Membership vows

I thank God that a year ago in October, Street Level’s board advised us to attend a local church. Mike and I had been involved with PCA churches in the past, so we decided to visit a PCA church plant, called Redeemer, that meets Uptown. We really liked it. The people there believe in the transforming power of the resurrection of Christ and they are living that out in New Orleans. Being there has been like living waters to my parched soul. I would probably feel lost without Billy and Brenda if not for having been involved with Redeemer for a year now. I have never found it easy to live in the Big Easy. Even now, after God has softened my hard heart and I fell in love with the place, I still find it difficult. Yet, seeing the zeal and commitment of this church to, as they say, “celebrating Christ—serving New Orleans”, I feel energized and I have hope for the future. We joined Redeemer Presbyterian Church today.

Reveillon

Reveillon (French for “awakening”) was a sumptuous meal served after Christmas Eve Midnight Mass in 18^th century New Orleans. In the 21^st century, the local restaurants in the French Quarter have revived the tradition as a way to encourage dining out during a very family focused time. Street Level staff has always had a nice dinner out at Christmas time, hosted by our founding fearless leaders, Billy & Brenda. But after Katrina, Street Level members and family have gone to the Gumbo Shop for Reveillon. With Billy & Brenda gone and none of our family coming down for the holidays, I wanted to go to Reveillon, but I was little bummed about it being just me and Mike this year. So, we asked “The Guys”, our renters. Here is how we meet John and Jared.

We started attending Redeemer Church last fall at the direction of our board of directors. There we met Cambria and her roommate, Mary. Cambria works with John (they are kind of sweet on each other). John and his buddy, Jared needed a place to live and we needed new renters. (By the way all four of these vibrant young people are working in jobs, that in some capacity, help New Orleans rebuild.) Mike was working on getting the rental ready, but we were running out of time. The guys needed to be out of their old place and we had already planned a trip to Florida to see my dad. So the guys said they would help us finish. During all of our getting-to-know-you, could-you-hand me-that-paintbrush conversations, (“What brings you to New Orleans? Well, God….” Which backs up my theory that it takes divine intervention to get people to move here! ) it turns out that John grew up in the Church of God! He has never been to camp meeting, but that is ok, it still felt like a gift from home! At the same time, the person we had lined up to take care of Emma, our Labrador mix had a family emergency and could not come. So the guys volunteered to look after her as well as finish the clean up of their side of the house. To abbreviate this story greatly, John and Jared have become like family to us. In addition, Cambria and John helped us host Thanksgiving dinner (another Street Level tradition) this year. We fed 37 people! Cam and John cooked (with the help of Cam’s Boston area family), so we had food and seating on both sides of the house. It was great!

I told “the guys”, Cambria and Mary as we walked into the quarter to have Reveillon that I feel really blessed to have them in my life. Having them minimizes some of the sting of having no family near. For that I give thanks.