Hi all,

Wow. What a week this has been. The men just returned from the annual men's retreat. This year the theme was "risk". I encourage you to talk to any man who attended and ask them what the Lord did in them. I rarely say this but I honestly feel that there was an outpouring of the Holy Spirit on our men at this retreat. What does that mean? Well, it has happened in the bible in the book of acts and when it happens people are saved, they are set free and they are healed. I believe the Lord did all of this at the retreat. I was personally moved and I am a different man because of it. The Lord encouraged me to be a more responsible man in my home. He also moved me to connect more with my wife and children, not by just doing more things together, but by praying for them and contending for their future. I was encouraged to believe more and have a bigger vision for my boys. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

I want to thank everyone in our church, particularly the women that prayed for the men at this retreat - your prayers were heard! What love you showed to all of us by praying for us. I spoke with my wife on the phone on Friday of the retreat and she told me that the women were praying for us and I broke down in tears when I heard that. Thank you.

The Lord has blessed us with a great church.

Pastor Marty

If you want to get blessed watch these videos - this woman worships the Lord with all of her heart - I got so blessed by this video I just wanted to keep watching it over and over - the second one is great too. Lord, expand our capacity to worship you with "PASSION"!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWnvBM40xxw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHJA1n0IoGQ

Well, here we are at our final night. Tonight we ate beignets at Cafe du Mond to close out our stay. We are all pretty exhausted and very blessed.

Today we worked at several sites but ended about an hour early so we could tour the lower 9th ward. This was one of the hardest hit areas and most impacted to date because many cannot afford to rebuild and some have lost their houses. There was a man who stopped by our job site today and talked to us for about an hour about many things. That is the great thing about people from New Orleans - they will stop and really talk with you and tell stories - they take time, even when they have so much work to do with rebuilding their homes. I love that. 

He told about his mother losing their home because the city took it away from them - they couldn't prove that they owned it - of course, any documentation was lost in the flood. Many people here believe that the levees were intentionally blown up in order to flood the poorer areas so that the richer areas could avoid flooding. I don't have an opinion either way - I know how rumors can get going and live on. Whatever happened happened. Now is the time to move on and that seems to be what the people here are doing - moving on. What else can they do?

While in the lower 9th ward we stopped at one corner, got out and photographed some dilapidated houses. It seemed weird being tourists in this area. If we had come to New Orleans pre-Katrina we would have never even thought of going to the lower 9th ward. It would be like people coming to San Francisco and visiting Bay View/Hunter's point - it just doesn't happen. But, this area now has some notoriety because of the press that it got after Katrina. We passed by one house and the people on the porch waved to us with what seemed to be gratitude that we were passing by. Perhaps they are glad that we are taking pictures and showing them to the world.

So, we moved on and came up to a church that was obviously gutted out and messed up pretty bad by the flood. The front door was opened so we pulled our 4 or 5 cars over to the side of the road and got out. Our intention was to pray somewhere in the lower 9th ward but we weren't really sure where we were going to do this. This place was obviously where God wanted us to be. There weren't any other houses nearby - most of them were destroyed - just a church. We went inside and saw only gutted walls and the remains of a former choir loft and baptismal. It felt like a place where people "really" worshipped God. We formed a circle and sang a couple of verses from Amazing Grace and the sound was really, really sweet - "how sweet the sound". I love singing hymns in situations like we were in. We then prayed for God to restore this church and that this church would become a place of worship again and that many, many people would come to know God in this church and that prodigals would return to God in this church. Someday, I envision returning to a worship service at this church - this will be such a sweet day.

Tomorrow we all fly back to San Francisco. It will be hard to return to life as normal - it never is easy returning to life after an amazing spiritual and emotional journey. But, we will return. It will take a few days to get over the reverse culture shock, a few weeks will go by and we will be back in the swing of things. But, you know, I really feel changed by this trip. One thing is for sure - I feel confirmed in my view that we have plenty of ministry to do in our own country. I feel a passion for helping our own country as a first priority and then when we have a good handle on that then move out. I know this might rankle some but it is how I feel. I apply this same philosophy to my own home and family. If I can't take care of my own wife and my children then how can I possibly go out and minister to others. It all starts with those closest to us. Jesus modeled this with His disciples.

