Robert Preston on Planting a Revival Church Steps from Bourbon Street
About this episode
Robert Preston, founder and pastor of City Revival Church at 433 Dauphine Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana, sits down with Philip Cameron to share the extraordinary story of how God called him to one of America's most spiritually dark cities — and how a supernatural chain of answered prayer led him to the exact building he had quietly claimed in faith. Preston describes New Orleans as "the closest thing to Hell on Earth that there really is in America," a city drawing nine million visitors a year into a culture of lawlessness, witchcraft, and immorality just steps from his church door. Yet he and his wife surrendered to the call while still in Bible College, praying, "Lord, we'll go anywhere you send us." That dangerous prayer launched a journey rooted in the faith of Hudson Taylor — starting with almost nothing but the promises of God. The episode centers on a stunning miracle: Preston and his wife laid hands on a specific building, wrote down its address (433 Dauphine Street) in a prayer journal, told no one — and received it over a single phone call through a connection to Pastor Rusty Nelson of the Rock Family Worship Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Today, City Revival Church is seeing people saved, healed, delivered, and filled with the Holy Spirit in the heart of the French Quarter. Pastors and churches can book Robert Preston or plan a mission trip to New Orleans at cityrevivalnola.com.
Part of our Revival collection of conversations.
What's Discussed
Pastor Robert Preston of City Revival Church — located at 433 Dauphine Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans — recounts how God called him and his wife to one of America's most spiritually dark cities while they were still in Bible College. Inspired by a Mardi Gras mission trip through Pastor Rusty Nelson's Rock Family Worship Center in Huntsville, Alabama, Preston received a vision of Bourbon Street transformed by Holy Spirit revival. He and his wife quietly wrote down the address of a specific building in a prayer journal and laid hands on it — never telling anyone — then received it over a single phone call, a miracle Preston compares to the faith of Hudson Taylor. Today, City Revival Church is seeing salvations, healings, deliverances, and Spirit-filled transformation in the heart of the French Quarter. Pastors can invite Preston to speak or bring teams to New Orleans at cityrevivalnola.com.
- God's Call to New Orleans
- Vision of Bourbon Street Transformed
- Praying for One Specific Building
- Miracle Phone Call and the Building Received
- Faith Without Resources — Hudson Taylor Comparison
- Revival Signs in the French Quarter
- Booking Preston and Mission Trips to New Orleans
Featuring Robert Preston
Episode Transcript
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Intro
Philip:Hello, my friend. Welcome to another Daily Faith. My name is Philip Cameron and I am delighted to have you with us today. We've got a great guest. He is a pastor that has been called to minister in New Orleans, and part of that ministry is in Bourbon Street. And right in the middle of the evil that goes on in that place, there are Revival taking place — you're going to learn of that today — and teams can come from any part of America and go there.
Philip:And this man — I admire them. You never see what you're doing yourself when you're called of God. What I do in Ukraine and Moldova and what we're doing all these years, I don't think about it. I've been over 33 years and it's natural to me as anything else, and then you meet someone that does this kind of stuff and you're thinking, oh my Lord, how does he do that? And it's called the call of God. And so we are just excited to have him with us.
Philip:And two things. This book here is written by my grandson — seven years of age, six years of age — and his name is Roy, and he travels with his granddad whenever I can take him with me. Whenever Roy comes with us, if he's not there it's just doing what I got to do — travel and preach and fly back home. When Roy's with me it's a joy, it becomes a vacation, and he comes with his granddad and shares my room and we are just pals.
Philip:So what we've done is over the years and all the work we've done, all the travel we've done together — I've taken him down to New York City and the Keys and a bunch of places, too much to mention, and Europe. We took him to Moldova and we took him to Turkey and he went to Ephesus. So what we've done is we've been taking pictures of this — me and him — and so he's been hearing me speak about Moldova and Ukraine and the passion we have for it, and he started talking to Dasha, one of our leaders, and he said, how can I help Granddad?
Philip:So what they did was they got together and made this book — that's me and him at Williamsburg, I believe. Is that right, Williamsburg? So we're walking Williamsburg, and what it is — if you've got a grandchild or a kid in your family, in your life, that you would like them to learn how to read — this is him writing his story, that's me and him on TV together, him sitting beside me in a church, and there's a little story that he tells concerning the picture. And if you'd like to help our ministry and also bless your family and say this is going to help kids in Eastern Europe and Moldova and Ukraine, you can order this book from our ministry.
