FrenchBourbonMississippiAC360ChicoryBeignet and WELCOME TO NEW ORLEANS

I’m here!!!!!!!!

So yesterday after a day of flight delays and delays and delays, I landed in New Orleans around 5ish. I am staying here in the Baptist Friendship House and I came in and met the staff and the other summer missionaries. Everyone has been super welcoming and down to earth, which is very comforting. I’m living dorm-style with a couple of girls in a room and we share a bathroom and a shower room. We are staying in the rooms that homeless families live in when they are here. Anyway, it is super laid back and chill, which is really nice.

So! For dinner last night we had red beans and rice, which is apparently a New Orleans staple. It was delicious.
After dinner we walked to the French Quarter, which is like a block away. It is so beautiful! We walked down Bourbon Street, which was interesting to say the least.

After we walked around there for a while, we walked up to the Riverwalk, which runs alongside the Mississippi. It is a gorgeous view, let me tell you. We took a ferry across the river (it’s free to pedestrians). That was really one of the most beautiful views I have ever seen, being in the middle of the river with the lights of the city and the bridge and the moon and it was all crazy pretty. So yeah.

THEN we were walking on the Riverwalk and OH MY GOSH WE SAW ANDERSON COOPER filming. And let me just tell you, I think Anderson Cooper is something else. Does he like women? Probably not.Is he about 20 years older than me? More than likely. Does he have awesome hair and is he super attractive? Absolutely yes. So I don’t normally freak out over celebrities but Anderson Cooper is the only reason I ever watch CNN. So that was super exciting for me.

After that we went to Café Du Monde, which is super famous. They have these things called beignets, which are French doughnuts. And let me tell you, the French know how to do doughnuts. It tasted like a funnel cake with powdered sugar in doughnut form. Gah lee, it was kind of evil how good it was. And then they had the best coffee EVER. They put this stuff called chicory in it… I’m not really sure what that is, some kind of root or something. But it was delicious… I gotta get my hands on some of it before I head home.

I’m really looking forward to being part of the city for a couple of months, and getting to go to the cafes and go shopping and do all that good stuff. And I’m looking forward to getting to know the girls who are here well… I think that we’re going to have some good relationships. There is so much lostness here that is so evident from walking down the street, but that is just motivation to be more a part of it, you know?

Our program starts Monday, and we will be working with girls ages 9-14 and we had orientation today, which was just a pretty laid back informative meeting. It’s like a day camp sort of thing and we will be doing crafts and activities and classes (Financial classes, Health, Nutrition, etc.). And just so you know, I will be learning tae kwon doe, so I’m gonna come by kicking butt and breaking some boards and it’s gonna be awesome. I think it’s going to be really relational and I’ll get to know my group really well and I’m super excited about it. My prayer is that the Lord really develops the relationships naturally so that I can really dig into their lives and boldly share Jesus with them. I can’t wait!

So this is really long and I could keep going forever about everything, but I won’t. I think we are making aprons today out of t-shirts… it is going to be a craft we are going to do with the girls next week. And I have to pack and get organized and I think I may go to some part of the city with one of the girls. Okay, I’m going to stop. Hopefully I’ll update this regularly.

CONSENSUS: I ARLREADY LOVE NEW ORLEANS AND CAN’T WAIT TO SEE WHAT GOD’S GONNA DO. IT’S GONNA BE AWESOME.