In regards to New Orleans - please pray for restoration. They have been through difficulty but God is bringing them back stronger than before. As we all know, the bible says that we will have adversity but ultimately this will strengthen our character. Folks from New Orleans already have an amazing character - or I guess I should say they are all "characters" :) but I pray that God will strengthen them internally and that they will be able to weather the coming storms - literal and figurative storms of life. 

blessings,

pastor marty 

Today we continued on with some of the jobs we have been working on all week plus we added a new job of gutting a much larger home. This job had a larger team of 11 people and they did an amazing job and were very pumped up when we all shared at dinner.

Last night there was a huge thunderstorm (or monsoons as some on our team like to call them). Basically, if you have never experienced a thunderstorm in the south then you are in for an amazing storm. We are staying in a very large tent - men on one side, women on the other, there is a big tarp separating the two separate areas. During the storm, it kind of felt like the tent was going to cave in at times depending on where you are in the tent. We all survived and today was working with intermittant thunderstorms - it was refreshing actually.

It is fun to do the work but I feel a mild frustration in that I would love to be able to see a project all the way through to the finished project. We are just a team of 25 people working on a segment of the projects. Another team will come next week and continue the work. You kind of have to envision what it will look like when it is all said and done. I have family here in New Orleans so I plan to return next year to visit and drive around the neighborhoods we helped, in some way, to rebuild. 

Tonight, we sat around a large table to eat and shared what is going on at each of the work sites. It is fun to share in this format because we all like to know what is going on at each others' sites. The greatest part about most of the sites is the people connected to that site.

Charlie is the optometrist who has a mother (Catherine) with Alzheimers. Pray that he will be able to get back into practicing medicine. He has not practiced since the storm because he is taking care of his mother and is so overloaded with trying to just get back on track. Pray that he will find a suitable place/person to care for his mother.

Anthony is the retired New Orleans Fireman. He is 86 years old and is very much health and alert. His home is the first rebuild project that Mercy Response has. Up until this point, all Mercy Response has done is deconstruction - now they begin construction on Anthony's house. This is the house I have been underneath for the past 2 days trying to level the home. Pray that his home will be finished soon and he will be able to move out of his FEMA trailer. I've been inside this trailer to use the restroom. It is not a pleasant place to be and I pray he won't have to stay much longer.

There are a few others but I'll share those later. Time to sleep and prepare for our final day in New Orleans. Our plan is to finish work a bit early and then all go together to the lower 9th Ward to see it as a team and then pray over the city together.

blessings,

pastor marty 

Hello,

Day 3 was great. We worked a shorter day because we brought meals to a neighborhood called Gentilly. We set up tents and served Jambalaya near 2 FEMA trailer parks. The Vineyard Church in Kenner has been doing this meals ministry for 15 months now. This week was the second to the last week. They decided to end the ministry because the trailer parks are shutting down and they are going to stay open for what the next ministry will be. There is so much need in New Orleans. There are needs everywhere, as we all know - San Francisco, Manila, New York, wherever you go there are needs. But I think the situation in New Orleans is different - these are folks that have been through a major catastrophe and things did not just pop back into place. The shock is still evident because people talk about the flood all the time.

Serving meals was a joyful time. The people were very appreciative and our team really was great. I had a unique vantage point to really just observe the team in action. My job was to replenish the supplies of jambalaya when the serving line ran out. So, I stood around alot and it gave me the chance to see all of our team doing great ministry - serving food, handing out gifts, smiling and talking to everyone in the lines. The people in Gentilly definitely got loved on. I met a man there who had visited San Francisco to study the Delancey Street Foundation (http://www.delanceystreetfoundation.org/). They are starting a similar organization in New Orleans called "Project Desire" to help people who are coming out of prison to get good training, education and on the job training. 