Philip:And also you go to dailyfaith.tv and you can get that little book that Roy and Dasha put together. And also you can find there hoodies — there's fabulous hoodies. Now don't say hoodie, it's a hoodie. And so you get a hoodie and the coffee mugs. I have a coffee mug every day. And this is a brand new book also written by Dasha. She was busy these last few weeks and months. This is the testimonies of the latest kids that we've rescued, and the picture is inside — the picture inside the thing — and it tells you their story, and the book is called Eternally Grateful. These are the testimonies of young people that our ministry has rescued and saved and put back in school.
Philip:For those who don't know, we have a ministry in Ukraine and Moldova — mainly in Moldova. We have a home in Ukraine and we have a village of homes called Vatra Village in Moldova, and we take kids that have no chance of life and no future and they come to stay in our homes. Each home has got a set of house parents and they put them back in school and we get them an education and we share the gospel with them.
Philip:And the crazy thing is that these kids have turned from orphans to sons and daughters to missionaries. And when the Ukraine horror broke out, our young folk — that normally as a day-to-day effort of the work that we do there, they go and they feed widows and they care for families and they bring food and blankets and clothes, and in the spring they'll dig those gardens and plant fruit and vegetables for them. So we've been doing that for years and years and years — decades — that's part of the DNA of what we do.
Philip:But when the war broke out and all these hundreds of thousands of refugees ran away from Russian armies, our kids went up to the border and worked for days and days and weeks feeding people that had nowhere and lost everything. And they stood in tents, they cooked meals around the clock. And that's the girl on the left-hand side is Nadia and the girl on the right-hand side is Catalina.
Philip:I'm standing in a tent in the middle of No Man's Land — I mean a barren piece of property — where it's like between Moldova and Ukraine, and they stood there and made sandwiches. And when mothers got off the buses leaving their husbands behind and their parents behind — and anyone, any man between 18 and 65 was not allowed to leave Ukraine — and they came broken, and our orphan kids stood there and prayed for them and loved them and took the kids off the mothers' hands for a while.
Philip:And you saw one of our boys Danny in a bus giving out care packages, because a bus would pull up and they'd just put all the refugees in the bus and they'd take them away somewhere else. And the last thing they saw of Ukraine was us there loving them. And so what happened is we have a home — and this is really important for you to understand — we have a home in Odessa, and Odessa was shelled today. All across Ukraine, Putin is trying to break all of the electrical and water systems of the country. If he can do that, Mother Nature will do what his army can't. He knows that if we can break and bomb the infrastructure of the country Ukraine, what will happen is the people will starve and freeze to death, and that's not an exaggeration. That's a fact.
Philip:I'm watching this — if you want to learn something about Ukraine, go and watch the BBC because they're European-based and you'll see a whole different picture than the three seconds you're now getting on American news. So what happened was we had a home there, a gorgeous house, and we've had to move the girls out of that house. You're looking at two — to Moldova, to our village — to keep them safe. However, in the last few weeks and a couple of months, the rumor is that because the war is not progressing as we thought it would and it's going to be stalled, it's time for the Ukrainians to go home.
Philip:However, our house — we were leasing it and the lease expired, and the German who owns it is selling it. So I'm in a situation. I've got a bunch of girls in Moldova that I can't put back to Ukraine at the moment because of the war, and whenever we put them back, that house may be sold. And we are trying to get the money to buy the house. And so we're going to talk about that. Watch this video and I'll explain all that I just told you.
God challenged us to open a home just a year ago. We looked for many months to find a place big enough to make a difference in young girls' lives. We finally found the perfect place that can house 24 girls. We signed a long-term lease with the owner, and it has just ended. At the moment we are able to house the Ukrainian girls in Moldova, but as the war drags on there is pressure to have those who escaped the Russian invasion return to Ukraine. Moldova simply cannot afford the cost of maintaining so many refugees, and they have returned to Ukraine. Many have left for Europe and the USA, never to return. Our girls wait every day to return to their homeland. If their home is sold, there will be nowhere for them to go.
In the natural it seems impossible. We have already strained every sinew in our ministry this year to care for thousands of destitute lives. We are about to send at least two containers back with warm clothes to help these lost souls survive the brutal winter. But what about the young lives we already committed to protecting? Where would they go? Can you imagine handing them a bus ticket to a devastated land and telling them, you are on your own, we have nowhere for you to go, your home has been sold? How would they survive in a country stuck in no man's land?
