Alex Brian, Pastor
711 Dauphine St.,
New Orleans, LA 70122
504.535.5152 – thevieux.com

Our church has for decades been a place for the homeless and hurting to seek refuge in the Lord. There is a beauty and honesty about this ministry which, if hard to describe, is equally undeniable. Over and over again God takes people everyone has given up for lost, saves them, and restores them to abounding life. For those of us who take part, it’s humbling more than anything. The more you see Christ raise the dead, the more you realize your own lifelessness without Him.

I thank God for you, our ministry partners and friends, and for the opportunity over the past two years to take part in everything He has done in and through this congregation. Over the past two years, we’ve focused on the overall health of the church—we started meeting throughout the week for discipleship, started an ordination and internship track in coordination with the local seminary, and we began meeting weekly to pray together. We’ve met new neighbors and visitors and shared the gospel. We’re currently developing a greeting/outreach team and have begun a membership track to allow newcomers pathways to dig deeply into the life of the church. More importantly, we’ve learned to trust and depend upon God and serve each other through what, honestly, have been two excruciatingly difficult years. Incredibly, God has given growth in every aspect of the church even through closures and mandates and a hurricane dealing thousands of dollars of damage to the property.

When we pray and look to what’s next, God willing, this is what we see. Since we are already needing to repair the eastern half of the building, currently serving as mission team bunk rooms, we’re planning to go further and fully renovate the space to be a coffee shop, something we’ve been considering for some time. A shop would be a means of hiring people from our “shower Friday” ministry to the homeless and hurting, and provide those first jobs out of homelessness which can be so difficult to find. It will be a means of bringing the church and ministry to a place of financial self-sustainability, and will serve as a missional and evangelistic platform as we make the church more welcoming to residents of the French Quarter, and in our interactions with customers, communicate the gospel of Jesus and the Spirit of God as the center, power, and purpose of our work.

First, we have to get there. We are currently seeking partners and donors to help us toward these ministry goals. For more information about everything we do and ways to take part, visit our website: vieuxcarrechurch.org.
If you’re reading this, “I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” Amen, so He will in each of us.