New Orleans Missions

Last month women from my church went on a mission trip to New Orleans to provide a women’s retreat for the women in the Broadmoor district of New Orleans, a particularly struggling area. The women of Christ Church Plano hoped to communicate God's empowering Spirit to the women of New Orleans who attended this retreat on February 8-9, 2008, at the Church of the Annunciation in New Orleans. I had great hopes of making a difference in the lives of the women I would meet and work with, but it turned out it seems I had nothing much to give compared with the incredible wisdom and peace and hope I got from the women and Father Jerry Kramer and his family.

This month, I just want to share these messages that you can link to, and to pray for these people, that they have moments of rest from the perpetual work and frustration and demands in rebuilding their lives and the city around them.

11 March 2008 AD
Dear All,
Here's a link to today's NPR story on Broadmoor featuring our intrepid parishioner and community leader Hal Roark. Any of you who've been here to visit us will know the much beloved Hal.
We're going through a very tough time here right now on many levels. Much good happening with volunteers in from all over and the parish growing stronger. But an unimaginable amount of stress, strain and nowhere near enough resources. It continues to be overwhelming. And we're all a bit worn.
Recently various groups, leaders, etc. have been asking me what we need most. Aside from prayers, I tell them we need long term partners, friends who won't leave us as we continue struggling to get back on our feet.
Prayers appreciated. Know of ours. All blessings from New Orleans,
jerry+ et al.

Annunciation Easter 2008 from Father Kramer

27 March 2008 AD
Dear All,

We enjoyed our best Holy Week and Easter since coming to New Orleans. Great attendance and spirit here at Annunciation. By God's grace we continue to grow in numbers, health and impact.

Two and a half years ago, folks from around the country raced to our aid in keeping us alive while exiled from home. Some dropped out, some jumped on as we pioneered our way back into New Orleans, paving the way for others to return. More dropped out, others jumped on. Somewhere along the way, God gave us a vision for what church could be. It was an experiment and . . . what the heck . . . we had absolutely nothing to lose! Those without eyes to see saw us driving the car over the cliff. But the bottom line is that something special is definitely happening here.

This radical reshaping of church around the Gospel, mission and community is undeniably in the spark stage. Thank you to all who continue helping us fan this flame. It's fun to watch other churches here responding heroically in various ways to the Spirit's prompting as well. Many of us are praying that what we're learning here can be shared more widely for the good of the Kingdom.

Ministry here is hard. It's challenging, it's constantly uphill, it's never ending, it's entirely overwhelming, it's not for the inflexible or status quo oriented . . . but it's incredibly exciting to watch God at work in our midst. You can keep up with our holy experiment in sanctified lunacy at http://www.annunciationbroadmoor.org/ . We hope to have some footage up shortly of our annual Palm Sunday "Palms and Ponies" Procession through Broadmoor.

Our Good Friday thought was and is that roughly one of twenty people presently living in New Orleans is homeless. Yes, one out of twenty. But then there's Easter. And the Easter proclamation demands an Easter response. Over the two weeks prior to Easter, volunteers here at The Annunciation Mission worked on 15 neighbourhood homes, contributing about $225,000 in volunteer labour. These wonderful missionaries of all ages spoke light into the darkness. Folk coming in to serve at The Mission have so far contributed more than $3,000,000 in services to our beloved city. And what a difference this is making.

We're still not really sure what we're doing here . . . but apparently we're getting better at it. Thanks again for all who continue to help us fan the flame here at Annunciation and at other Kingdom outposts in the impact zone.

As an aside, i'm terribly terribly behind on emails. Please know i read and enjoy them all (well, the positive ones anyhow). We had nearly three hundred people with us in the two week run-up to Easter, Holy Week was huge and now I'm down hard with a most impressive version of the flu. Eventually by God's grace i'll get to chipping away at them all. Please don't let my lack of response indicate a lack of intereste or gratitude. Oh, and I owe a ton of thank you letters.

Know of our prayers daily. Even if i haven't responded by email or snail mail, we are praying for you. If you have any special prayer requests please let us know. All blessings from New Orleans,
jerry+ op

The Reverend Jerry and Stacy Kramer
Annunciation, New Orleans
P.O. Box 750698
New Orleans, LA 70175
http://www.annunciationbroadmoor.org/
http://www.annunciationlives.org/