But we are going to believe God to buy this special place. We will continue our work in Ukraine and trust him for protection as the days ahead unfold. We will be right there in the middle of tragic events with a place of refuge for young girls to find rest in a home provided by loving hearts. If God moves, the home we need is already waiting. We just need you. Will you pray? Will you give? I'm certain everyone who could wouldn't even hesitate to help this miracle take place. That is how this huge door of opportunity could open. We can minister to these dear souls for years to come and be a beacon of hope in a bleak battlefield of despair.
Philip:I need you to pray and ask the Lord to help us make this miracle happen. It's so hard to buy a home in a war zone — you have no idea. But we're over halfway there now. God's helping us. The house is going to cost a hundred and fifty thousand dollars, but we also need transportation. If we need to get back out of Odessa and this whole thing happened, the Lord challenged me — he said, would you risk to give two thousand dollars to buy this house? And I said I would. He says, well, believe God for 99 more people to do the same thing. And we are seeing people responding and saying, Philip, we will help in this step to make this house possible.
Philip:To rescue these kids — every face you saw in that video, in the hands of a trafficker, is worth $300,000 a year. And our kids are cared for, put in those homes, put back in school. We care for them completely — medical, everything else, their school books, their school, everything. And we are just believing God for a miracle to buy this home in Odessa. And if you can help us, the address is really simple: PO Box 25, Clinton, Tennessee 37716. PO Box 25, Clinton, Tennessee 37716. Please mark on your check Odessa Mission House, new house, so we all know to designate that money for this house.
Philip:Wherever you can give — if you can give a hundred dollars, you give fifty dollars, whatever you can give. Maybe I'm watching someone just now and God's blessed you at this time of year and you could help us buy this house and get this done. I'd love to see it done before the end of the year and I'm asking the Lord to speak to people. You can also give on dailyfaith.tv and there's a giving page — just make sure that you delineate and earmark it for the house in Odessa, and God will bless you for it.
Philip:I'm delighted to have my friend with me today, Robert Preston, and he has a unique ministry. And we would not have begun to see this stuff — what he's doing in New Orleans. I thought, my goodness gracious me, talk about a man on fire for the Lord. And I will watch this short intro video of his ministry to let you understand what he's doing in this incredible city. Watch this.
We are getting ready for the greatest outpouring of the Holy Ghost that the world has ever seen. It's gonna happen. He will put his glory upon you, he will put his light upon you, and that's his answer — his people full of his glory, shining his light to advance his kingdom and push back the deep darkness. These days are those days that the prophet Joel prophesied about. These days are those days in which Peter preached and said, I will pour out my spirit, says the Lord. These days are those days and you're a part of that. And he wants to take you, fill you, put his words upon you, put his fire upon you, and send you out to make a difference in this generation and in eternity.
Philip:Wow, I can feel the Holy Ghost as he's preaching there just now. Listen, when you're living in your call to a city like New Orleans, you better have the Father God in your soul. There are a lot of things you can do in ministry that can have an option. But when you're out there right out at the very end of that branch — I mean way out where the leaves are on the wisps of the tree — you better know what God is doing in your life and you better know that he whom you have believed. And I'm delighted to have Robert Preston with us. Robert, God bless you, and I am so glad — God bless you. God has called you. Tell us what you're doing right now.
Robert Preston:Man, you got me fired up talking about what God is doing in your ministry. I'm like, I could just sit here and listen to that. Well, what we're doing is actually very similar in that it's a rescue — it's a rescue mission. And God called us to the city of New Orleans. And if you've ever been to New Orleans, you know exactly what we're up against and what we're doing there. It's a city that's known for darkness, spiritual darkness. It's a city that's the closest thing to hell on Earth that there really is in America.
God's Call to New Orleans
Robert Preston:I mean, just to give you a little bit of a background — the spirit of the city is really lawlessness. Any kind of immorality that you can think of is happening right outside of our church door, and sometimes people try to bring it inside the church. We're located right off of Bourbon Street, where there's witches, tarot card readers, palm readers, psychics, any kind of immorality. People come from all over the world — nine million people a year come from different parts of the world to do whatever they want to do, and that's really the whole appeal of it. It's been a devil-run city, but we're here to kick him out. We're here to take territory for the kingdom of God and see a historic move of God in a city that many people have forsaken, that many people have given up on, but God has not given up on.
