After a $3.5 million restoration – some of it reimbursed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) – the Christian Life Center has been transformed from a dowdy, 50-year-old facility in need of serious attention into a sleek, retrofitted building with fewer but more spacious rooms designed with married couples in mind.

A week before the Christmas break, bears of all colors and sizes sprawled across the gym stage at Our Lady of Prompt Succor School in Chalmette, each a heartfelt and huggable gift destined for a child in need of some comfort.

The story of how prayer saved New Orleans and possibly the United States in 1815.