New Orleans Workrewes Back to Get Involved

Oct/Nov | Nov/Dec | Dec/Jan | Jan/Feb | Feb/Mar

It's Go Time in New Orleans!
The clean up at Desire Street Ministries has begun! During the last week of October, men from North Liberty Church of the Brethren dragged buses and cars out of our parking lot and scrapped away the thick mosaic of dried mud. Over the first weekend of November, a mud-out crew from Baptist churches in Baldwin County, Alabama, and a group of Campus Crusade students from Indiana University suited up with boots, gloves and masks to tackle the first level of muck in our facility. Click here for pictures.

Generators roared on all sides of the gym, delivering power for tools and flood lights inside. Our new master key, aka the Axe, proved very handy as many doors were rusted or swollen shut. Work crew members muscled brooms, shovels, hand trucks and wheelbarrows, clearing our gym, locker rooms, kitchen, weight room and other adjoining rooms of dried mud, rusted metal, rotten food and waterlogged boxes, files and books.

Many of the floors were still wet with mud and even standing water. Smaller rooms that were opened for the first time released putrid smells and contained items that had been marinating in the unholy water for two months. It was, to say the least, unpleasant work. But our volunteers were awesome and made a huge, two-day dent in a process that will take many hands and many months to complete.

During the immediate aftermath of the storm, many of you expressed interest in helping out in New Orleans. That time has now come! We are focusing our initial efforts on returning our building to full operational use so we can host groups there and begin to rebuild our community and city.

We already have a number of groups scheduled to come for weekend and week-long trips. We’d be delighted and honored for you to join the efforts in Desire. If you are interested, please contact Ben McLeish by calling 504-621-0429 or sending a note to bmcleish@desirestreet.org.

Our mission has always been to revitalize the Desire neighborhood through spiritual and community development. What an incredible, new opportunity to serve toward this end, to God’s glory and for the Kingdom.