It is exciting to be on the faith walk again - seeing God provide - Him confirming new directions in our lives - Him opening new doors - God doing what only He can do.
I’m in Birmingham now after a short flight from St. Louis. Depending on how long the delay out of this airport will be, I should be home around 10:30 or 11:00 pm. I will have a couple of full days in New Orleans before venturing out again for a short trip to Jacksonville, FL.
Our trip to St. Louis was superb. Torey Angeletti was good company as usual - keeping me laughing, supporting my efforts with hard work and interspersed wit and wisdom. I performed and spoke at Covenant Seminary, did a concert at Grace Church and later at Kirk of the Hills Presbyterian. I then returned to Grace to preach twice and led Sunday School.
In between those activities we explored with Shane Fast the high poverty areas of East St. Louis. Shane is a campus ministry leader in South Carolina who is considering a call to urban ministry leadership. The city has been in the state of decline even since I last saw it a few years back. Nevertheless, it is an ideal location for a new work. It is a vast community of multi-generational poverty, sprawling housing projects and thousands of young people. Shane was able to get a good initial handle on the city and appears to be increasingly attracted to the prospect of developing an incarnational work there. So we’re excited!
Shane’s interest in urban ministry preceded me. It was fermenting in the environment of college athletics and campus ministry. He then heard me speak at a Campus Outreach conference a few years ago. Later, Shane took the class I taught at Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando. During the course I mentioned the communities that Rebirth is presently focused on trying to launch a new work. Shane took note. He did some research on East St. Louis and was deeply intrigued. One week later, Shane asked me to take East St. Louis off the board, that city, he said, is his.
So we are now returning from an exploratory visit. We confirmed the statistics with our observations and conversations with locals. There is much openness and much encouragement and support. It is now a matter of concentrated prayer to see if our inclinations are from the Lord.
Much activity is underway in New Orleans and beyond. The vision of Rebirth is being realized one faith step at a time!
Pray for our work in New Orleans. Pray that I might be able to afford to open up a normal office in the city - thus stabilizing our efforts administratively and providing us some central, moderate office and program space.
I’m now back in New Orleans and in the care of my beloved family.
Many blessings to all!
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