Thursday Tour of Ninth Ward

We’re home! We arrived at Franconia Mennonite Church around 1:00 p.m. on Saturday. Friday and Saturday were full days with little time to post.


After the last post Thursday evening, we travelled in two Vans to tour the Lower ninth ward with Leonard & Lorena Penner. Leonard & Lorena are long term MDS volunteers from Goshen.







Pastor Charles and Thirawer Duplessis shared their experiences with us and another MDS volunteer group from Kern Road Mennonite from South Bend. I will not attempt to summarize the stories from Pastor Charles and his wife. The stories were heart-wrenching, compelling, but also full of hope for the future. God is faithful to them, even after 16 feet of water washed away the life they once knew. I was able to capture some of their sharing with this video.


Part 1


Part 2

As we stood near the intersection of Tennessee and Prieur in the emptiness that was once home of Pastor Charles, we could see the trenches dug by part of the Kern Road group. This is the start of the MDS project to rebuild one of the first homes in this community.



In the background we saw the levee that was breeched when a barge broke through the wall instantly sending a wall of water through the neighborhoods of the ninth ward. This is the area where Brad Pitt is sponsoring a program to rebuild.




We then travelled a couple of blocks to the site of Pastor Charles Church, Mount Nebo Bible Baptist Church. The outline of the floor plan is visible of the ground. Their church has been selected to be part of Churches Supporting Churches, a program attempting to team 360 congregations with 36 churches needing help in New Orleans. They are planning to rebuild and have the Church be a shining light of God presence in this community as it returns.