While politicians in Louisiana and the nation's capital continue their
nauseating blame-game over Hurricane Katrina, Christians around the
country are in the nitty-gritty details of compassionate action.
Pastor Mo
Leverett of New Orleans is among them. He and his family made it out
with just the clothes on their backs, but immediately turned their
attention to helping others get basic supplies and shelter.
Mo's selflessness is not surprising given that fifteen years ago he and
his wife moved to the neighborhood of the Desire Street housing
projects, one of the toughest and poorest parts of New Orleans. Some
called the move foolishness, but then that's often the response to
incarnational ministry.
Mo began his outreach by volunteering as a football coach at a local
high school. From the start, he had a vision for seeing Desire Street
transformed by the Gospel into a renewed and desirable place to live.
By August 2005, Desire Street Ministries included a church, a school
for 190 kids, after-school programs, and the beginnings of an urban
institute for training new leaders. Then Katrina hit.
Before the waters rose to the ministry's roofline, Myron Celestine, the
Desire Street Academy's basketball coach, loaded eleven of his players
into a van and drove them to Atlanta. A local Christian family is
housing them along with eleven more. About one hundred staff members,
their families, and Desire Street families evacuated to a Christian
camp in Mississippi, and one hundred more went to a Christian ranch in
Dallas. "Our army of incarnational staff is totally woven into the
fabric of the neighborhood like surrogate parents; everybody grabbed
kids and families that needed to get out," explains Mo.
Hundreds of churches are now helping meet their basic needs. Meanwhile
in Destin, Florida, the ministry's Director of Development and former
Heismann-trophy winner, Danny Wuerffel, is trying to secure a campus
for Desire Street Academy to resume classes as a boarding school. And
Mo and others are partnering with relief agencies for long-term
rebuilding. Mo knows that God was there in the storm and will be there
in the recovery work.
Hurricane Katrina has pulled back the curtain and shone a spotlight on
the ugly drama of poverty, race, and class issues in the United States.
Sen. Obama (D-Ill.) spoke out on the floor of the Senate after the
disaster and said, "I hope we realize that the people of New Orleans
weren't just abandoned during the hurricane, they were abandoned long
ago--to murder and mayhem in the streets, to substandard schools, to
dilapidated housing, to inadequate health care, to a pervasive sense of
hopelessness."
While his statement may apply to much of New Orleans, the people
touched by Desire Street Ministries know that they were not abandoned.
The love of Christ came to them in the flesh of Mo, his family, and his
staff, and after the storm in churches across this country. So while
that spotlight shines on the problems, it should also illuminate the
solution.
Desire Street Ministries is still trying to locate over half of their
students. If you're in an area with evacuees, you can help by posting a
flyer in a shelter near you. Call BreakPoint (1-877-322-5527) for more
information.
