A Streetcar Named St. Charles…

July 15, 2008 | 10:55 PM

I went to the French Quarter last Friday to meet a friend, and I stopped to take one of the many, many photos in New Orleans that I never got around to taking: a nice shot of a streetcar. This one, lucky me, was headed to St. Charles Avenue in Uptown.

On Sunday, I went to Baton Rouge for church and to visit my friend and mentor Byron Townsend. After spending most of the day up there I took River Road back to New Orleans (the route follows the river back, thus the name- a 3 hour drive). It’s pretty much just a road next to the Mississippi River levee, so it’s nothing to get excited about. On Saturday when I drive back to Texas, I’m going to drive part of it to get some shots of the nice (very) old Catholic Missions along the way. There were some sweet churches that I didn’t stop to take photos of. Here are a couple shots of the River Road route.

On Tuesday after class I drove through Gentilly to take some shots of the neighborhood’s progress. These come from the neighborhoods between Filmore (south), Robert E. Lee (north), Franklin (east) and St. Anthony (west). You can look it up if you want, but basically it’s the area between the seminary and my church, and it is one of the slowest areas in terms of rebuilding. Here are a few photos from Gentilly to show you what it’s like, even now.

See, since I moved to Texas, I’ve had two guys tell me the city is a cess pool. I’ve had one SWBTS church planter tell me how easy it must be to plant in New Orleans. And overall I’m convinced the entire concept of Katrina is completely lost on the people I meet. I get it. They weren’t here, and I can only imagine what it was like in Indonesia after the tsunami. But the thing is, I have to get it into people’s heads that what happened is going to last with those of us involved here forever. It shapes who we are. I’m not going to get offended by every moron who never set foot in New Orleans but has a false opinion of what it’s like here. Maybe I can show them some photos and tell them some stories, and if I’m good enough at it, maybe I’ll give them a glimpse into my New Orleans.