New Orleans Mission Trip

Hi everybody. I mentioned the mission trip to New Orleans I'm doing with my 2 oldest sons this summer on another thread, and I've had quite a bit of inquiry about it, so I figured I'd start my own thread about it. Thanks for all your feedback and support!!!

There are ~45 of us going (youth & adults, ~75% youth). We'll be taking a bus there (hopefully ours will be fixed by then) on June 26th, and returning July 2nd or 3rd.

New Orleans has one of the highest number of homeless people in the country. We'll be for sure feeding the homeless and giving them some necessities (they LOVE socks!!!), sharing the love and Word of the Lord. Never been there myself, but our youth minister has been many times. We're going thru Mission Lab ( http://www.missionlab.com/ ). Not sure what other area's we'll be serving in. I'm thinking we'll have a construction/repair/clean-up group, and a group that either helps with children or elderly.

We've been doing fundraisers to cover the cost of trip ($300/person) and for the items we'll be giving to the homeless. It'll be my first big mission trip with my boys. We've done more local trips, and they've actaully went out of state on mission trips, but this is the first time we'll be doing a long-distance big mission trip together. We're really looking forward to it too!

My kids & I still need to raise another $100 each. I think all the fundraisers coming up will be local stuff, meal sales, car washes, serving food at local restraunts, etc. We just did a "Wing-A-Thon", where we took pledges and ate hot-wings. Somebody would pledge $.25 to $1.00 per wing, and that was multiplied by the number of wings you could eat in 10 minutes. I had 12, my 12 year old ate 13, and my 14 year old at 23 wings! One of the other boys going got enough pledges & ate enough wings to pay for his whole trip!

If YOU would like to be a part of this mission trip with us, whatever you'd like to give would be appreciated, whether it is to help pay the way for my sons and I or pay for things to give away. Whatever you'd like.

If you want to give, please mail a check made out to "MFBC" and mail it to the address below. Please include a note stating that its for "New Orleans Mission Trip" and what you'd like it to go for. Include your name and address on it and our youth pastor will be sure to get you a donation reciept for your taxes next year.

Marietta First Baptist Church
Attn.: Brian Spearman
PO Box 337
Marietta, SC 29661

Thanks again, Ryan Kelbey

our church website: http://www.mfbc-sc.org/

Gotta love to see Moomba owners giving back. Have a safe and productive trip!

nice to see..

be careful in the big easy tho. sis just came back and there's parts of that city you don't want to be anywhere near in the evening/night..

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Originally Posted by kaneboats

Gotta love to see Moomba owners giving back. Have a safe and productive trip!

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Thanks kaneboats!

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Originally Posted by sandm

nice to see..

be careful in the big easy tho. sis just came back and there's parts of that city you don't want to be anywhere near in the evening/night..

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Yeah, that is one of the main reasons to go through Mission Labs. They have a fenced in residence that is patrolled. And there will always be at least 1 adult with the youth at all times, even the daytime.

thank you Mr. Moderator for making this a sticky ;)

Thanks to all you Moomba Members for your repsonse and generosity! As requested by some, I'll be sure to post up pics upon returning.

Sorry it has taken me a couple of days to get back on here, but I've got Jury Duty this week...

Hello again everyone. Just wanted to give a quick update.

THANK YOU Moomba family for your generosity!!! Because of your giving, my boys and I now have our $300 raised! i cannot thank you enough, along with my relatives, church family, and co-workers.

If you'd still like to give, we could always use money for supplies to take with us when we feed the homeless and do projects.

I did learn last night that we'll get to do a fun activity one evening! A riverboat tour is giving us 25% off each of our tickets, so we'll get a 3 hour boat ride 1 evening with an all-you-can-eat cajun buffet. Yet another thing to look forward to on this great trip!

God Bless, thanks for posting!

Got a little more info Sunday...

We'll be doing some clean-ups for sure, as well as working with children.