Robert Preston:So I'll give you just a little bit of background into what we're doing and how God called us there, the supernatural door that he opened, and then I believe the Lord's just going to encourage people today. So when my wife and I were in Bible College and we're seeking the will of God for our lives, we were open to going anywhere. We prayed a dangerous prayer and said, Lord, we'll go anywhere you send us, we'll say anything you tell us, we'll do anything that you call us to do, as long as we have your presence. Lord, we'll go anywhere. And we were willing to go to Canada, we were willing to go to Afghanistan, we were willing to go to Cambodia, we were willing to go to a grass hut in Africa. We saw ourselves as missionaries and we were ready to go anywhere for Jesus.
Vision of Bourbon Street Transformed
Robert Preston:And so I actually went on a mission trip — our church, an amazing church that we were a part of there, was the Rock Family Worship Center in Huntsville, Alabama, with Pastor Rusty Nelson, an amazing man of God. And so he did a Mardi Gras trip there and we were a part of that, and God called us and gave us a supernatural vision of an outpouring in just one of the most darkest cities in the world. So I saw that in my spirit and I really saw three things in that moment. Number one, I saw everything the devil was doing — in other words, I got a sneak peek into the spiritual atmosphere. I saw what the devil was doing there. But then I also saw what God wanted to do in the city.
Robert Preston:I saw a vision of the least likely people being saved, and of Bourbon Street — the bars being shut down and it becoming a place of the move of God, of an outpouring of the Holy Spirit, of the whole city being transformed. And number three, I just got a burden for the people. I saw the people the way God sees the people, and I had to go. I had to go. So I told my wife, let's go, and she said, all right, let's go. And so that was it. We surrendered to the call of God there.
Praying for One Specific Building
Robert Preston:So God opened a supernatural door. We prayed — this is awesome, I have to give you just a condensed version — but we prayed for one building in the French Quarter. We took trips down just to see what was there. We didn't know anybody in New Orleans, but we had — like Hudson Taylor at one point said, if you've read Hudson Taylor, at one point he said, we have 87 cents and all the promises of God. Well, that's about where we were. And so we barely had the gas money to make it out the driveway.
Robert Preston:I was just starting off an evangelistic ministry. So we went and took a survey trip. We saw one building. The Lord spoke to us in that moment. My wife and I were walking by, we laid hands on this building because we saw it and we looked at each other and said, I think the Lord wants to give us this building. We laid hands on this building. I could see us ministering in that building, people coming in off the streets getting saved, healed, and delivered. I saw a mighty revival taking place in that building and I knew it was the Lord. So we prayed for one building, never told a human being that we wanted that building right off of Bourbon Street.
Robert Preston:And when God called us, when it was his timing, over a phone call we got the building. The building that we're in now — we got that building over a phone call. So we just told the Lord we wanted it. My wife wrote down the address of the building in a book about prayer that we were reading. She said, Lord, we want 433 Dauphine Street for your glory. The French Quarter needs Spirit-filled Christians to rise up and wage war for it. So guys, if you're looking for a wife, get one like mine.
Miracle Phone Call and the Building Received
Robert Preston:So we prayed for that building, and over a phone call, Pastor Rusty was mutual friends with somebody in New Orleans who was a pastor. I called him up and I just wanted a coffee meeting. I said, listen, we're gonna be looking for a place to live in New Orleans, we're moving down there, I'd like to connect with you and just see what God does. And he says, man, this is really interesting timing, because there's actually a lady that just started going to our church. She owns a building right off of Bourbon Street and she wants it to be used for the Lord. And I said, oh, well, what building is it? And he said, let me see — it's 433 Dauphine Street. And I said, yeah, it is.
Robert Preston:So then he says, yeah, well, maybe you should give her a call. Maybe this is the Lord. I said, more than you know, it's the Lord. So I called the lady. I called the lady and it was just — I mean, you're gonna make a phone call, hey, God said I'm gonna be in your building. But I called her and she is just an on-fire, Spirit-filled lady. She owns this building and wants it to be used for the Lord. So I called her up and she said, in a no-nonsense way, she said, listen, tell me your vision. What's your vision?
Robert Preston:And I told her the vision — not in the sense of like a strategy one, two, three, but in the sense of here's what I've seen in my spirit, this is what God showed me when God called me, and here's what he wants to do in the city. She was driving in the car at the time. Well, she had to pull over because tears started streaming down her face and she said, listen, I've been praying for you since before God ever called you here. I know you're the one that God has sent. I don't have to meet you in person. You got the building. And I believe that God has sent you to my city to make a difference.
