’s love to them, and then to see the work God is doing in and through them.

We also got the opportunity to tear down a “money tree,”  which is believed to bring good luck financially. We felt it would be spiritually significant to remove it as symbolic of removing strongholds in people’s lives in that area. Sydney had been very attached to that tree but he allowed us to remove it and even helped. It is so incredible to see God working, in the big and little things, speaking very specific things & bringing confirmation through others and then bringing it to pass.

We removed all of the tree except for the main trunk over Monday and Tuesday, and also raked and cleared the rest of the yard to prepare it for planting and future use. The difference was incredible, and we know God will send others to finish the job we started.

We safely arrived to New Orleans on Saturday and rested up before the prayer & worship time for the city in the evening. We also discovered that God had brought another team of four ladies from Michigan. (It was a fun surprise since they’re a short way from two of our team members’ home town.) We spent the evening praying & worshiping God. The group of ladies prayed for our team and we all prayed for them, as well as for the leaders at this mission here, Mark and Robin. God spoke many things to each of us.

Our sleep that night was awesome, as many of us had not gotten much sleep the night before. Sunday morning we went to church, which was quite an experience for many on our team. Talk about loud and fiery preaching!!! He spoke on producing under pressure, abiding in the vine & basically allowing God’s refining fire to purify us.

In the afternoon we did a disaster tour through the ninth ward. Much of it is leveled, but there are still many houses wrecked beyond repair, and many others being gutted. Even 18 months later so much needs to be done, much of the city still needs to be rebuilt. All the central, downtown areas are basically back to normal but the poor neighborhoods are still in incredible disrepair. However, we know that God is slowly but surely rebuilding the city, not only physically through His people but spiritually rebuilding.

Later on that evening we visited a project for the next day. We were told a had a tree fallen in his yard and needs it removed. So, we expected a 2 ft wide oak tree type of project…but no!!!! We get there and find a tangle of brush and tree and junk that is beyond belief. It was apparently a giant cedar tree that fell from the strong winds in Hurricane Katrina and has been taking over his back yard since then. He was incredibly thankful to have some people to help him get rid of it so he can move back into his house.

So, we are getting excited to see what we would be doing! We’ll also bring some groceries for food distribution.

Some more pictures from the first few days.

For more visit New Orleans Outreach Pictures

What a way to start the trip - with a miracle!

We started off heading down to New Orleans at 4 pm Friday. James drove us all the way through the night and turned over the wheel to Tiffany at 6:15 am. She gripped the wheel with all her might, trying to keep the van on the road. She thought, this can’t be normal! So we got off at the next exit to the gas station to check the tires. Using a tire guage we found all the tires had way too much air pressure for the weight we had. And they weren’t even! One rear tire had 50 lbs and the rest had 41! So James fixed it and we all thought the problem was solved. But the van still wasn’t driving right. Soon we saw a cop car behind us and we checked our speed - doing fine… But nevertheless we saw the flashers signaling us to pull over. Oh no - get the license & registration. But he didn’t ask for that and instead motioned for us to get out and go to the back of the van. He had seen our tire wobbling and was worried. We popped off the rim to look an found a surprising and terrifying thing - four out of five lugnuts that hold our tire on had fallen off and only moments later the fifth could have slipped off too. Had that happened, our van could have went spinning on the highway and who knows what else, maybe flipped. No telling if we would still be alive had God not protected us.

The problem was, the shop the van was at before we left tightened the lugnuts when they didn’t need to be and stripped them. But hey, God looked after us! So the cop called a wrecker for us and they figured out a place that was open on Saturday. Another cop car came and the eight of us rode to the shop in the cop cars!

The guys at the shop checked it out and 2 hours later it was fixed! James was talking to the guys at the shop about what we are doing in New Orleans, and chatting with them for quite a while. Then he asked for the bill, and the guy said ~ oh no, you guys are set, don’t worry about it. Have a safe trip! They fixed our van for free, labor, parts, and all!!!!!! Talk about God providing! What an amazing God we serve. We felt so looked after & cared for by our Heavenly Father.

Praise Him - His guardian angels looked after us, for ‘you alone, Lord, make me dwell in safety.’ - Psalm 4:8.

Spring Break, March 31 - April 8
Cost: $345 plus $35 registration fee

All are welcome to come, especially college age and university students.
We will work alongside and stay with Central City Missions (www.centralcitymissions.com).

The hurricane came and went. Mankind rushed to help, but soon the world forgot. However, New Orleans is not the same. Houses are still in ruins and families are still homeless.

Eugene Robinson said, in an article titled “New Orleans: The Forgotten City” from the Indianapolis Star magazine, “Bush said there was ‘no way to imagine America without New Orleans.’ No imagination is needed — the New Orleans that we knew before the flood no longer exists. The remnant of a city that survives between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain has less than half the population of the New Orleans we used to know. Vast neighborhoods are still full of houses abandoned to mold and decay.”

The city is filled with opportunities and needs. We can go and meet some of them. We can listen for God’s whisper pointing out a woman who needs prayer, a house that needs to be gutted or a hurting child who needs to feel God’s hope. Come join us to serve this forgotten city. Much of the world has forgotten, but God has not nor have His people.

Contact James and Linnea Caldwell at ywam@ywammadison.org or 608-442-1827 if you are interested or for more information.