NOLA 2013 ~ Mardi Gras 3

Monday, February 11, 2013
Bourbon Street
Many in our team went to Bourbon St tonight, we passed out a lot of tracts, I talked to several people.  Had a good conversation with a young man about the Lord, talked to an older gentleman and asked him who Jesus was to him and he said that Jesus was his Lord and Savior and that he would be going to church on Wednesday.  This is the attitude of many who come to Mardi Gras.  Most of our group left, I stayed and along with two others from our group went further down Bourbon Street.  The bars got rougher, strippers and the like.  I saw a young black woman with her little girl in tow, she was probably around 7 years old holding her mama's hand.  She had beads around her neck and was very wide-eyed.  I tried to give her mama a tract but she said no and walked quickly away.  The little girl, still holding her mother's hand, turned her head back to look at me.  I won't forget those big brown eyes with a look that was pleading for someone to rescue her.  How many times has she seen the vulgarity here?  Will she continue to grow up in this culture that says "sin, repent, repeat"?  Will she ever know there's more to life than this, that God loves her and sent His Son to die for her and save her from all of this?

Zechariah 10:2
For the household gods utter nonsense, and the diviners see lies; they tell false dreams and give empty consolation. Therefore the people wander like sheep; they are afflicted for lack of a shepherd.

Mardi Gras in New Orleans is like entering another dimension, it is a difficult trip to go on mission.  I found myself praying without ceasing and I realized that after I was home and at a basketball game that I hadn't been constantly praying.  Although we know people all around us are lost, we don't take the time to look at each individual as if they were and we don't look at people and act like we even care that they may be heading to hell and an eternity without God.  Why are we so calloused?  This is why I go on this mission trip, to step outside my normal every day, to have the Lord fill me up, to make me broken for the people that don't know Him, to share His love and come back to my amazingly blessed life to my family and friends that still don't know Him and share the gospel with them as well. 
Romans 13:12

The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.