It was a short night. By the time we got the students into the rooms, we only had roughly 4 hours to sleep before we had to get up and ready for church.
Sunday Morning Worship
We were worshipping with Franklin Avenue Baptist Church. This was to be their first Sunday back together since the storm hit and disbursed the congregation throughout the Southeast.
At 6:45am, the sanctuary was already nearly filled for the 7:30am service. We made our way to the balcony so as to be out of the way. People continued to file in. Our group stood out a little bit. It might have been the black T-shirts, but I kind of think it was something else…
It soon became clear, that there was not enough seats to go around. Caleb and I yielded our seats for some grandmothers and stood against the wall in the back. Pretty soon, other students did the same. This was someone else’s home, we were guests, and our students behaved as guests.
The service ran for over two hours. Awesome music. Awesome preaching by Pastor Luter from Habakkuk. Awesome reports from the other 2 churches. Did I mention that Franklin Avenue had been disbursed? Did I mention that two new churches had grown up in Baton Rouge and Houston because of it?
God in His sovereignty, deigned that His presence and power would be made known in New Orleans. Before the storm, the city was self sufficient (or so they thought). Before the storm, the Christians self segregated themselves (a sin). Our group stood out, not because of t-shirts, but because of pigment. Franklin Avenue is a black church. Most of our students are not.
After the storm, First Baptist New Orleans opened their doors to allow the Franklin Avenue flock that remained to use the 1st Baptist facilities.
Sunday Afternoon
We took the students down to tour the French Quarter and to have lunch. Po-boys rock. Even an hour late, Po-boys rock. The kids saw some of the sights and walked through the open air market.
We returned to NOBTS to find Mrs. Chocolate, our contact, waiting for us. She wanted to give the students a tour of the levys and the 9th ward. Caleb and I opted to remain behind to catch up on our sleep. He and I napped for a few hours.