We're going to pray and then we're going to want
to share with you guys. I want to rejoice with
you today on what the Lord was able to do through
our ministry in New Orleans yesterday and just
share a little with you. So let's pray and we're
going to talk about that today. God, we come
to you. We thank you for being good to us. I
thank you for this church and the love that's
in this church. I thank you for blessing us.
And I pray, dear Lord, that you would help us
to be a light. in our community and in our world,
that we would experience your love and blessing
and that we would love and bless others, dear
Lord, so that they may see you and come to you
and know your love, God. I pray that you just
bless us in these few moments as we rejoice over
what you've done. And I ask these things in Jesus'
name. Amen. If you don't know, most of you probably
do, but maybe there's some listening online watching
today that don't know, every year, about this
time of year in the fall as it starts to get
cool we make a trip to new orleans we started
this ministry in 2019 the first year we went
there were only a handful of people and we took
just a few little things we could gather up not
much and we traveled to new orleans not knowing
what to expect with the goal of wanting to help
the homeless and we got there and really our
eyes were open to just how how serious the situation
was there obviously there are a lot of homeless
people in new orleans there's a lot of need and
we were blessed to get to go for a couple of
years and after going and seeing a little bit
about what that need was we began to expand what
we were taking our offerings and then we we found
a great little park area that ended up being
a great place for us to go And we've been going
there for the last three years. We've gone to
this park. And every year we take sleeping bags.
Last year we started taking food. We started
taking these little goodie bags with socks and
gloves and all these other items that people
can use. And so throughout the last six years,
God has really been good. And this little ministry
has just kind of continued to grow. And then
last year was really our biggest year. Up until
then, we would have like five people go, or even
less. One year, it wasn't but four of us that
went. And then last year, God opened the floodgates.
We had 23 people that went last year, which was
fantastic. And the park we go to, it is the perfect
location. It's easy to get to. The street is
wide open. You can park all day, no parking problems.
It's easy to get into the park and set up. Last
year we took tents. That was a huge thing because
everybody says when you go tell them, hey, we
got stuff, they say, where? That's the first
thing they ask usually. And last year we could
say right over there at those tents. And we had
a lot of people, and we had jambalaya, and we
had food, and it was perfect. And this year we
were ready to go. We had our game plan. I was
thinking, all right, we're good. God's kind of,
he's provided this for us. Everything is lined
up. We're kind of in our comfort zone now. We
know what we're doing. We're all prepared. So
yesterday, praise the Lord, we had 21 people
that showed up to go again. We had a huge crew.
And we got our game plan together. figured out
what everybody was going to do just like we did
last year. You're going to tote the tents. You're
going to set up tables. You're going to bring
the food. You're going to bring the sleeping
bags. Ten minutes tops. We're going to park.
We're going to be unloaded. We're going to be
serving people. It's going to be great. And then
we had our first roadblock. I ain't looked at
the weather all week. I looked at the weather,
and you know what it said? Rain all day in New
Orleans. I said, golly. We're going to get wet.
But that wasn't no problem. There's a lot of
brothers and sisters in Christ suffering for
the kingdom, a lot worse than getting rained
on. So nobody was worried about that. Nobody
retreated. I said, look, we're probably going
to get wet today. So we're driving down there,
and I'm talking about a beautiful day, beautiful.
And I'm thinking, man, the weatherman missed
it. It ain't no rain. And then we get there.
Boy, the wind's blowing. We start driving up
down the street. And then all of a sudden, our
little park that always has plenty of parking.
Didn't have no parking. Uh -oh. The whole street.
It's wide open. You could land a plane down it
usually. It was every parking spot just about
was took. There was one of the government buildings.
Early voting today. All the parking meters were
blocked up. Can't park here. No public parking.
Only for early voters. I said, oh, Lord, we in
trouble. We drive a little further. I look over
to our park that's wide open for the masses to
come to, and our little park ain't wide open
to the masses no more. They done built a big
fence around the park, and they got that thing
chained shut. You can't even go in the park.
There ain't a homeless person nowhere around.
And I said, oh, this is a catastrophe. I said,
it's fixing to come afloat. We got about seven
vehicles, and we ain't got nowhere to park. We
come to serve the homeless, and there ain't no
homeless. And the area where we was going to
set up, we ain't going to set up. And I was,
internally, I was in panic mode. I showed it
some, I guess. I didn't do too good a job. But
I told our group, everybody, we squeezed in where
we could. I said, everybody, hang tight. I saw
another group. It was a group of Christians doing
a little Bible study. I went up there, and I
said, hey, what's going on, y 'all? I said, we.
