Confessions of a Recovering Pharisee

Last night we went to Edgewater and had supper with them.  It was great to see Joe Kennedy and Jason Sampler again.  Jason is now married and made some crack about my spiky hair but at least I have hair!

By divine appointment there were two bartista’s from Starbucks who were in attendance last night and they told us where one has been reopened closer to the church than going to Kenner.  So we hung out there a while and there was an outdoor festival across the street.  Above Jack is trying his first Venti Mocha!

Today I have been busy staining and painting doors as well as mudding and taping.  Mike, Donnie Rae and Ray are putting in the door frames at the front of the church and hanging the new glass to go over the stained glass.  I can’t wait to see how good that looks.  I’m sure that will be exciting to the church members.  My son Jacob and Jack are removing concrete so they can put up a ramp.  John and Barry are working in the downstairs restroom as is evidence by the picture of Barry.

We are working hard but it is great fellowship hanging out with men who pay their own way to serve people they don’t even know.  God is amazing!

Well I’m no longer a rookie when it comes to muddin’ & tapin’ so they took off my “yellow” stripe. (It is a NASCAR joke for those who don’t watch). Our guys have been working hard all day. Tonight we get to go worship @ Edgewater. Every Wednesday they invite the community for free hamburgers and hotdogs. Several of our men invited our waitresses and a woman @ K-Mart to church tonight. My son is getting schooled in construction work and he has learned as much this week as his normal homeschooling. Plus he has school work to do on top of that. Got to run to head to Edgewater.

Thanks for your prayers.

Today has been a productive day. We divided up into several groups and are working on the Sanctuary @ Edgewater Church. I stained doors with Jacob (my son) and Ray. Mike (my Assoc) and Donnie Rae put up doors. John was doing wiring and Jack and Barry were building stairs for outside. We are tired but had a great time.

This church is truly having an impact on the Gentilly area of New Orleans. There so many empty homes and businesses in this part of town. We went to the Riverwalk last night and it is thriving. We ate at Cafe Maspero and I had a iced cafe something at Cafe DuMond. If you went downtown you would never know there were so many hurting people. On our way back to New Orleans Seminary we saw about 50 homeless people sleeping under I-10. New Orleans needs more Christians not less. People feel abandoned by the government so this is a great opportunity to minister to them.

We drove over to the lower 9th Ward again and this place is still a mess.  There are hurting people everywhere.

We are headed to Deanies

We just pulled in to New Orleans Seminary. We are headed to eat. In the morning we will go to Edgewater Baptist to help rebuild the sanctuary.

It was a long trip with no shortage of fun. When we were driving through Atlanta my Associate Mike asked what time we were returning on FRIDAY? The only problem is we won’t be back until Saturday. Read the bulletin Mike!

Got to run to eat Cajun.

I was speaking from Matthew 10:5-15 this past Sunday on a message called “Messy Christianity.”  As I was studying some of the commentators said the reason Jesus wouldn’t allow the disciples to preach to the Gentiles and the Samaritans was because they weren’t equipped to reach them because of their background, knowledge and technique.  I’ll be honest as I read their views it hit me like a ton of bricks.

• How do you know if you are equipped to reach certain people?
• If you are not, how do you become equipped?
• Or is it possible that there are certain groups of of people that you just can’t reach?

What do you think?