Youth Group Ministry in New Orleans

A family from Cottonwood is currently living in New Orleans, attending seminary there, serving in a struggling church, and ministering to the people of New Orleans, who are still hurting and recovering from the effects of Hurricane Katrina. A group of students from Cottonwood spent spring break in New Orleans with Dixie and Patrick Bernson and their daughter Anna, helping residents with projects and serving with members of Ames Avenue Baptist Church there. I asked one of the adults to write a report on the trip for the blog.
Youth Mission Trip to Ames Boulevard Baptist;New Orleans, LA

We left Sat. morning, March 13th, at 7 am from Cottonwood with 15 high-school youth and four adult leaders. Ames Boulevard Baptist Church was our home for 6 nights and 5 days. We slept in sleeping bags, and it was amazing how 19 people showered every day using two showers. The Lord made it work.

Sunday we attended morning church and were blessed by a message from Mike Fritscher. We recovered from our trip during the day, had meals provided by Dixie Bernson and members of Ames Street church, and rounded out the day with an evening message by Chance Yankie.
Monday we broke into groups of four and prayer walked some of the neighborhoods surrounding the church. The Louisiana Baptist organization has a goal to reach every household in Louisiana by the end of 2011. We had a door hanger for each front door that says "your house has been surrounded in prayer today" with the church's contact info. We had maps of our neighborhoods and stopped in front of every house and prayed for peace, provision, protection, and salvation of the residents. Some of us were able to pray for people who where outside. I met a man who was working in his yard whose wife had just had a kidney transplant. I was able to pray with him for her. He was very moved. The kids' prayers were very thoughtful and spirit led. Monday night we went to eat in the seminary cafeteria for supper and attended a worship and sermon there.
Tues. morning I prayer walked again with three kids. We estimate that we prayed for the inhabitants of well over 2,000 homes during the day Mon. and Tues. morning.
All day Tues.:
- A group of boys mowed, weed eated, weeded, trimmed, raked, etc. an elderly church lady's yard.

- A group stayed at the church and cleaned.
- A group went to a charity clothes closet and helped the lady who runs it get it organized by sizes.
Tues. afternoon Dixie and I went to talk and pray with a lady from North Carolina who was visiting her son, who is a seminary student and neighbor of the Bernsons. She is 55, not much older than me, but with many health issues. Dixie had met and talked with her a few days before and just felt she needed some encouragement.
Wed. we went to work at Cafe Hope, a restaurant that will open soon that will employ at-risk youth and young adults. They will cook, wait tables, work in the garden that will provide the produce for the restaurant, etc. Each at-risk person is being trained and assigned a mentor. Our kids did garden work, painted, cleaned, etc. all day. At this job our kids were good examples for the at-risk youth and young adults that they worked alongside. Wed. night we had another supper prepared by church members and a low-key share time where our kids got to tell any experience that had made an impact on them thus far.

Thurs. morning we went to Arlene and Eddie's house. They are an elderly couple from Delacroix Hope Baptist Church whose house was heavily damaged during the hurricane and still needed lots of yard cleanup and mowing, etc. Within two and a half hours our kids had loaded two flatbed trailer loads of junk out of the back yard, and mowed, raked, weed eated, edged, and swept in back and front yard.

Pastor Boogie, the Delacroix Hope pastor, drove the two trailer loads to the dump and took four of our boys to help him unload. Then Eddie and Arlene told their story of God's work as they narrowly escaped drowning inside their home when Katrina hit and how that experience restored their marriage and brought them back to the Lord. The pastor's wife and Arlene provided gumbo, sandwiches, cake, and bread pudding for lunch. Thurs. afternoon we went to the French Quarter and shopped and saw the sights.
Each adult leader,(Ann Moyer, Sarah Ground, Cheryl Krey, and Chance Yankie) as well as Patrick and Dixie, Ames Boulevard members, Arlene and Eddie, and Pastor Boogie, saw God last week in the faces, attitudes, and work ethics of the 15 kids who went on this trip! Here are the names of the kids that went. When you see them around church, bless them by bragging on them for being a reflection of Him!

Emily Bollenbacher
Kaitlin Hooper
Molly Roskilly
Sarah Lueck
Justine DeVries
Kressyn Cole
Natasha Perkins
Colton Johnson
Austin Moyer
Daniel Winkler
Kade Cole
Jamey Mulloy
Mark Weber
Tyler Golden
Dan Chaine