My Brother Danny

I said goodbye early this morning to the crew of six men and one lady who built the floor system for our homeless shelter.

Their leader and pastor, Daniel Crosby, is my younger brother. He works like a Trojan.

We have been building things together all our lives including our tree house construction phase when we successfully (without falling) established a perch on a branch 30 feet above the ground followed by our excavation phase when we successfully (without dying) tunneled 20 feet into a sandy hill in the desert. These and other boyhood follies still stand as our major preparation for pastoral leadership.

We have often been confused. By that I mean that he is Pastor D.E. Crosby, Ph.D., and so am I. We received each other’s denominational mail through the years, and often corrected colleagues who thought they knew who we were.

Danny has led five volunteer teams to work in New Orleans since the great devastation. His chainsaw crews were phenomenal in removing the tallest trees from the smallest yards without damaging (significantly) surrounding structures. Pictures of his exploits in tree removal and demolition feature his red truck connected with sagging ropes to the tops of towering trees. No crew members have been lost, officially, despite the risks.

I hugged them all before they piled into the church van this morning for the long trip back to Fort Worth, Texas. They were a great encouragement to me, and they arrived, providentially, at the very moment we needed a skilled carpentry crew to help us build a floor for the emergency sheltering program.

I told them that many homeless people will enjoy in a warm bed this winter because their capable crew took six days out of their lives to bless the people of our city.

Floor for Tent Is Completed

An emergency shelter for the homeless population in New Orleans is moving forward thanks to a volunteer crew from Cleburne, Texas. In just two days they completed the wooden floor for the climate-controlled tent which will accommodate 126 individuals.

The tent dramatically expands the capacity of the New Orleans Mission which will administer the facility and provide bathrooms, showers, and meals for the residents.

The project was spearheaded by First Baptist New Orleans in partnership with the North American Mission Board and Lousiana Baptist Convention. Mayor Ray Nagin has made a verbal commitment to provide funds as well.

The homeless problem in New Orleans is near crisis stage as the colder months approach. This effort to care for the "least of these" will be accompanied by spiritual teaching, evangelism, and other efforts to bring transformation to those who are now living on the streets.

Sleeping warm and dry

Janet and I have been hosting a volunteer team from First Baptist Church of Cleburne, Texas, this week. They removed five trees yesterday from two properties, and today they will begin the construction of the floor system for the climate-controlled tent at the New Orleans Mission. The tent, an emergency solution for these colder months, will help us bring 126 homeless people out of the cold and into a warm bed for the night. A partnership is being forged now between the City of New Orleans and Baptist entities to underwrite the cost of this operation. Keep me in your prayers today as I talk with people and try to expedite this operation.

I made a visit to Duncan Plaza yesterday and saw a hundred or more people at noon being fed from a truck parked in the street. This homeless community of 300 people has developed in the shadow of City Hall and has taken over all overhangs, porches, and pavilions in the area. The grounds of the plaza and surrounding buildings are littered with blankets, mattresses, and clothing. Heaps of used clothes are here and there. Truthfully, the place looks like a Goodwill Store after an explosion.

Neither the homeless nor those seeking to help can continue indefinitely to use Duncan Plaza as a distribution point. The site lacks everything that the homeless need: security, bathrooms, showers, drainage, shelter, and climate control. Its only advantage is visibility to the community. We realize that some of the inhabitants of Duncan Plaza will not want to move where they have a warm bed and bathrooms. But many of the homeless in our city are seeking warm and dry shelter every night.

When Mary and Joseph could find no room in the inn they were glad to accept the shelter and warmth of a stable. The accommodations we will provide for the homeless will be gratefully received by many of them and will exalt the Savior as we connect our good deeds with a clear presentation of the Christmas story.

Waiting on you

Unity for the Homeless estimates that 12,000 people are living on the streets of New Orleans, twice the number pre-Katrina. No one knows how many more are living in flooded homes without heat and other utilities. We are facing a winter unlike anything we have seen in a generation.

The homeless crisis in New Orleans continues to mount as colder weather settles upon us. More than 300 people are now living in and around Duncan Park, according to latest estimates I have seen. Restrooms facilities are unavailable or horrific. It is a growing community of employed and unemployed persons with or without a political agenda but certainly without proper shelter and other essentials.

All functioning homeless facilities in the city are full now for both men and women. The shelters are turning away many people every day. Long lines trail for hours from the doors of these helping agencies.

I have heard many people asking why something has not been done. I stumbled on the answer this week in a meeting with Ruby Bridges. She desegregated public schools in New Orleans by walking into the William Frantz Elementary School as a six-year-old in 1960 escorted by four U.S. Marshals. Wednesday I met with her to talk about her old neighborhood and school. It just happened to be the 47th anniversary of that amazing moment in her childhood.

Ruby told us about an incident with her youngest son, Malcolm, several years ago when he was nine years old. He saw pictures of the Presidents of the U.S. and asked his mother, "Can a black person be president?" She thought about it for a moment and said, "Yes, Malcolm. A black person can be president." "Then why are there no black presidents?" Malcolm asked. "Well, Malcolm, I guess they're waiting on you," his mother replied.

Many important matters are still unattended in our city including the perplexing problem of homelessness. Somebody might ask why these problems remain unsolved. My first reply now is this: "I guess they're waiting on you."

The size of the homeless population is certainly daunting. But good people are addressing it one by one, providing food and warm clothes and shelter for a day. Truthfully, we can all help with this one. You may not be able to fix potholes or water lines or levees, but you can drive down to Duncan Plaza with last year's winter clothes and give them away. Your church or fraternity can collect items for the homeless and take them to the shelters.

I always feel better about a problem when I am actively doing what I can rather than standing back and cursing the darkness. In fact, you will feel hope rise up within you as you transfer your unused coat to someone who is shivering in the cold.

An initiative is now in the offing at New Orleans Mission to provide shelter and food for many more people through the colder months upcoming. We hope it will be up and running in a few days. It is likely to be full as soon as it opens.
Many of the homeless in our city are people who had a job before they came and thought they could work out their living situation when they arrived. They have discovered that rents are beyond their reach and that flooded homes are not decent shelter. Almost all persons staying nightly at the New Orleans Mission now are fully employed, the director told me.

No children should be lying cold and hungry in the streets of New Orleans tonight. We have the means to make sure that every child in our city is warm and fed. It's all a matter of deploying ourselves and our institutions, public and private, to address the need.

When you think of the homeless in our great city, think this: they're waiting on you.