Rebirth Moving Forward on City-Wide Vision in New Orleans!

While Katrina did more damage than it is healthy for me to think about at the moment, she also has created new opportunities for the gospel. Please pray for me as I begin to plow ahead in seizing some of those opportunities in the coming months. Pray that God would glorify Himself through the feeble sacrifices of a humble servant.

We are moving forward with a city-wide vision to plant the core urban ministry programs we established in the Desire neighborhood many years ago in other neighborhoods throughout the city. We are hoping to be able to rehire some of our previous indigenous leaders who will emulate my coaching and youth ministry exploits in other high schools in the city. While we’re unsettled entirely on the leadership construct for a new church, we have decided that a new church is needed. We are asking for your prayers and support in the coming months as we in earnest re-enter the devils turf.

Already, some of those indigenous leaders have started a new work at Clark High School in New Orleans. Young men and women have already made decisions to follow Christ. We are constructing a tutoring program for the fall and will partner with the football coaches to execute a combination two-a-day and Christian football camp in the next couple of weeks. I have been asked to coach special teams for Clark and so will be laboring alongside and underneath the leadership we led to Christ many years ago. It has been refreshing to be out on the football field again working with the kickers. It’s been encouraging to see that though I’m old, overweight and out of shape that I still can punt a football a good piece down the field. (I’m getting it together in case the Saints need me sometime this season!) Even more encouraging though is that I am able in small ways to help the next generation of youth from our beleaguered city realize their potential in life through Christ. It’s good to be out there again.

As one preacher said from the pulpit just the other day, “This whole Christianity thing is a Holy Spirit production…I’m just thankful that the Lord gave to me a speaking part!” I too am thankful to be out on the front lines again in a Holy Spirit production.

My Fall schedule is almost completely full. You can check out our calendar of events on the website to keep track with my travel plans. We will release my new CD, Of Orphans and Kings, in the Fall. However, you can download the music directly from our music website. The project will give you a window into how the Lord has worked in my life over the past number of months after Katrina and hopefully inspire you to remember the One who has made Kings from Orphans. It also gives you a tangible way to invest in our new work.

Ellen and I and the kids are well. We are working hard to build the infrastructure for a new movement, to raise the support necessary to do so and to discern with clarity the Lord’s precise call and vision for our future. We are so thankful for our partners in this. Please stay in touch with us. Every note of encouragement and word of support achieves its desired end.

Thanks again for your partnership!

Urgent Need for Clark High School Team Ministry

Richard Johnson and the Clark High School football coaching staff will be taking their team to camp Aug. 6-11 in Slidell, La. The coaching staff along with Mo Leverett and Sam Rauschenberg will be leading around 20 football players in athletic, spiritual and educational development.
These guys need your help both in prayer and financially. A suggested donation of $150 will send one person to camp. To contribute to their own fundraising efforts, please mail a check to the address below.
Rebirth International
PO Box 62600
Dept 1395
New Orleans, LA 70162

New Orleans Neighborhood Church Needs Help with Construction Cost

I’m sitting in a church within the 9th Ward of New Orleans enjoying worship with about 50 to 60 of my brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ. We are sitting in a recently repaired flood damaged church but with no air conditioning. They have opened their doors again. The pastor is a friend of mine and a man of great integrity with a heart of evangelism and discipleship. The cost to repair their air conditioning system is $9,000. Would you consider whether the Lord has called you to be a source of blessing to your brothers and sisters in Christ here in this place of spiritual rebirth.
Let me know if the Lord would have you join Ellen and myself to be a source of blessing and rebirth in the life of this precious Christian fellowship.

First Review of Orphans and Kings

Here is a short review of Mo’s newest CD which is available for download at http://www.justiceroad.com/.
“The soul, struggle and hope on this record is truly astonishing. Mo’s been making good music for a long time, but this is by far his finest work yet. It is a disturbing and inspiring bit of Americana, with musical and lyrical stains from the waters of New Orleans and vocals as rich and guttural as anything I’ve heard this year. If Nick Cave, John Hiatt, Pierce Pettis and Mark Heard had spent the last seventeen years serving the poor in the deep south I can’t imagine them coming up with a batch of songs any better than these.” John J. Thompson, Gyroscope Arts