Louisiana City Finds New Hope from a 'Good Samaritan'

Steve Rees : Apr 11, 2014
ASSIST News Service

The words vision, change, worth, respect, courage, forgive, unity, serve and impact, form a giant word mural on a 90- by 20-foot wall. The large letters and words are inescapable to anybody walking or driving through downtown Lake Providence.

(Lake Providence, LA)—Like Israel's king David who slew the Philistine giant Goliath with a sling and a stone, spiritual and civic forces in Lake Providence, Louisiana, are counting on words as weapons in the city's battle with foes who've hurled verbal abuse for too long and too many times.

The words love, hope, believe, respect and others are uniquely uniting black and white citizens of the northeast Louisiana city against outsiders who've labeled their community the poorest and most unequal place in the United States with a national news magazine article and a cable television network documentary.

Lake Providence and its allies are fighting back with a medium of their own: A larger-than-life crossword puzzle and professionally painted scenes and symbols of life in the picturesque southern city surrounding a six-mile oxbow lake in East Carroll Parish.

Not only are the words rallying cries for blacks and whites who are upper, middle, and lower-income wage earners, but there are signs that the destiny of Lake Providence is brighter than the bad press its citizens have battled since 1994 when Time magazine infamously called the city America's poorest.

One of Lake Providence's allies is a Colorado businessman and church deacon whose army of missions-minded youth took a pre-emptive strike against the power of negative words in July 2013 when it completed the first phase of a giant mural consisting of 13 words in large block letters.

Four months later, a CNN report called East Carroll Parish America's most unequal county, disappointing some Lake Providence citizens who say that the documentary ignored the city's black and white middle-class families working in governments, schools, and healthcare.

The words vision, change, worth, respect, courage, forgive, unity, serve and impact(,) form a giant word mural on a 90- by 20-foot wall. The large letters and words are inescapable to anybody walking or driving through downtown Lake Providence.

In between the words, professional artists began painting scenes from around the city, integrating them with the name Lake Providence in April 2014

"Our projection is for the mural to take about one year to complete, and we are on track for that goal," says Eric Holmlund, whose team from Resurrection Fellowship in Loveland, Colorado, began repairing cracks and priming the wall with black and white acrylic paint in July 2013.

With some 3,000 members, the Spirit-filled church in Colorado is committed to making history in Lake Providence by partnering with the city's churches, governments, schools and citizens to improve the sometimes beleaguered community.

Like fulfilled prophecy, recent favorable events in Lake Providence mirror some of the mural's 13 destiny words. The power of life and death are in the tongue according to the Bible, and blessings and curses are oftentimes spoken words. Lake Providence knows both the sting of harsh words and those that are life-giving.

At a recent unity and prayer banquet organized by Lake Providence church leaders, descendants of slaves and plantation owners embraced and spoke side-by-side. Will Ford III, an intercessor and evangelist whose ancestors were slaves in Lake Providence, reunited with Matt Lockett in March 2014 at a gathering of Christians committed to promoting unity in Lake Providence.

Lockett's ancestors were plantation owners who forbid prayer by slaves. Instead of blatant disobedience to their owners, Ford's ancestors muffled their voices by praying into a kettle now owned by the Dallas-based evangelist who's brought the sacred cast-iron piece to other national prayer and reconciliation events like The Call led by Lou Engle. Ford and Lockett serve on the staffs of Christ for the Nations and Bound 4 Life, respectively.

"It was an amazing display of unity, reconciliation and forgiveness," says Jo Edmondson, a Lake Providence resident and member of the unity banquet organizing committee, which invited pastors and their members from the city's 40 black and 20 white churches.

That same spirit of love broke down dividing walls when a youth praise and dance team from St. Mary's Missionary Baptist Church, one of Lake Providence's black congregations, performed across city at the predominantly white Providence Church. Before taking up an offering for the St. Mary's Praise Dancers, Providence Pastor Don Boyett told the all-girl troupe and its leader that his church was giving $1,000 for their trip to Baton Rouge in June. After the offering, the St. Mary's Praise Dancers had all but $50 of their needed $5,000, thanks to Providence Church and Resurrection Fellowship. The deficit was erased the same night by an anonymous giver.

"We're still praising God," says Andrea Davis-Lloyd who, prior to the offering, had netted only $500 from hot dog sales. "All we hoped for was to bless Providence Church with our praise dancers, and we received an unexpected blessing.