NEW ORLEANS, LA. -- A Sunday morning at St. John's Number Five Church in New Orleans. Despite their ongoing problems post-Katrina, their faith is strong.
"We're recuperating on a slow stage, but we are recuperating," said St. John's Number Five Church Pastor Bruce Davenport.
Two Love Knows No Bounds volunteers have made another trip to the 7th Ward to continue helping with that process.
"I see some progress, I see people being more hopeful than they have been in the past," said Love Knows No Bounds Member Karen Ruston.
The relationship between the two groups has been blossoming for more than a year. And last summer Pastor Davenport and other church members made two trips to Upstate New York, first visiting Ithaca, then attending a retreat at the Peaceweaver compound in Bath.
"When we're here in the 7th Ward we're working with a community that we've built a relationship with, so we're not just volunteers that come for a week and leave and are not heard from again and don't return," said Love Knows No Bounds Member Amber Alberta.
A lot love is flowing from Ithaca all the way down to New Orleans and it’s happening through a group called Love Knows No Bounds. We first introduced you to the group last year. Our Giselle Phelps was down in New Orleans earlier this week and has a follow up on this special relationship.
Although services are back on, the church is still dealing with some serious structural issues.
"Our walls are busted open and our roof is busted open and our support is gone, because the buildings been shifted," said Pastor Davenport.
Just a couple of months ago, the federal government tore down a project housing development right across the street from St. John's Number Five.
Now, because of that, the church's congregation has dropped from 300 down to just a couple dozen, but they say it’s because of groups like Love Knows No Bounds that they're slowly getting people to come back.
"The income of the church has really dropped. We use to have summer camps, now were limited our summer camp, the way we want to do it. We used to have a lot of substance abuse programs, we cut that down. We used to do a lot of outreach, we had to cut that down," said Pastor Davenport. “ So the help they are giving us, is giving us a chance to regroup right now.”
"I think that there's just so much love and they're just so happy to have any support that we can give them," said Ruston.
Pastor Davenport says the church probably needs to come down, but they're hoping it will last for a few more years. Pastor Bruce and will be heading back to Peaceweaver compound in Bath for a second visit the first week of August.