At least 1 night, probably 2, we'll be feeding the homeless. We'll take them carepacks with a sandwich, chips, and water, along with new socks, toothbrush, and travel-size toothpaste. There are officially 49 of us travelling from our church.

Our final fund raiser is scheduled. Going to be here before I know it!

Group Motorcycle Ride
Saturday June 18th
Rides leave at 9 and 10 am from the church
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=2936+G...d=ie8-activity
Rides return by 1:30 for BBQ Lunch and Raffle Drawing (tools & gift cards)
$20 per rider includes lunch & raffle ticket
All proceeds go directly towards the mission trip

I'll pay for two riders ($40?). Check payable to MFBC and to the below address?

Marietta First Baptist Church
Attn.: Brian Spearman
PO Box 337
Marietta, SC 29661

And, yes, I wanna see pics from the mission trip.

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Originally Posted by deerfield

I'll pay for two riders ($40?). Check payable to MFBC and to the below address?

Marietta First Baptist Church
Attn.: Brian Spearman
PO Box 337
Marietta, SC 29661

And, yes, I wanna see pics from the mission trip.

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Awesome! Thanks Deerfield. Yes, $40 will pay for 2 riders and you have the correct address.

Thanks again everyone!!!:cool:

we got our "assignments" if you will... We'll have groups doing the following
- Prayer walking
- Vacation Bible School in Holleygrove (a neighborhood in New Orleans)
- Children's ministry @ Georgetown Apartments (New Orleans east)
- Clean-up & yard work at First Baptist New Orleans
- Clean-up & repairs at Matties Little Angels Day Care (VERY old building)
- Providing food and care packages to homeless.

Some of these are weeklong projects, others are things that will be done for an afternoon or evening or 2. I'm getting really stoked!!!

last weekend's ride/wash/BBQ was a great sucess. We raised almost $2,000 in one day!

Can't believe we're leaving in 4 days!!!

Hello everyone.

We've made it back safe and sound. What an awesome, amazing trip!!! This was surely an experience the Lord blessed, and none of us will forget. I'll detail it out as best as I can below. I'm sure I'll forget some things, but it was truly amazing. Please feel free to email back and ask questions if you'd like. Please look me up on FaceBook for the best pics with descriptions. If you're not an FB person, you can look here for them http://community.webshots.com/album/580456285pQJcrH , but there isn't much description. Most of New Orleans that we saw looks about the same, with houses people never returned to next to a place fixed up. I would've thought that most of the houses people returned to would've been fixed up really nice since they had to be gutted, but most places still looked 10-20 years old. There were also some really neat houses fixed up very nice.

We left Sat. evening at midnight. There were about 40-45 of us waiting around in the parkinglot at MFBC in Marietta around 11:30 when the police rolled thru and told us to all go inside as there was a shooting and they were looking for the person and stolen car...Hmmm... We rolled out at midnight. At our second stop around 4:30, the belt broke on one of the buses. Oh yeah, we were in Alabama near Montgomery, so the time there was 3:30 Sunday morning, so we had a LONG wait until parts stores opened...About 4 hours worth of waiting :-( Oh, the air in that bus wasn't working to well either, and many people traded vehicles later in the day to try to get a little cooler. But we made it to New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary safe and sound in time to check in and get some dinner. The food there was great all week, breakfast an dinner anyways. Lunches were just sandwiches, but they did the job.... 4 people to a room, and each floor sharing 4 showers. Didn't work out too bad since most rooms had a sink in them...Unfortunately not ours... Brushing your teeth with your face next to a urinal isn't a pleasant experience... We had worship/preaching the first night after we got settled in, and it was very good. The band and preacher did a great job all week; Devotions every morning at 7 and worship again Tuesday and Friday. The whole thing is set up by Mission Lab http://missionlab.com/, and they do an awesome job of organizing team after team coming through there. There were about 400 kids there last week besides us.

