The Pink Project

While in New Orleans, our mission team drove over to the Ninth Ward - the area most devastated by flooding. This area of town was exceedingly poor before the storm, and whole sections of the neighborhood were literally swept away. Houses were lifted from their foundations and floated away...some landed "intact" on top of cars and trucks, while the pressure caused others to fall to pieces. Most residents were left without any means to rebuild their lives.

Our team had a particular interest in visiting the area, because several of us are familiar with and have supported Desire Street Ministries which, pre-Katrina, worked in the Upper Ninth Ward establishing a church and school. In this area where the greatest number of casualties occurred, those who survived were scattered to the four winds. For the time being, Desire Street has relocated to Baton Rouge, though they are simultaneously working to restore property and homes in New Orleans. Their website is worth visiting...

It is easy for us to acknowledge the hand of the Lord in a ministry effort such as Desire Street, which sets out deliberately serving in the name of Jesus Christ. However, there is another work taking place across the canal in the Lower Ninth Ward, which does not immediately appear to be the work of Christ.

During our tour of the area, as we crossed the Canal which divides the Upper and Lower Ninth Wards, our eyes fell upon a sight which demanded our attention...dozens of hot pink shapes rose from the ground in what appeared to be an empty field. As we drove nearer and entered the area, we realized that this empty field once held hundreds of houses which were obliterated by Katrina. Driving through the streets, we saw one concrete slab after another, some with lone staircases leading to the nothingness which used to be a home. It was a remarkably sobering sight.

We kept driving toward these pink tent-like structures known as The Pink Project. These hot pink monstrosities represent pieces of the first 150 houses which Hollywood celebrity, Brad Pitt, hopes to help build in this neighborhood. For every $150,000 in donations, pieces of these pink tents are assembled into the shape of a house, symbolic of the real home to come.

The website to which I have linked above details the goals of the project, but the site has a very different "feel" to it than the project had in person. The bottom line is that Mr. Pitt visited this area, met with its former residents and local politicians (who had no intention of rebuilding the Ninth Ward), and he was moved with compassion for the utter devastation and inability of these folks to rebuild their lives.

So far, he has sunk at least $5,000,000 of his own money into the project, and his name has drawn a great deal of attention to and participation in restoring this hard-hit area.

I admit that my initial reaction to hearing about this was to scoff...at Pitt's motivation, at how small a sacrifice this probably was for him, at his pretention of caring. After visiting the site, my mind was changed.

First of all, I was convicted of my arrogance - often my own motivations for doing what is right are not pure and are even self-serving, but that doesn't make what I'm doing any less right in itself. And thankfully, the Lord uses me in spite of myself.

Secondly, I became convinced that what Brad Pitt is doing in New Orleans, whether or not he realizes or acknowledges it, is nothing less than God's redemptive work. He is an instrument in God's hands, bringing hope and blessing to hundreds of people. Every good gift comes from above, and Mr. Pitt is a distributor of those good gifts which ultimately originate from Our Father's hand. He is an agent of God's restorative work in the world...think about it.

Remember all the times in the Scriptures when God uses men for His own purposes even though they are wholly unaware of it. The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord and He turns it wherever He wills...likewise, Brad Pitt's heart is in the hand of the Lord and He has turned it toward compassion for these people.

May the Lord continue to prosper HIS OWN work through His servant, Brad Pitt.