A long time over due.

To my great family, friends, and acquaintances I am thankful, very thankful for you.

3 years and 4 months ago I committed to chasing a dream. That dream was a deep heartfelt desire led by the Spirit and planted by God to reveal God’s Glory and His Kingdom to neighborhood of Central City, New Orleans. The time that I have spent here have been filled with many pains, sorrows, and joys. Part of me wishes that I could say that my plans for this place have not changed or morphed at all but they have. I am completely ok with that as well.

I knew that in moving here there would be a vast adjustment in transitioning from being a nomadic student of all things, to becoming a more defined man. I needed to switch from thinking month to month, to years, and then decades. I had to learn how to guide, instruct, and inspire others to be responsible, honest, and genuine. I needed to create those exact changes in my life because I realized the culture around me needed guidance in those areas as well. I find myself constantly learning, applying, and teaching. I forget that there were many times where I realized that I had to sacrifice many simple comforts, and find new loves.

A lot of change has been happening. March 20th, 2010 I married Rachel Gillen who is now Rachel Wong. We merged lives into the house that I purchased 2 years ago in Central City. It was a great and beautiful event. Marriage in the past 5 months has awakened me to understanding how long of a process helping Central City become a thriving neighborhood through Gospel transformation will be. My wife has helped me understand this to even greater depths as she has been teaching 1st grade in a similar neighborhood. When we see or hear statistics or rankings of how schools are performing here I don’t think that we understand the severity of the conditions in the “hood.” Test scores just show us that there is a deep issue to be solved, and not all of it is within the realm of education, education is one tool of many that is needed. Education does not solve home-life problems, and neither does Child Services. My friend that is getting his Doctorate in Special Education once told me that he was tutoring high school kids over the summer and he never knew what to expect day to day when he would arrive at his student’s homes. One story that disturbed me the most was of when he was tutoring the student in one room while his older brother was having sex with a girl in the next room. Keep in mind this is New Orleans, the land of shotgun houses, where there are no doors from one room to the next. Childhood home life of many in the poor and impoverished neighborhoods are like this. This breeds a lot of distrust, anxiety, ill education, and disposition to always being in survival mode. This is the context that we are learning and living in to inform decisions and methods of what would create the most impact in this neighborhood.

These are the top 3 three aspects that I believe would create the most impact in the neighborhood right now.

A limited number of longterm investors and families in the neighborhood, buying and moving in scattered throughout the neighborhood to learn and walk alongside of us.

Development of a Refuge NOLA intern house - a Safe Space- This is to be a community space, that would be a place for kids to do homework and hang out with supervision and guidance. This would also be an informational hub with access to the internet. Interns, and learners will primarily run this place.

Development of Sustainable Business- This is to provide an extended educational experience and training grounds to help people define who they are, who God is, and what is needed to excel. We want to create a safe place to make mistakes in a business environment so that one can eventually work up the ladder and into the regular corporate work world. We are unsure of what this business can actually be, and we need someones help to pull this together. I completely feel that I am terribly too young to understand all that it will take in this arena, however I know it it probably the most important aspect to helping this community long term.