We also had a team meeting to get our teams organized and prepped for the week. Since we had 50 people, we split into 4 teams. Cody and Cam were on a different team than me, while I was leader of Team 1. Our main task was VBS at Holleygrove (poor neighborhood) in the afternoons M-T, while they were doing work on a church in the mornings. One other team was remodeling a very rundown daycare every day all day, and the last one was doing a backyard bible study every day in the mornings at Georgetown Apartments. Mission Lab assigns us a missionary for the week. Ours was Cody, a 19 year old man serving for the summer. He's from Alabama and was a great help to us.

Monday morning my team started off by prayer walking in Bywater. We prayed for the community since they have a very high illiteracy rate, most people have an average income of roughly $10,000, the blacks and Hispanics don't get along (most of New Orleans), and about 1/2 the teenagers aren't graduated and aren't in school. There are some pics of this area. After lunch we headed to Holleygrove to Jesus Project Ministries to do VBS. What an awesome ministry!!! http://www.jesusprojectministries.com/ I would encourage you to give if you can. They're also selling T-shirts and bracelets to make money. What a great bunch of kids being ministered to that love and want to be loved on. It is a poor neighborhood, and many kids never know when they're going to get their next meal, and there is a lot of drugs there. They get a sandwich when they get there and then we do VBS with them. This group of kids receives this ministry 4 days a week all summer long, and then the Jesus Project does afterschool programs. They need prayer, as they're currently needing $3000 for back-to-school book bags they've purchased. They also are in need of a lager building, as the fire marshall only allows about 20 in the building at a time, and there are usually 40-50 kids alone! We worked with a team of Canadians; they were fun to work with. I was in charge of crafts. We had almost 50 kids each day, and we brought them through rec, crafts, and story in 3 groups. In crafts, we made paper plate baskets holding slips of paper with things we're thankful for. It went well until out of the blue it started raining... They all had a lot of fun playing in the rain, and most were wet already anyways from the water-games they did in rec... We went downtown Monday evening to scope things out and get a quick layout for what we wanted to do later in the week when we had more time. We saw many people sleeping under overpasses (they're a much different style than here, and there are a LOT of them). Brian (our youth pastor) took us down the mild end of Bourbon St., and it was more than most wanted to see. The sinfulness is saddening, esp. considering it was still daylight and this was the mild end! After the sun went down, we grouped back up and got on the bus. It is almost like you could feel the evil in the city... Also, there were people sleeping on benches,some just laying on the sidewalks or in parkinglots with their feet jutting right out into the sidewalks. Quite sad...

Tuesday morning we headed out to deliver health kits to the homeless. We took many to the Mission (kind of like Salvation Army in Greenville). It costs $5 per night to stay there, to help encourage them to work and not spend money on drugs/alcohol/cigarettes. They drug/alcohol test them before they can even stay the night. Great place, and they were happy to see us, and the kids. We then went outside and walked a block the overpass and handed out a bunch more. It was awesome seeing many of our youth, even the quiet girls, handing them out and talk to them and praying with them. One of the surprising parts to me is how much many of them know of the Bible. One of the homeless men could quote lots of scripture and in the correct context...You really have to wonder how/why many of them are on the street. Some would talk to you, others wouldn't. Many of them loved us to pray with them, a few declined. They all sure love new socks, most more than they'd want food! That afternoon VBS went much better for us, much smoother. We talked about helping others and made hand-puppets from paper sacks. For the second day in a row, a little girl made me take off my sunglasses while we were plying, because she always wanted to see my eyes. Did I mention it was hot? I mean HOT!!! It was near 100 degrees every day, and the humidity had to be near 95% every day. You'd sweat within 1 minute of being outside, and I mean dripping sweat. EVERY day!

