So, for those who are still living away, I want to say this. Come home as soon as you can. We will welcome you back. Drive through your city. It’s your home, make no mistake. You came back, you love this place, you have hurt in absentia, and now you’re going to hurt in person. You will shed some tears, and if I’m any judge, you will be depressed. It’s part of the price one pays for loving.

Joe McKeever, Director of Missions for Southern Baptists in New Orleans, has a blog. I’m finding it to be compelling reading: compelling me to think, to sympathize, sometimes to cry, to pray. He just writes about what’s going on in New Orleans, the rebuilding efforts, the continuing difficulties, the politics, the churches and their pastors, the work, the prayers. If you’re interested at all in reading about what God is doing in New Orleans these days, read Mr. McKeever’s blog.

Everywhere I go away from here, people come up to tell me they pray for us. Some say, “I’ve never met you, but I pray for you every day.” I am so touched and we are so honored, and I tell them so. But today, it finally occurred to me that this is the reason these Wednesday gatherings are so right. Christ is in this place and people are lifting us up.
We sincerely thank you. And we promise you this: when it’s all over, the miracle of the new New Orleans will be yours. I agree with Jeff Box. This is a great time to be ministering in this city. But the main reason is because of the lovely men and women of God who come to assist us. I’m 66 years old and started pastoring in 1962, and I have never had more fun, never shed more tears, never hurt more often or in a deeper way, and never prayed better than right now.