Please raise your hand if you know the history of the base I work with. No hands? Well, then, I think it's about high time, to share a tiny bit of how the Almighty has used YWAM in New Orleans
Below is the passage of scripture that Youth With a Mission believed God gave them when they founded the work in the Big Easy
Crime, greed, corruption, immorality and depravity has been the stamp of New Orleans, I heard it is one of the only major cities in America that did not experience revival somewhere in it's history. YWAM started coming to New Orleans to do evangelism during Mardi Gras, later God laid it on their hearts to pioneer a base here. They moved into the Crescent City the year of my birth (25 years ago), and bought houses in some of the worst neighborhoods in New Orleans.
One of our neighbors, claims it's because of YWAM moving into her neighborhood when no else would, and bringing in teams to fix up the houses and minister to the needy; that her area has changed. YWAM purchased a house on her street from two drunks and an old lady who kept several dogs in their house and didn't even let them 'out'. I heard the staff used gas mask to gut the house because it smelt so bad. People think the roads are bad here now, but someone shared with me that “in the old days it was not pot holes in the streets, it was caverns!” :) When teams came here in the beginning they drove into the hood and saw drug dealing out in the open and heard gun shots at night. But now the slum lords have been bought out, the houses fixed up, and real estate has gone from $40,000 to $300,000.