New Orleans and Then Off to Cleveland
We’ve been busy over the weekend, so I’ll catch up with two days of reports in this posting.
Saturday, I saw a different New Orleans than my previous pre-Katrina visit. The first stop of the day was at ACORN (The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), the “nation’s largest community organization of low- and moderate-income families, working together for social justice and stronger communities.” Beth spent an hour with our group discussing the myriad of problems that exist post-Katrina. This organization is a national one and has existed for 29 years. But with the magnitude of Katrina issues, it appears their main focus is on attacking the problems that have worsened since the flooding. It was interesting that she made a point of saying that everything that was bad pre-Katrina only has worsened since. Even though I’ve read regularly about all the issues that have been in the news concerning the recovery efforts, Beth gave it a much more personal picture of how poorly the recovery is coming along for the citizens of the Ninth Ward.
Our next stop was a bus and walking tour of the Lower Ninth Ward. All the photos and video that have saturated the media paled compared to seeing the area in person. It was desolate and had a very hopeless look to it. It was inspiring to see two new houses that have families who have returned to the area, but at the same time, they were sad because they were the only two after almost two years.
Saturday evening Lynn and I had another delicious dinner in the French Quarter at the Red Fish Grill. I walked off the double chocolate bread pudding before heading back to the hotel. We had a much earlier evening than did the students. I heard them around midnight, but understand they were heading out then, not coming in! Must be nice to be young and still have that much energy late at night.
This morning we attended another Baptist church service, this one at the Greater St. Stephen Full Gospel Baptist Church. This one was more elaborate than last week: more people (with a wider range of ages, young to old), bigger choir, full immersion baptism of 14 youths, a woman preacher plus screen projection that included what was happening up front, words to the songs and Bible passages, and what I would call advertisements. The collection process was much more elaborate with the tithers (is that a word?) lining up to walk their donation to the front. One collection request was made to buy the preacher a birthday present! Many people went up to be saved at the end of the service. I have a question about this part of the service that I should ask Marcus or one of the others who are familiar with this. Is the call to be saved a weekly occurrence, and if so, what happens if nobody goes up to be saved? Do they hang in there until someone finally goes forth, or do they have a standby person who is planted in the congregation just in case? My very favorite part of this ministry was the fact that they have coupled religion with technology: church members can receive inspirational text or voice message on their cell phones!
After the 2 hour 10 minute church service, we hit the road for Cleveland, MS. The five hour drive (with one stop for lunch, one to wash the bus and a dinner stop) turned in to over 6 I think. But we made it here to Cleveland safely and I think most of us are blogging or working on assignments. Tomorrow is a long day, according to Dr. Hattery, so look for the next update sometime Tuesday.