Mardi Gras Mission Trip - Part One

So I decided that the best way to get this Mardi Gras post accomplished would be to break it into smaller sections.  It seems like an overwhelming task trying to condense this all into one blog post.  I realize people are more likely to read multiple, smaller posts instead of one, long post.

I think the easiest thing to start out with is the schedule and logistics of the trip.  We left Durham on February 25th at 5pm.  We parked our cars at our church, Bethel Christian Center, and loaded up on the Bull City Outreach Ministries JESUS van.

From left to right:  Jamie Locklear, Dean Padgett, Felisha Sandifer, Melissa Padgett, Courtney Glenn, Chris Ferrer, Kristen Ferrer, Terry Shuff and Angie Shuff.

Ralph Thompson (Emergency Chaplains) came to pray for the group and see us off.

We began the trek to Atlanta, where we were able to stop and sleep in wonderful hotel rooms provided by Kelly Gordon!  It was well after midnight when we arrived, and we were exhausted.  The girls shared a room and the guys shared a room.  Angie even got to share a bed with Courtney, which I'm sure she heavily appreciated since Courtney sprawled out and took up 89.9% of the bed.  We got up and had a seriously wonderful continental breakfast and hit the road at 7:45 to drive the rest of the way to New Orleans.

The ride was great:  Courtney took up 89.9% of the bench seat that her and I shared (I see a pattern here).  Chris Ferrer was awesome enough to play most of the New Testament outloud from his ipad.  We I looked like headbangers as Terry blasted us with Jesus Freak by DC Talk to get us pumped. We got to stop and try Krystal burgers and chicken sandwiches at 10:30 am (time zone change that none of our stomachs knew about).  We also got to talk and bond and mentally prepare ourselves for the upcoming week.

We arrived in New Orleans and immediately stopped at the RAVEN camp to see Pastor Troy Bohn and his fellow week-long missionary group.  We also picked up two more team members, Christian and Claudia Stancil, who had flown in earlier that day.

Our next stop was our home for the week....the YWAM (Youth With A Mission) compound.  We shared a huge house - girls bunked in two rooms, guys bunked in three.  The house had everything we could possibly need.  We even had access to the community house which had a larger kitchen and an open room area that we used as a fellowship meal/meeting area.  We unloaded our luggage and prepped ourself for dinner and our first night out on the streets.  No time wasting for us!  We were ready to get out there and start sharing the Gospel.

The second day in New Orleans we had three other team members join us.....Jennifer Robinson (from Texas), Jeff Sobieralski and Lance Prathaftakis (both from Indiana).

The ladies also ventured to Sams Club this day to buy our food for the week.  I volunteered to head up the "meal planning department", but it proved to be a more difficult task than I expected.  Estimating food for that many people for a week, and trying to figure out things that everyone could/would eat, was a little stressful.  But you live and learn and you gain wisdom for the next time.

The rest of the week included spending time at the YWAM house when we needed a rest, and spending time out on the streets of New Orleans sharing the Word.

I've included a few pictures from the house showing our fellowship/bonding time and also some times around our dinner/meeting table.

More on our Mardi Gras mission trip on the next post.............................