We come to serve folks. We've been coming for
years. I said, are we not allowed in the park?
They said, nope. They didn't shut it down. I
said, oh, this is a bad situation. So I said,
well, there ain't one thing we can do. We're
just going to set up, and we're going to do the
best we can. And my biggest concern was not to
rain or not having to tote the stuff or even
getting a parking ticket. My biggest concern
was we came to serve people. And we didn't know
if we were going to, or I didn't know. Maybe
everybody else had better faith than me. I don't
know. But I'm thinking, we came to serve people,
and I don't know if there's even going to be
people around to serve. I don't know if they've
run these people off. We've seen this trend since
we first started going. We first started going
to these underpasses, under bridges. And every
year we'd go, we would notice more and more of
these underpasses would have these same big old
fences. And so they're pushing the homeless from
one area, and they would retreat to another area,
and eventually it got to the park where we've
been serving. So I don't even know if there's
homeless people here. But I told our folks, I'm
like, there's nothing we can do. You find a place
to park where you can. If we get a ticket, we'll
just have a ticket, and we'll just park. There's
nothing we can do. and we're just going to set
up right here on the sidewalk. So we didn't have
much space. It was real tight. And our crew,
good crew, I'm telling you, I'd go to war with
this crew any day. Nobody complained. Well, I
did have one complaint yesterday. I did have
one of our elder crew members that said we needed
to stop for a bathroom break on the way, that
that was too far to drive. I was the only complainant
of the day, though. Other than that, it was smooth
sailing. So we get there, and we had this plan.
And, you know, I think it was Mike Tyson that
once says, everybody has a plan until you get
punched in the mouth. Well, we got punched in
the mouth. Our plan was out the window. So I
told our folks, I said, look, let's just start
getting stuff out. And everybody was just doing
what they could do. And we were lining our tables
up, and our tent folks were trying to set up
tents, and the wind was just blowing. I was like,
we've got to scrap the tents. We scrap the tents,
we line up our tables, and we start unloading
our stuff. And, of course, the heaviest stuff
to load is at the other end of the street. So
we've got this massive 10 -gallon pot of jambalaya,
cast iron pot, that empty weighs a ton and full
of jambalaya weighs two tons. But we had some
good strong men that were there to help tote
yesterday, praise the Lord. Nobody complained.
Everybody got what they needed to get. We got
the heavy tables. We set them up. We start getting
the ice chest. We start getting the jambalaya.
We start unloading the sleeping bags. Everything's
coming together. And we get it all. I tell our
folks, I'm still of little faith now. Y 'all
can pray for me. I'm still of little faith. I
said, look, we're not going to get much out.
I said, because we're probably not going to be
able to get rid of all this stuff today. I said,
so just get a little out. If we need it, we can
go back and get it. So we get our stuff out.
We get our tables set. Ernest heads off around
the corner. He said, I'm going to go around the
block, and I'm going to see if I can wrangle
up some homeless people, and I'm going to tell
them to come this way. Well, it didn't take long
to get the tables set up. All of a sudden, here
comes a few people, and then a few more people.
And then I head around the block behind Ernest.
I know he had already went. Well, in the ten
minutes from when he went to when I went, I guess
there were some more people that had come. Because
all the ones I told we had stuff, they said,
where? I said, right around this corner. Go right
around this corner, around this park. Follow
that sidewalk. You'll see a bunch of people at
the end of the sidewalk. Boom, off they went.
On their bikes, walking, whatever they had. Off
they went to get the stuff. And so we began to
serve the people. Praise the Lord. The rain held
off. We'd fill a sprinkle every once in a while.
Lord. The wind died down. The rain held off.
Everybody was there. Everybody had a place to
park. All our stuff was set up. Smooth sailing.
Homeless people began to come. Ernest and Erlo
went down to a little homeless shelter that was
just not too far away and said, hey, look, we
got stuff. Word got out. People started coming.
Everything was going good. I still didn't have
enough faith. We were serving that jambalaya.
Dana and Michelle, I think Miss Kathy, was serving
the jambalaya. And I walked over there after
we'd been there maybe 30 minutes. And they said,
what are we going to do with all the rest of
this jambalaya? Maybe we can take it back and
freeze it. So I wasn't the only one that didn't
have enough faith. And so they kept slopping
that jambalaya on them plates, boy. And guess
what? People kept coming. And they never stopped
coming. And it wasn't but about 30 minutes after
that I heard the ting of a spoon hitting an empty
10 -gallon cast iron pot of jambalaya. Turns
out we didn't have to freeze any of it after
all. We gave it out. About an hour and a half
later, everything we had took, every sleeping
bag was gone, 122 of them. I told you all last
week 125, and that's because I can't count. I
counted them again. It was 122. 122 sleeping
bags were gone. 129 of those red bags full of
socks and other goodies, gone. We had about 140
pillows we had took, gone. Everything was gone.
