"there are a lot of places i like, but i like new orleans better." - bob dylan

i'll try not to write a novel, but i'm not sure if i'll be able to stop myself. i am in new orleans and i love this place and these people. right now, the majority of the group is at a bar, cooter brown's, watching alabama and texas battle it out for the national championship. i could not handle to watch and i finally actually hit a wall and needed some quiet time. it took 5 whole days of living and working with 20 other people to get here! i'm pretty impressed with myself (i say with sarcasm... it's usually hard for me to make it without much quiet/alone time) . new orleans is such a beautiful, special place for many reasons. the greatest regret of the trip (next to losing my phone on the first day as we gutted the church) was not charging my camera enough at the beginning... therefore i have no pictures of my own. fortunately, we do have our very own photographer for the trip, charles, and he has posted pictures on facebook. i will post some of those later. but here are reasons this trip has been so amazing...

- the architecture here is stunning... definitely some of the most beautiful houses i have ever seen. it's a mix of french/spanish/caribbean architecture which equals beautiful! (i am very sad because i could not find any pictures that really represent what i am talking about)

- the community is so tight here. if you live in new orleans, you love new orleans and the people in it and anyone who wants to come help. everyone has been so appreciative of our help. i am so greatly inspired by the people here that long to see this city restored.

- something that people at the church, redeemer, say is that new orleans paints such a good picture of heaven and of hell. it's so true. you can see the incredible beginnings of what new orleans was. the stunning homes, the beautiful lakeside, the great music. however, it has been so distorted by the Fall. down one street, you find beautiful art galleries and antique shops with multimillion dollar homes. on the next street, you find strip clubs, voodoo shops, and drag queens. in fact, i met ashley, "the queen of bourbon street"... a drag queen. he/she (we have talked about ashley a lot this week and never know what to call this person) gave me a teddy bear. i was so thankful just to be able to say hey. i long to know these broken, broken people. at the core, they are just like us.

you see in the absolute destruction of this city by katrina, the destruction of hell. at the same time, you see great redemption in the community that has formed from disaster. truly, this place is such a beautiful picture of the fall and of redemption.

the church we gutted. this is one location of beacon hill baptist church... the church had 10,000 members throughout the city! now it has 600. ^

me in the red jacket... taking down sheetrock. new experience for me. ^

- finally, you get to hang with celebrities. so, we went to listen to this jazz band, rebirth, at a local bar. apparently they are a big deal in new orleans. all the sudden, my sweet friend, patrick whispers to me... hey, you know that actress, kate hudson. well, she's here. i freaked out a little bit and turned around to check every couple of minutes... just to make sure it was really her. yep, i saw kate hudson.

also, got to see angelina jolie and brad pitt's house. brad pitt is actually doing so much for this

city. his organization called make it right, is building houses in the most affected area of new orleans. these houses are apparently storm resistant... well however much a house can be storm resistant. there is a little conflict about the style of housing... it is very modern architecture. basically, it looks like LA has been transported to the 9th ward of new orleans. not very new orleans at all. but, nonetheless, a huge help!! there are still so many homeless people and so, so much poverty. thank you to brad pitt. (my campus minister really did pray for his work the other night... never done that before.)

^ angelina jolie and brad pitt's house.

^ one of the houses in the 9th ward, brad pitt has built.

overall, it has been a fabulous week. i have been a house with 20 other people, wearing filthy clothes, sleeping in a sleeping bag, and yet, i am not ready to go home. it must be God. there is just something so special about this place... in fact, i am going to try to talk my sister into moving here :)

“If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.” - C.S. Lewis