Photo Recap of Mardi Gras Evangelism

I recently returned from two trips to the far reaches of America – New Orleans and Los Angeles.  (Yes, to me, living in the Midwest, those are the far reaches!) I traveled to Los Angeles for the 2019 Shepherd’s Conference (a pastor’s conference), and to New Orleans for an evangelism outreach trip during Mardi Gras. Today, I’d like to share a few pics from the New Orleans trip (NOLA, for short). Or, as I like to call it, Nouvelle-Orleans!

Here we are, packed into a large van. I traveled down to NOLA with a team of professors and students from my school, Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. The school offers an evangelism course each year that gives students the opportunity to get hands-on experience sharing the Gospel during Mardi Gras. We had about eight men, so the 15-passenger van gave us plenty of room.

Sometimes, when you are travelling through the Bootheel of Missouri, you have to stop for some famous BBQ…driving can make you surprisingly hungry!

After some 14 hours in the van, we finally arrived on the campus of our sister school, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. While I don’t have much experience with the school, it has a beautiful campus. The Spanish Moss hanging off the trees added to the deep-south feel. This was our base for the weekend.

Here we are, hitting the streets as we headed toward the event. We spent the mornings as a group in prayer, worship, and Bible study. Then in the afternoon we broke into groups and shared the Gospel with those on the sidewalks.

Yep, this is me. I definitely had some trepidation about the trip, not sure how it would go. I think everyone felt like that. Event evangelism is a unique experience, and certainly not something that everyone is called to. While I believe that there is benefit in sharing the Gospel in some of the hardest places, such events have unique challenges and temptations. Accountability, spiritual maturity, and a firm foundation in the Gospel are important for anyone who goes to share the Gospel at a place like Mardi Gras.

This $3 legal pad from Walmart was a great investment, since I used it to ‘interview’ people on the sidewalk, asking them questions about their religious experiences and spiritual journeys. Such an approach was informal, revealed intriguing information, and led us into many gospel-centered conversations.

Here is a picture from the craziness. By the late evening, the crowds were getting louder and larger. While you may not be able to tell it from the picture, the noise here is deafening – you can hardly hear someone who is standing right next to you, yelling. Often the throng of people is so tight that there isn’t room to move. My ‘wingman’ and I stayed on the sidewalks, away from the busiest places, and tried to engage people with tracts and Bible verses.

Here is another picture of whats going on. The antagonism to the Gospel is real, and those standing on the balcony use their perches to throw beads – if they suspect that you are there to share the Bible with others, they will literally hurl those beads at you with all their might. While I avoided a direct hit, several team-members took the full force, and informed me that they are quite painful.

A good-natured smile and friendly eye contact go a long way – many people will gladly take a tract that shares Biblical truth. However, some people refuse, or take it and tear it up in front of you. Here is some of the litter on the streets – including a few discarded Gospel tracts. Maybe we could recycle them…

After several days of evangelism, we headed back to Kansas City and cold weather. We narrowly avoided a freeway shutdown, and I managed to snap a picture of the reason.

For those of you who were aware of this trip and prayed for it, thank you! Even now, I continue to pray for those with whom I was able to share the gospel. If you found this photo tour interesting, remember that we just released the next episode of the Timothy Talks podcast, in which I share stories and lessons from this event – you can listen to it here!