It was a fantastic day for me. I love it every
year. I feel confident, speaking about the rest
of the crew that went, that they were blessed
by being there too. We don't realize how blessed
we are sometimes, and maybe trips like that are
good for us because we get in our own bubble
and in our own routines, and maybe our life hadn't
been too tough. Maybe we've always had a roof
over our head, and maybe we've always had food
that we can eat. We get hungry. We don't have
to go far, about 20 foot probably, and you're
going to be at your refrigerator. And there's
probably going to be something in it. We might
eat a snack two or three times a day. You have
to go to the restroom. You just walk down the
hall. It's not too far. And we've done this our
whole life. We don't really think much of it.
But there are a lot of people in the world that
when they get hungry, they're just hungry. There's
nowhere to go get a snack. When they have to
go to the bathroom, there's nowhere to go to
the bathroom. When it starts raining, they don't
have a roof to get under. And we need to realize
just how blessed we are. I brought a couple of
pictures to show you all today. We didn't take
any pictures yesterday. We were busy. So there
wasn't much picture taking going on, praise the
Lord. We do got a couple of pictures I wanted
to show you guys of some of our workers lined
up out there. That was the ones handing out the
sleeping bags and our goodie bags. And we got
one more of all the food crew serving food. We
had a couple of girls that were serving water.
We also gave out water. I forgot to mention that.
Gave out water to everybody. But we had a good
crew of folks down there. And we were able to
serve a lot of these homeless people. But the
truth of the matter is this. We may be quick
to judge and say, well, those people need to
do better for themselves. Those people need to
do better for themselves. But you don't know
anybody's situation. You don't know what got
them where they are. Because a lot of those people
that were there once, they were just like you.
They had a family. They had a home. They had
a refrigerator with food and a bathroom to use.
And not anymore. And you may say they should
have made better choices. Well, maybe some of
them should have. Maybe some of them did the
best they could do. Maybe they became injured.
Maybe they lost their job. Maybe they were already
struggling to get by. It doesn't take much for
people's world to be turned upside down. There's
a lot of people in this world living paycheck
to paycheck. Some in this room wondering, boy,
is the next check going to get here in time?
Are we going to have food for groceries this
month? And these people were once like you. And
then one month came that they didn't have enough.
And then they lost their home, their apartment.
And they lived in their car. Until eventually
their car broke down. A lot of them don't have
any family and don't have anywhere to go. Where
else can they go? There's nowhere to go. They
go to an underpass in New Orleans until a fence
is built, and then they go to a park until a
fence is built, and then they go to the next
spot until a fence is built. I don't know the
solution to the problem. There is no solution
to the problem. I'm going to be so bold as to
say there's no solution to the problem. I'll
say that because there's always been poor people.
As Miss Madeline pointed out to me on the ride
back yesterday, Jesus said you will always have
the poor. So long as we are on this earth, there's
always going to be people who have a need. There
are people who are a lot smarter than I am who
have thought about and worked on this problem.
For centuries. And it still exists. There's always
going to be people who have a need. And how is
their need going to get met? Is it going to get
met through the government? Well, maybe in some
way. But I'll tell you how God wants the need
to be met. God didn't say in his word, and I'm
going to provide for the poor and the needy with
food stamps. That's not what he said. He called
his people to minister to and to meet the needs
of those who are struggling. He calls us to do
that. In Matthew chapter 22, verses 37 through
40, it says this, Then the righteous will answer
him, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed
you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?
When did we see you a stranger and take you in
or without clothes and clothe you? When did we
see you sick or in prison and visit you? And
the king will answer them, I assure you, whatever
you did for one of the least of these brothers
of mine, you did for me. What is the Lord going
to say of us on the day of judgment? Are there
opportunities that we have to serve those who
are struggling in life, who are poor, who are
needy? Do we pass them by? Or do we help them?