I've spent the last 2 days under a house. Interesting place to be actually. An occasional lizard, a random CD that was washed up from one of the neighbors, a scrub brush, oh, and alot of dirt. We have been trying to level Anthony's house. It is a tedious process. We used a jack to lift the house off its blocks while taking measurements off the inside walls using a laser beam. We would try to get all the sides to match but as soon as you get one side to match the shifting causes another corner to be off - so you raise the house a little here, lower it a little there, and on an on and on. I'm trying to think of what I learned spiritually about all of this - I can't think of anything but if it ever comes to me I will certainly write about it.

On Day 3, everyone seemed to hit a good stride. Everyone has been working well together. I'm impressed with how everyone seems to be getting along and not complaining about the backbreaking work. With a strong purpose, work is really not hard at all - it becomes fun and satisfying. I hope we can apply this philosophy to the work we all do in San Francisco. 

Blessings,

pastor marty 

Greetings from the Big Easy (as it is sometimes referred),

 Easy is not a word I would use to describe New Orleans right now because the people we are in contact with are not having anything easy come to them. 

We have connected with people who have lost "everything". I don't know what that feels like and probably never will - by the grace of God. 

We have several different projects happening simultaneously so you will hear a variety of stories from each person - this makes the trip even richer. Tonight, after dinner, we sat around and debriefed and heard stories from each work site.

At one site they are gutting a home for an optometrist who hasn't worked in two years - his home was also his office - it is destroyed so he cannot practice medicine. His mother has alzheimers so he must care for her each day. Part of that team watches his mom and keeps her company (and they all have fallen in love with her) and the other part of the team works on the house. They have had meaningful conversations with him about God and let him know that "God has not forgotten him." I know this phrase can get thrown around so easily and quickly but when you see the devastation and you put it all in context and then you meet the person who went through it, then God gives you that word to speak to them - that is a powerful word from God.

Another group is painting a home of a local musician. This musician could have left New Orleans after the storm and actually would have done better outside of the city with his music career. He chose to stay in spite of the odds stacked against him - he is frustrated, tired. He has young children and some physical problems. He watches the children and tries to work on the house by day while his wife works, then goes off at night to play music and make a living. The team has been painting the house and getting it ready for them to move back in.

At the site I was working at - Kevin just got out of prison in August. When we first met he barely said a word. I was a bit intimidated by his demeanor. Slowly he started to warm up and work along side us. Eventually, he was leading us and working hard to gut his home. He didn't want to save anything. We would find little things and ask him if he wanted to save them and he said to throw it all away - he said he wanted to have everything new - to start fresh. A new life, free from prison, free from the filth that was his house. Today we broke all the glass in the windows and removed all the frames. We removed a toilet filled with __________ (you know what). By the end of the day, we prayed over Kevin and he was moved. By the end of the day, we were all laughing, making jokes, posing for funny pictures. The withdrawn Kevin was freer, he felt like an old friend. It's amazing what one or two days of serving a person can do to that person and what it can do to us.

I'll close this blog with what happend at one site. One of the people on the trip felt led to weed the front area of the house and FEMA trailer of one of the homeowners. She felt compelled to just serve him and clean up the area so when he came home he would have "order" and not chaos as he approached his home. I was very moved by her desire to serve this man. There was nothing overly spiritual or religious about what she did or how she talked about it - she just wanted to serve him. I love our Lord Jesus for showing us the way and giving us the model of servanthood.

It feels good to work. I have felt very blessed by the work we are doing here. It feels good to help people, especially our people - Americans. I love helping people all over the world but I've never been happier than to serve and help my fellow Americans in a time of need.

More to come. Tomorrow we have more work to do and then we go to serve meals in a New Orleans neighborhood - Gentilly. Everyone is tired physically but very energized in other ways - it seems that everyone is in good spirits and having great conversations. Many are just relieved that we have the time to develop relationships.

love to all,

pastor marty