Wed. we prayer walked the Irish Channel. We prayed for Pastor Tilton, along with teachers and students at a school, crime, elderly, and children. We also prayed over a mission that had been shut down :-( and the playground across the street. As soon as we walked through the gate, many black kids playing there came running to us thinking we were there to play with them. We couldn't disappoint, so we spent about 1/2 hour to 45 minutes playing with them :-). VBS went great again. I had to write an 11 year old boys name for him...Thankfully it was something simple for me to spell, Ryan . Lol. It was very sad though, that an 11 year old can't write his name. Most of the kids have no problem reading or writing, some surprised me how well they could ready. But the ones that can't, can't! Sad indeed, and all the more reason to help support Jesus Project who is truly caring about these kids and trying to give them a better life! We were praised by Katie (one of the leaders) for our organization (esp. rec) and our youth's participation. That evening we were able to go downtown and do whatever we wanted for a few hours. I'm not really a shopping person, but we went in a few stores and stuff. What made the evening great is that my friend Baine drove down from Baton Rouge to see us. It was great to see him again; it has been almost a year! We had fun catching up and walking around. We had a great dinner at Riverfront. Food was awesome!

Thursday morning we prayer walked Gentilly, across the street from the seminary. Oh yeah, the bus broke down again on Tuesday, and Mark (another chaperon) and Cody (my son) replaced the rear brakes Wed. Yes, same bus as before... They wrenched at the men's rehab across the street from the seminary (Bethel Baptist), and this is one the places we prayed for. They have 100 men in there, and they help them get back on their feet by developing skills and stuff. There is a carwash they do on the main road out front on property donated by the community! We met James in the neighborhood behind there, and requested us to pray for healing for our nation, for unity. It was great to talk to and pray with him! VBS went well again, with lots of hugs and some sadness that we were leaving our new friends. Liz (another chaperon) was doing the Bible story every day, and many kids prayed the prayer of salvation with her. It was absolutely wonderful! We bought the ministry a new tent, and the kids a new basketball goal! Oh, they were SO excited!!! We have a strong desire to supply them with bibles. Oh yeah, Mark was fixing the bus again, as the vacuum pump went out, along with the belt tensioner pulley and the belts, again... All fixed and ready to go by the end of the day though! One of the group did homeless ministry in the French quarter, and Shawn (another Chaperon) gave a homeless man the shoes off his feet! We've got a very compassionate group at Marietta First! That evening, we were able to go on a 3 hour riverboat ride on the Creole Queen. The ride was nice, along with the band. The food was awesome!!! Our missionary Cody was able to go with us, along with Stacey, the organizer at Mission Lab. Everybody who went had fun.

On our last day, we took health kits to the French quarter downtown. There were about 25 of us. I had taken an older pair of shoes incase I was to help with another group, so I left them with a homeless man. We also prayed with many of the recovering addicts at Bethel Baptist them and gave them health kits, as well the new women's ministry (same thing as men's). We left New Orleans after an amazing worship service and made it home without issue.

THANK YOU to those who supported us in this ministry!!!

Ryan

Thank you for sharing your account with us and for sharing your self and your goodness with those less fortunate. We are proud to "know" you. Great job!

Thanks kaneboats. Here are some pics...

more pics...

yet some more pics...

and some more...

lets go for some more...

The lone picture is yours truely, and the group is most of us, I snapped it while we were waiting for the last few to show...

RC - You are a man of your word. Really appreciate the write up about your mission trip and pictures. Think my favorite is the kids gathered under the canopy. VBS? Thanks so much for your servant heart to the folks of New Orleans! - Deerfield

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Originally Posted by deerfield

RC - You are a man of your word. Really appreciate the write up about your mission trip and pictures. Think my favorite is the kids gathered under the canopy. VBS? Thanks so much for your servant heart to the folks of New Orleans! - Deerfield

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VBS = Vacation Bible School

I was doing crafts with the kids under the canopy. It was hot, but at least shaded. There is a LOT of racial tension in New Orleans, and unfortunately the fire marshall busts her chops constantly :( and she can't have many kids inside... She's praying for a larger building just a couple blocks away. Some of these kids walk quite a few blocks to be there. They do this for these kids M-T all summer so they can have at least 1 consistant meal since they're outta school. It is a wonderful ministry!

Sorry for the few pics, but I was doing a lot of working and snapping pics when I could...