Well, praise the Lord. This church yesterday
was able to help a bunch of people. I bet you
we served in total over 150 people. I have no
doubt about that. Not every one of them got everything
we had. There were a few people that stood out
to me yesterday. And maybe there were other stories
that I didn't see or weren't aware of. There
was one person that came and they said, Look,
I don't want a sleeping bag. I don't want anything
else. I just want food. Can I just get more food
if I don't get those things? Praise the Lord,
we gave them more food. Of course, we'd have
given them a sleeping bag too. We'd have given
them a sleeping bag and all the food they could
eat. And hopefully we did. Hopefully we gave
them all the food that they could eat. We first
got there, we got set up. There was one man,
a young man, he must have got there as soon as
they got stuff out. Because it wasn't but a couple
of minutes after we got set up that I went around
the block. And when I went up the sidewalk and
around the block, on the corner of the block,
I could hear this man from several feet away,
from a good distance, very loudly. I could hear
him, and I could hear him saying stuff like,
a black bandana, a blanket, I got a deodorant,
and as I got closer, there was a concrete wall
about this tall, and across that wall, this young
man had emptied his red bag of all the stuff
that was in there like a kid at Christmas. And
he was going through each item. They all had
about this much space between them. I mean, he
had it lined up, and he was going over every
one of these items, and he cherished those things.
And what about us? We got stuff laying around
all over the place. How many of you thank the
Lord this morning that you could put on deodorant?
I thank the Lord that y 'all could put on deodorant.
How many of us thank the Lord for these things
that we have a blanket to cover up with? I woke
up this morning. It was 67 degrees in my house,
and I was cold. And do you know what I did? I
reached to the foot of my bed, and I just grabbed
another blanket and pulled it over me. I do that
every day because it's 67 degrees every morning,
and I wake up cold. And how many times do I thank
God that I have a blanket? And not only that,
you know what? I got two blankets. Because I'm
already covered up with one and it ain't enough.
So I just grab another one. These people don't
have anything. They don't have one blanket. They
don't have two blankets. They don't have anything.
And we're going to complain. I don't like this
old blanket. It's too scratchy. I just don't
like this one. It's too hot. Oh, this thing's
hot. We complain about our deodorant. I don't
like that deodorant. I only use aluminum -free.
I'm not going to use that. And we find all these
ways to complain about everything we've got when
these people that we saw yesterday do not have
anything. And here's something that's really
cool. You'd love this. If you've never been,
I'd encourage you to go. But almost all of the
people are so appreciative. So many of the people
that come up to us are so appreciative. And they
say, thank y 'all for what you're doing. Thank
you for bringing this stuff to us. This is what
God calls us to do, brothers and sisters in Christ.
This is it. If you don't want to help with ministries
like this and be involved with ministries like
this, I don't know what to tell you. We just
need to sit down and have a talk because... This
is what God calls us to do. We see so many people
that are so grateful. Had one man come through
the line toward the end of the day yesterday.
And he, I'm not sure if he was homeless or not.
He may have been. Here's the cool thing about
some of these folks. Some of them stay in the
shelter. Some of them have jobs. You may say,
I need to get out and get a job. Some of them
are. Some of them are trying. Some of them have
had some tough life circumstances. They were
once like you. Life hit them hard. They got in
a bad shape. And some of them are really trying.
They're trying to get a job, and they're trying
to get reestablished, and that's a good thing.
And some of them come, too, from the shelters.
And they say, hey, we don't need a sleeping bag.
We've got a place to sleep, praise the Lord.
But we would like some food. We'd give them some
food. We had one gentleman come toward the end
of the day, older gentleman. I'm not sure if
he was in as bad a shape as some. Some of them
are in really bad shape. Others are doing better.
But this gentleman come up to me, had a little
bit of a kind of a slurred, slow speech, kind
of like somebody would have after they'd had
a stroke. Not too bad, but a little bit. And
this old man, he came up to me. And he looked
me in the eye, and he said to me, he said, I
want to thank you for what you've done. He said,
may God bless you. I said, brother, he already
has. He said, and I want to give you this. And
he gave me this wadded up. He said, I want to
give this to you so that you can keep doing the
work. And he handed it to me, and I put it in
my pocket. And it was two $20 bills. Now, I don't
know if this dude was homeless. I don't know
how bad off he was. But I can tell you, I don't
think he had much. But he gave us two $20 bills.
Us. We came to serve him. And he said, I want
to give back to what you're doing. And I said,
brother, this will be the first money that will
start our ministry for next year. Yours will
be the first. I bet everybody in here has a $20
bill in their pocket. You can afford to get rid
of a $20 bill. I don't know how much he could
afford to get rid of, but I can tell you this,
he gave from his heart. Perhaps not someone like
the widow in the scripture that only had two
mites. She gave her two mites, he gave his two
twenties. Man, that's... I don't make you think
right there. A guy likely living on the street,
struggling to get by, and he's giving us money
for this ministry? And how much do we have that
we could give, that we could use to support this
ministry and to help these people? Last story.
