Back From NOLA

New Orleans surprised me. Not only is its downtown "proper" much larger than I anticipated, it is sprawled out in a way I never imagined. Satellite and aerial footage don't translate into reality for me.

NOLA is very much alive and very much a mess. We spent Sunday afternoon in the French Quarter where we sampled a variety of seafood at the ACME Oyster Company. The Chargrilled Oysters were simply fabulous, and we acquired a taste for some local brew as well (ABITA Amber and Turbo Dog). From there we walked through the Quarter, which was teeming with tourists, locals, marching bands - big football week, you know - and street performers. Of course we made the compulsory trek to Cafe du Monde for some to-die-for beignets and cafe au lait, then hung around Jackson Square for a little while. New Orleans has a decidedly un-Southern flavor and, to me, it felt much more like San Francisco than anywhere else I've been (except for its visual tributes to Southern Civil War Generals!)

Pastor Gibson (of Redeemer Presbyterian Church) told us that some - maybe even a good deal - of the messes we saw existed before Katrina, and have only been exacerbated by the storm. One of the most striking aspects of the city is that the majority of the neighborhoods don't fit in a category of "well-kept" or "slummy," but are a curious mixture of both...maybe 4-5 houses on a block would be really nice and the rest in varying degrees of disarray or reconstruction...or vice versa.

Apparently the flooding from Katrina occurred in similarly random patterns - one block would have 18" of water, a block or two over would be virtually dry, while the next might have 4' of standing water. Some of our best times this week were spent hearing people's "stories"...and they all have them. While we stood around waiting for homeowners to show up, or for dumpsters to arrive, we were able to engage with neighbors who are eager to tell their personal Katrina experience.

I was likewise struck by the resiliency of many residents who remain astonishingly hopeful in spite of the devastation and the many blunders by those on whom they relied for help. There is still an incredible amount of restoration, demolition and rebuilding to be done, yet residents expressed such gratitude at our coming to gut a couple houses...you would've thought we were building something new and beautiful. After all this time, the simple act of tearing out the old helps them cling to the hope that it will all be made new again.

The greatest encouragement arising from the rubble of New Orleans is that, in wake of the governments' failures, The Church is the one who is stepping up to the plate in a way that is too obvious to be ignored. Almost everything is being done by the People of God, and the Good News of the Gospel is being proclaimed loudly and clearly by the Church's sacrificial service.

Pray for renewal of the hearts, minds and culture of New Orleans, as the physical surroundings are renewed.