The Work Begins

We set out on the road with a few bags to our names, no money but that which had been given to us, and the Lord as our guide. Brian drove most of the way and we switched drivers a few times. Duddy sat shotgun and Gapp and I were in the bak seat. We drove through Indianapolis, Evansville, a portion of Tennesse and Kentucky and finally into Louisiana, headed for Shreveport.

It's the four of us now, we had discerned at the beginning of this last Fall semester that God is calling us to live the life of missionaries on the road, going from town to town "bringing Good News to the poor, proclaiming liberty to the captives and new sight to the blind; to free the oppressed and announce the time of the Lord's favor" (Lk 4.18-19).

This looks like locating and securing 200 new places to move into and live with folks. Begin communities that don't just talk about giving to the poor and feeding the hungry but DO it. But this is bigger than the four of us this involves thousands of folks all over the country, many of whom were at the missionary conference I mentioned earlier. Allendale, a neighborhood in Shreveport, is only our first.

This is 1426, where I'm living in Allendale with Brian, Tom, and John. It looks nice but the houses behind us are literally tipping over. Over 1/3 of the property in Allendale is abandoned. Packs of dogs make off with our stuff at night and folks suffer from terrible poverty, but in spite of this the people and scenery are beautiful. It's really hilly and has poor drainage, which is why all the poor folks live here. The light just does something incredible down here and its usually sunny out. Everyone has front porches and the missionaries down here have been here for nearly 5 years. Everyone is Baptist or Methodist, but few receive much help from the churches (either due to their own poverty or the churches plans to gentrify the neighborhood).

We own 9 lots currently and are about to acquire and 14. Most of the houses are in this 'shotgun' motif; meaning you could fire a shotgun through the house from back to the front with both doors open...why you need to do this is as of yet beyond me. But last summer Action Division, highschool group in the People of Praise, built our 6th house, which is being termed the living room of the neighborhood. We have structured our houses to share facilities, so as to share more life. One house has the main kitchen and dinning room, another the main living room and so on. This one is being built for the whole neighborhood.

Right now I am working for Windows, Doors and More Outlet (WDMO), a non-profit firsts and seconds milling products company that funds our building projects and community projects. A friend David Zimmel but we will be adding another location by the end of January (if we can get the place ready by then). That's been my job along with John and Duddy (Tom). We've been dry-walling, and taping and we still need to finish wiring the place (which is being headed by an electrcian in the Shreveport branch of the POP). Then we'll paint it and start moving windows, doors and more in.