Raven VOODOO FEST Outreach in New Orleans

Our outreach last week to New Orleans during their annual "VooDoo Fest" was truly an amazing tme in Jesus as we took the Gospel into one of America's most desperate--yet most ready for harvesting Cities!
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This years team came together to join Raven Gulf Coast from Raven West Coast, Raven Daytona Beach, Raven Fairfield, and Raven International (that was me!). The team was awesome and the Gulf Coast team were fantastic hosts for the event.
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Pastor Terry & Eileen, Raven Deb, and myself made the 625 mile trip from Daytona Beach on the morning of the 23rd and literally "hit the ground running" as we joined the team at the Jesus Miracle Power building for a time of worship and a word from Pastor Don of Gulf Coast.

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After the service we set off for the French Quarter where we immediately went to work sharing the Gospel around the famous Cafe' Du Monde. There I met a young lady who lived on the streets who said that she was hungry. I offered to take her to eat, but she said she had others with her who were also hungry, so Raven Deb and I offered to go to the store a couple of blocks away and pick up lunch meat for all of them.

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We fed about 10-12 of the "Gutter Punks" (that is the name that these traveling streets kids have given themselves). There is where I met a man who had once walked with the Lord but was now living on the streets and wondering how he would ever get his life back together. I told him that we served a God who was rich in mercy and that if he repented that God would forgive him and heal his backsliding.

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I spent the next 45 minutes pouring the Word of God into Casey and then I called over Brother "Boogaloo" and his wife Marci to help me to pray deliverance over him. As we prayed the Spirit of God fell and he broke! He began to weep and cry out in repentance for God to forgive him. We continued ministering to Casey and then offered to take him to a discipleship house where he could get built up in his relationship with Christ for the next year. He took us up on the offer and Pastor Don and Pastor Thomas took him right over to the house.

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Things continued to heat up as we took the team on down to Bourbon Street where the Halloween-costumed crowd was about as rowdy and wicked as we have seen. I soon found myself witnessing to a 42 year old man from Houston who was a backslider. As I spoke with him his young friend came up and tried to be confrontational with me (not realizing that I was preaching the Gospel to his friend.)

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I then turned my attention to the young man and started preaching the Word of God to him. He told me that his dad was a devout Jehovah's Witness and his mother was Pentecostal (what a combination!) I was able to share with them at length and pray wit the both of them as well before they left.

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Pastor Meredith (Raven Fairfield) brought in a great group of guys from Texas. Keith, Daniel and Alex were great additions to the team and got right after it sharing the Word with the partiers. I spent part of the night with Alex standing with me to gain some insight and experience and this young man of God really took off sharing his faith and praying with several people as well.

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The next day I was scheduled to meet up with Audrey to get her and here boys into a discipleship home. You may remember that she was the young woman who came to Christ and renounced tarot card reading on my last trip to New Orleans. Somehow we crossed paths and didn't get connected until later that day (she and the boys became the first residence of the new Liberty House for women!).

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As I waited in the Quarter, I overheard a man at a large mobile kitchen saying that the police were making him move because of complaints from the artist set up in the square. He was there filming the pilot for a televised cooking show. He had 100 pounds of chicken that he was to cook and give away--but had no place to go.

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I introduced myself to him and asked if he would lke me to find him a place to set up his cook trailed to give away the fried chicken. He was elated and immediately said, "Yes!" ( I didn't tell him what I had in mind--just that there wold be plenty of people around) We hooked the van up to his generator and he hooked up the kitchen and we set off for the Ibberville Housing Projects (aka. Drugs and Murder Central).

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As soon as we showed up the people began to come out (drug dealer, prostitutes, addicts included). The team immediately got busy sharing the Gospel and praying with the many who came out when they heard about the free fried chicken! We saw many come to Jesus that day as we criss-crossed the projects and some of the guys preached and shared their testimonies on the microphone as the crowd listened in.

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The day was such a blessing as we saw heroin addicts repent and come to Jesus in faith. We were able to minister to a women with children who had no groceries as some of the guys went and bought her $100 worth of food for her home. It was powerful as the kids came out to play and the environment was changed as the Holy Spirit super-charged the area with His grace and mercy.

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That night we were back in the French Quarter preaching the Gospel again. Part of the team went to Bournon Street and part of the team found themselves occupied for several hours in the Jackson Sqaure area. Daniel and Alex found themselves contending with a Pagan couple for a good hour. They shook them so much that the Pagan woman emailed me asking me to keep these two JESUS FREAKS from being so agressive in their witnessing! Praise Jesus!

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We left Daytona truly "on faith" as Raven East Coast was the only one to respond to our request for support--but God met the need as Pastor Stephen Smith of Westpoint Church blessed us with enough mony to cover our gas on the way home. Thank you guys very much for standing with us in the battle for men and women's souls!