We were finished. The day was over. There was
a lot of rejoicing in my heart, probably in the
rest of everybody else. It was such a joyous
day. It was such a joyous day for all we were
able to do. But I still left with some sadness
even into the night. Not because of what we did,
but because of what we weren't able to do. Last
year we went, we took about the same that we
took this year. Was able to serve everybody.
Nobody came up to us that didn't get. We served
everybody that wanted. In my comfort zone. All
right, Lord, this is it. This is the number.
125 is what we're going to do this year. So we
served everybody. We were getting ready to leave.
And this little kind of crippled older woman
comes walking up. And she wanted something. We
didn't have anything. We did not have anything.
We had no pillows. We had no bags of love. We
had no sleeping bags. We had jambalaya, which
we were glad to give her. We had nothing. And
this lady is begging, would you please give me
something? Don't you have anything that you can
give me? Michelle come over to me. She says,
is there anything in the van? There was nothing
in the van but a quart of oil. That was it. Nothing
to give this woman. I said, I got nothing. I
thought about it after the fact. When I got home,
I was like, you idiot. I thought it was something
I could have gave her, and I missed it. I feel
horrible about that. And this woman begged, is
there anything? Could y 'all please give me something?
Praise the Lord, one of our folks went to their
car. They had a jacket in the car. They gave
this lady their jacket. So I said to myself,
We got to do a little better. We're going to
take a little more next year. And you may be
saying, well, you can't serve all those people.
No, we can't. We can serve one more than we did.
If we can serve one more than we did this year,
we're good. And I wouldn't even go so far as
to say we can't serve all those people. God is
good. If you'd have told me six years ago that
a few people scrambling around in a hotel lobby
putting sandwiches in a sack to give out to people
would have ever turned into what God's blessed
us with, I'd have said, I don't know about that.
But God continues to bless. So this year our
goal was 125 people served. Well, I'm excited
to announce today that we're doubling that goal
for next year. We're going to serve 250 people
next year. And I don't have any doubt that we
can do it. I don't know where we're going to
serve them. We're going to have to find a new
location. But God knows where we're going to
go. And he got me out of my comfort zone and
showed me, hey, y 'all can do better than what
you were doing. So we're going to do better.
And I pray that y 'all would help. I ask that
y 'all would pray about this ministry. If we're
going to serve twice as many people, then we're
going to need more workers. We had 21 that went
this year. Praise the Lord. We need 42 next year.
But we can do it. We can get 250 sleeping bags.
I'll find somebody to make an extra pot of jambalaya.
We can do it. Because the Lord can do it. So
I want to thank y 'all for all that you've done,
for all of your prayers, for all of your support.
And I want to praise the Lord today. Because
it is the Lord who has provided. It is the Lord
who has given to us. And it is from what God
has given to us that I believe God calls us to
give and to use to serve other people. Yesterday
was a good day. It was a blessing. And I just
wanted the church to know where your money's
went. I wanted you to know the people that it
impacted. I shared those four stories of those
four people. There were a lot more. A lot of
people came and went. We don't know their story.
But all the prayers and all the support, they
had an impact yesterday. And we may not can change
the world, but we changed some of those people's
world if it was just for a day. That meal is
not going to last long. That sleeping bag is
not going to last long. But at least they know
that God loves them. At least we gave them, even
if it's only a day's worth of comfort, at least
the Lord was able to provide them with that yesterday.
And we praise God for that today. Let's pray.
God, we come to you. We thank you for... letting
us be part of this ministry to serve in this
way. I pray for the folks that we saw yesterday,
that you would bless them, that they would know
that you love them. God, I pray that you would
help us not to be greedy. You bless us with a
lot. And I pray that you help us to give back
to those who need it, dear Lord. I thank you
for everybody who's got such a big heart and
has had. such a big heart to give and to provide
and to help with this ministry. And I pray, dear
Lord, that you would bless us going forward,
that we would do more, dear Lord, to meet the
needs that we can. God, we know there's a lot
of needs out there, and we know that we're a
small church, but help us, dear Lord. You provide
for us. And help us to be faithful with what
you provide. Thank you for the workers who went
yesterday and for the ones who were here that
prayed and gave, that you would bless them. I
pray that you would help us not to be judgmental,
but to be compassionate to these people, dear
Lord. That we would give to them, dear Lord.
Because one day it could be us there on that
street. So God, we praise you, we thank you,
and I ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.