Faith Without Resources — Hudson Taylor Comparison
Philip:Let me say this. I think the reason why you're on here today is more than just to talk about what you're doing in New Orleans or what I'm doing in Ukraine. What you've just spoken about just now — there's someone watching and they have a vision from God and a challenge from God, and the devil's been saying there's no point, give up, you don't have enough money, you don't have enough of this. And let me tell you, every building I've ever built, everything I've ever done in Moldova, Scotland, whatever I've done in America — I've never had a dime towards what I started. But there's something that happens when you stand up in your circumstance and say, this is where I'm going. And the point of that spear of faith can break through the membrane the devil's trying to hold you back with.
Philip:And we've got three minutes left, Robert. I really feel today that pastors need to get in contact with you — first, for you to come and share in their church, to preach this faith that you have. I believe it can get a church — listen, pastor watching just now, listen to me. When you feel and hear faith — faith comes by hearing — and you respond to it, it can bump you up a level in just a moment of time. And I want you, Robert, to tell these folks how to get in contact with you to come and speak in their church, but also for their church to go down to New Orleans with you and experience revival.
Philip:And welcome to Moldova — the best thing that we ever do is have folk come to Moldova, because when they go there they come back hooked and addicted to what we're doing, because that's the best thing in the world to do. How does a pastor get in contact with you to come down? We've got two minutes left.
Robert Preston:Yeah, well, I'm glad you said that. You can go to cityrevivalnola.com — that's our website, City Revival NOLA. You can see it on the screen there. All of our booking information is there, our contact information. We have a convenient form that you can contact us any way that you can connect with us — it's all on the website right there. And we would love to — like you already heard, there's nothing like coming and getting your feet on the ground in a place like this and sensing the empowerment of the Holy Spirit as you come here. We're experiencing revival. We're seeing people saved, healed, and delivered, filled with the Holy Ghost, seeing lives transformed, seeing the Spirit of God move in a crazy place. And we would love for you to be a part of that, to equip your people, to get them full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and bring them back to your place and get them activated in the community. If they can do it here, they can do it anywhere.
Revival Signs in the French Quarter
Philip:Let me say this. I have sensed, as you've spoken today, that there are people watching today that are looking for a boost, that jump-start — you know, you jumpstart a battery that's gone down. And I felt a jump-start in the Holy Ghost in my spirit today. And I just want pastors — if you are part of any group or church that wants to go down, the City Revival Church address is 433 Dauphine Street in the French Quarter, New Orleans 70112. And the web address is cityrevivalnola.com — City Revival NOLA, New Orleans, Louisiana. Make sure you put in .com. Robert, what a delight to meet you. I pray God's blessing on you. I pray divine provision on your ministry, and we curse the powers of darkness and we release the power of God to be made manifest in the name of Jesus. God bless you, and thank you.
Robert Preston:God bless you.
Thank you for watching Daily Faith. We love you and appreciate you. Pray about what's happening in Ukraine. This is not a political thing — this is the gospel being put into action. For over 25 years the Cameron family has been changing the lives of orphans in Romania and Moldova, from providing running water, flushing toilets, and clean wells to coal for heat, new windows, as well as food and clothing. They championed the physical needs of the orphans in these broken and desolate countries.
Many of Moldova's orphans are saved from the horrors of trafficking through homes founded by the Camerons, and in the process orphans become daughters and sons. They come to know their heavenly Father and are forever changed by the love of Jesus. God helped the Camerons lift these amazing young men and women out of darkness. Now, no longer orphans, they want to return and invade that very same darkness with the light of Jesus Christ. The Orphan's Hands equips these daughters and sons to become missionaries.
Your monthly gift of $31 will allow us to rescue and take in more girls and boys, saving them from the hell of human trafficking. Your monthly partnership will allow us to care for those in the Orphan's Hands homes in Moldova and Ukraine. Want to join Philip and Chrissy in taking care of these precious young people? Please contact us today by calling 833-Daily-Faith. You can also give by going online to www.dailyfaith.tv or by writing to Post Office Box 25, Clinton, Tennessee 37716. So many lives depend on what we do. Thank you for loving the lost.
Topics
robert prestonnew orleans revivalfrench quarter churchurban church plantingsupernatural provisioncity revivalbourbon street