Days 6 & 7 are getting a combined post. Why? B/c our day in New Orleans was great, but not exactly "reflection-blog" material (although I could post some good restaurant reviews!), and Sunday was busy, but not busy (if you are in ministry, you get this; if not, you may not).
New Orleans was really cool. I slept in (7:45 when the people accessing the elevators which were right in by our door started to go up and down), then blogged then headed out for breakfast with Evan. We ate at an awesome restaurant where an older, African-American woman was our waitress. She would've made my Grandma proud b/c she was yelling at Evan and I for having our elbows on the table. Awesome breakfast food at the Old Coffee Pot on St. Peters St. and I have to stop there or I will go on forever.
We visited St. Louis Cathedral/Basilica, which was very cool. There was a baptism going on while we were there. I sat near it and tried to eavesdrop. The priest was really cool and was sharing a lot of wisdom that we would probably hear at an protestant baby dedication/baptism/baptication. Fascinating also to see the varied icons around in the statuary, stained glass and paintings. I've never spent much time in a Catholic church, but maybe I should. Get to know some more and understand some more.
No Cafe Du Monde on the first pass by b/c we were too full from breakfast. But we moseyed onto the French Market. Interesting stuff and interesting people. Didn't buy anything, though. No Cafe Du Monde on the second pass.
Evan drove us out to the 9th ward and Chalmette were the levees were the most damaged from Katrina and where he did some work two years ago. It was interesting to see how little has been rebuilt in some of the residential areas, especially along the levees. You would see 1-2 house per block, and the rest were just empty lots.
Had ice cream for lunch at the Creole Creamery (Evan has a weakness for ice cream). We both got some "unique" flavors to try. Of the two scoops we got, we each had one winner and one not-exactly-a-loser-but-definitely-not-a-winner flavor (note to self: no matter how much you like dark chocolate, it does not combine well with ginger).
Back then into the French Quarter. We had some time before dinner and I wanted some beignets, but I passed b/c I didn't want to ruin my dinner (aren't you proud, mom?!). So, no Cafe Du Monde on pass 3.
Dinner at the Redfish Grill: Excellent. Gumbo = to die for. My only complaint is that I didn't get the Jambalaya instead of the hickory-smoked redfish (which was still very good). For dessert, a chocolate bread pudding, which Evan and I shared. If the name itself didn't already clue you in, let me spell it out for you: A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.
After that, the two hour drive back to Mobile. Without Cafe Du Monde, which for a donut lover like myself is bordering on tragic. Thus ended day 6. (See? Not a ton of reflection materials, but a bunch of food reviews.)
Sunday started out having rained over night and threatening more rain through out the day. Evan and I drove over to Way of Life church. On the way, we got a call from J.D. saying that the youth from the bayou would not be joining us today and that I should instead be prepared to share my story in 10-15 minutes during the service. I said, "Sure!" but inside laughed hysterically as I remembered that it took me about 3 hours to get Evan through my story. Three hours down to 15 minutes? Well, I got it into 20, so that's pretty good.
Evan preached from Luke 18 about humility. Great stuff! The man's got a gift for making scripture understandable and with clear take-aways. A number of people came up and thanked us (especially Evan) for our sharing with them.
After service, we mingled with some of the people from Way of Life, and then went out to eat at Yen's Vietnamese restaurant with J.D. and a young man named Chris from the church. Very good food, but I forgot how filling Vietnamese food is. We had some good conversations, but there was some awkwardness here and there. Chris is a younger (24 y/o) lay person and J.D. is an older minister and Evan and I are younger ministers, so we could talk with J.D. in some avenues that kind of left Chris out, and then we would talk with Chris about somethings that J.D. was not hip to. Regardless, I enjoyed the fellowship and the food.
Evan and I were able to head back to the house for a brief time before we headed into Bayou La Batre to try to find Kim's trailer and go to the Vietnamese Bible Study. Trying to find Kim's house was in many ways the blind leading the blind: J.D. knows the area, but had not been to Kim's house. Evan and I had been to Kim's, but couldn't exactly tell J.D. where it was. But we took a shot at it anyway. While we were looking, I was praying that we would be able to find it. Kim was very distressed when we were there with Pheng that she would get forgotten about with Thi being gone. Wouldn't you know it? God answered my (and I later found out also Evan's) prayer! We found Kim's house and were able to make sure that she could make it to the Bible study. Yes, her son was bringing her, and he would stay as well!
After finding Kim, we went to the community center. Some of the Vietnamese had already gathered there, but we were soon joined by a pastor and a group of students from his church in Daphne, who were there to hang out with the Vietnamese kids. Eventually, we had about everyone that J.D. figured would show up and we split into the older/little-English-speaking crowd and younger/English-speaking group. (Evan and I stuck with the younger, English speakers.) It was interesting b/c only three of the Vietnamese students showed up and they were outnumbered 2:1 by the other church's kids. It was noticeable that the Vietnamese kids were a bit uncomfortable (which is one reason I wanted to stay with the younger group), but we started to play a game (Ninja!) and they loosened up a little. We had a little Bible study from John 21 on continuing to do the good that we know to do when we aren't totally sure what all we are called to do in our future. It was interesting to see a difference in Bible literacy from our area to this area (I was EXTREMELY surprised that none of these junior high kids could tell us that Judas was the one that betrayed Jesus). Other than that, these kids (including the Vietnamese) were not much different from the kids that I work with at Locust Valley. I don't know why I was anticipating a radical difference, but I was.
Tomorrow, we travel home. I am so excited to do that, but I will miss some of the people that we have met and I will be praying for God's blessings on their ministries down here in the Gulf.
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