The first day we arrived in New Orleans we were not the happiest
group. Don't get me wrong we were excited for the chance to minister to
people about God but we were upset about the dorms we were put in. From
the start all those who were placed at the dorms were upset and not in the most
Christ like mood. There were cockroaches and it was no Hilton hotel but
we should have been thankful for a place to stay. God was putting us to
the test. How would we react to the atmosphere around us? Would we act in
love and appreciation or would we act out of anger? After reevaluating the
situation we felt ashamed for the way we reacted. After we put our
selfishness aside we were able to meet some amazing women and have our own
prayer meeting.
We all stayed up until 5:00am praying. We prayed and worshiped
God for three hours, with women we did not even know. All we had in
common was Christ until we became familiar with them. God was present in
that dingy dirty place. He was not bothered by the surroundings He was
more interested in our hearts. We not only drew closer to God that night we
made life long friends.
The next day we were picked up and taken to our hotel rooms.
We were not put in the rooms together but it allowed us to meet more new
people. The first few nights we did not go out to Bourbon Street we just
worshiped God together and went to our preaching sessions. It was more of
a time to unify the students and staff before we hit the streets of New
Orleans.
The first night we went out was a little scary. I did not know
what to expect. The streets were covered with drunks, half naked people, and
people on drugs. We tried to stop anyone that passed us. I started
out with, "Have you heard the big question?" If you were to die today
would you go to heaven? Many gleefully said, "NO I am going to
Hell." This was sad to hear. Some people did stop and we were
able to pray with them but we did not see any one come to Christ in my two-person
team.
Even though many did not come to salvation the first day we
prayed with many people. I remember on one of the nights we stopped a
group of teens. There was one young girl who was listening and wanted
prayer. As I grabbed her hand she was picked up and pulled away. She
gripped my hand so tight and was screaming, "I want them to pray with
me!" It was gut wrenching because she was being ripped away from a
relationship with God because of her friends. A minute later she came running
back to me tearfully asking me to pray with her as her friends yelled for her to
hurry up. I hurried and prayed with Rachel and she seemed so much more at
peace and joyful. Rachel gave us both a hug and ran off into the filthy
streets with her friends.
Every person on the streets of Mardi GRAS was viewed not just as a
number. When I looked at people that walked by me I saw them as lost sheep.
They were people walking straight into hell and most didn’t care.
Even though that is what I saw when I saw each person I decided to use a
new tactic. Instead of asking each person if they would be in heaven I told
each person about the love of God. Even if they did not stop I would tell
them, "God loves you and has a plan for your life."
The new tactic had much more
success. My husband and I stopped a few
homosexual couples and just told them about the love of God. Many are just told that God hates them but it
is not the truth. We would tell them
about the love of God and they would just melt.
They were shocked as well to see Christians pouring out God’s love
rather than yelling at them.
During the trip God decided to use
me to give people words of knowledge. In
one instance my partner and I were speaking to a woman and God kept telling me
she was sad and depressed and that she needed to know He loves her. After my partner stopped talking I told her
that I felt like God was telling me to pray for her about her sadness and that
she was going through something. She was
surprised and said that the reason she was even at Mardi GRAS was because she
was trying to get through a tough situation.
After I prayed with her she was joyful and at peace.
On the last day, which was Fat
Tuesday, we were able to see three more people saved. Ronnie was the name of one of the guys we
spoke to. He told us how he was raised
in church; some members of his family were ministers and deacons. He had tears in his eyes as we spoke of Gods
love. When Brad was praying for Ronnie I
felt like God was saying, “He is called to be a Pastor. He should not be on the
streets doing what the world is doing he needs to be on the streets preaching
and winning the lost.” I was obedient and
told him.
After Ronnie walked away a few other
members of our group stopped him down the road a bit. We were curious as to what they said so we
asked them. Alex the girl of the group said
that God told her that he was going to be a street preacher and that he was
going to be God’s hands and feet to take the gospel to others. Ronnie received the same word from Alex as he
did from me. God wanted to make sure
Ronnie heard what he needed to do.
All in all my Mardi GRAS trip was
amazing. I was able to speak to people
about God’s word. We had many that
mocked us and cursed at us but it was all for the cause of Christ. As it says in Galatians 2:20, “20 I have been crucified with Christ. It
is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in
the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for
me.” I live for Christ and am willing to
die for Him. My goal is to see people
turned to God and have eternal life.
This trip drew me closer to God and allowed me to understand His
love.
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