Interesting picture, is it not?
Take a closer look...Mardi Gras beads, trash, a cigarette butt, a thrown away gospel tract...look at the reflection in the water...yes, that's a cross. This picture pretty much sums up my entire mission trip to Mardi Gras. I saw lostness, in your face lostness, I know...sin is sin and I knew what Mardi Gras was like. I've watched COPS, ya know. And on Bourbon Street it was just that...like a COPS episode...nudity, homosexuality, transvestites, and lots of drunk or high people. But there were children with their parents, senior adult couples, disabled people....didn't expect that.
Standing in the middle of Bourbon Street, a lady in our group handed an unsuspecting homosexual young man a gospel tract, he took it because it said 'Mardi Gras' on the front of it. He turned it over and saw that it was about Jesus and looked her in the eye with disdain and wadded it up in his hand and threw it on the ground all while still holding her gaze. It struck me as as huge statement of rejection of Christ. Some were polite and took whatever we had to offer them, some wanted to talk to us or were at least willing to, some laughed and scoffed, some cussed, some ignored, some....wept, some....were saved. Mardi Gras is like evangelism boot camp, get out there and share your faith, share the love of Christ and His salvation! It made me ache...but it was empowering, I see people a little 'more'...I've always loved the song "Give Me Your Eyes" by Brandon Heath, listening to the words (really listening) makes me cry. This is my home, my country, my city, my town, my neighborhood...I want to share the love of Jesus with them, I want to see their lives changed by the gospel. This month at our church is Local Home Missions Month, this Saturday we are visiting a retirement "village", singing, talking with them, loving them. Next Saturday, door-to-door evangelism...and I can't wait :) This is how we are supposed to live, to look into every face we come in contact with and share Jesus with them.
We did free face painting to draw people to us so we could love on them, share with them, and pray with them. I painted this entire family's faces (except dad) he wasn't up for that, lol. But I got to have fun with these lovely people and pray with them. I painted lots of faces. The last day we were there, "Fat Tuesday", I painted a young woman's face, her name was Kaitlyn, she had just caught her boyfriend cheating, she was very tender, genuine, and broken. I didn't lead her to Christ but was able to pray with her and the friends she was with, she carried a gospel tract away with her. They left down the street and about a block away another young man (from a different church group) met these same ladies, talked with them and later told me that these girls talked about how we had prayed with them and they felt the love of Jesus and then he said Kaitlyn just started weeping. Seeds were planted and watered...please pray for Kaitlyn's salvation.
There were many times when I thought I should've done more, I prayed to just be led by the Spirit and be obedient to whatever God would have me to do or say. To me...I was very serious on this trip (which is strange because I am not at all a serious person, rather silly even) but God was molding and changing me in all sorts of ways to which I am so very thankful and humbled by.
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