Thursday October 6, 2005
A half day of rest
They blessed me with a half day of rest yesterday. By "force" Becky took me to her home and sent me to the bathroom where this fantastic invention named "hot water" abides, then she left while I bathed and returned with a plate of a fantastic concoction of shrimp, round hollow noodles, scrumptious cheese, marinara AND alfredo sauce. Mmm. Then I was going to sit down and dig in the word, but ended up snoozing until time to get back for dinner and evening devotional.
HILLTOP
In the morning, Jason Chesser and I loaded up some appliances for Hilltop camp and took them over. If I never told you before, it's a work-camp ran by brother Machen and his son Rick. They are from Slidell and Rick's house was totaled. But he continues to help people get on their feet before taking care of his own. They are different from Tammany Oaks-- some people just won't wear a shirt with a church's name on it. So they get people from all over, from all walks of life. Their mechanic, Rich, is not a believer, though he grew up going to church said, "I've seen more true Christians since I've been working here than I've ever seen in my life." That's strong. Rich was also visibly touched and shaken when he was telling me that someone had told him that he was an answer to a prayer!
We filled up 100 gallon tank of diesel for the work crews and came on back. It was good to visit with my buddy. He mucked one day and really got his hands dirty, then I talked him into hanging with me the next day. I told him he served me whilst he was here.
JOYCE
She doesn't know this, but someone put us up to knocking on her door that day. Her dead husband's brother told us while we were there cutting down the tree on Saturday. He said that she was in denial about the condition of her home and that she was trying to do it all herself. De-mucking is not work for the timid, older folks, or for widows! We broke her in slowly, first by doing her yard work with the dream team from Saturday, plus Corey who climbed up into trees to cut down limbs. Corey was with Starr from New York. The second day, we came back and did just one room. The whole time, we would apologize for having to do this to her home... and tell her regretably that the things that she said she wanted to keep were going to have to go. When those flood waters hit anything, the whole thing is just ruined. You would think that you could get a little water and bleach and fix it, but it's too much yuck for that. We finally returned today and finished her up. A brother on the way back had a fender bender on the causeway.
The Montagut experiment
We tried something new with farming out some of our volunteers to other churches. We sent Brad Childers and the group from Providence Road Church of Christ down to Montagut to the South Terrabonne Church of Christ. Don Neyland is the preacher there (yes, sister Kelley, THAT Neyland is in his family tree!) . They de-mucked houses with lots and lots of mud and visited with the church there.
Brad walked in on Don praying in his office and he was visibly upset. When he finished, Brad asked him what was going on and Don said that out of 55 members, about three families are moving away from the church and moving to Houma.
The team worked themselves out of a job, so they, disappointed, drove back. Arriving about lunchtime, they fed and went out and did a job. The man they had to borrow a lawnmower from got to talking to them, telling how he had been a music minister for a church and ended up having bad marriage problems and leaving the church. They asked him what he was going to do and he mentioned that he may move to North Carolina, not knowing that these men he was talking to were from the same town! He took this as a sign from God bringing him back into the fold and they all promised to keep in touch.
Providing a channel of ministry
Brother Brad Hayes did the devotional message and quoted this phrase concerning the Tammany Oaks Church of Christ. That's exactly what's going on here. It's wonderful to see God working so mightily every day. I'm tired, but it's worth it.
We're looking forward to seeing Tim come back for a while, and I'm looking forward to taking some time off. I'm planning to "walk" when I get back to Valdosta. Then I'll take some time and then have a camping/canoing trip planned before I get back to Louisiana. Much love to the peoples.
They blessed me with a half day of rest yesterday. By "force" Becky took me to her home and sent me to the bathroom where this fantastic invention named "hot water" abides, then she left while I bathed and returned with a plate of a fantastic concoction of shrimp, round hollow noodles, scrumptious cheese, marinara AND alfredo sauce. Mmm. Then I was going to sit down and dig in the word, but ended up snoozing until time to get back for dinner and evening devotional.
HILLTOP
In the morning, Jason Chesser and I loaded up some appliances for Hilltop camp and took them over. If I never told you before, it's a work-camp ran by brother Machen and his son Rick. They are from Slidell and Rick's house was totaled. But he continues to help people get on their feet before taking care of his own. They are different from Tammany Oaks-- some people just won't wear a shirt with a church's name on it. So they get people from all over, from all walks of life. Their mechanic, Rich, is not a believer, though he grew up going to church said, "I've seen more true Christians since I've been working here than I've ever seen in my life." That's strong. Rich was also visibly touched and shaken when he was telling me that someone had told him that he was an answer to a prayer!
We filled up 100 gallon tank of diesel for the work crews and came on back. It was good to visit with my buddy. He mucked one day and really got his hands dirty, then I talked him into hanging with me the next day. I told him he served me whilst he was here.
JOYCE
She doesn't know this, but someone put us up to knocking on her door that day. Her dead husband's brother told us while we were there cutting down the tree on Saturday. He said that she was in denial about the condition of her home and that she was trying to do it all herself. De-mucking is not work for the timid, older folks, or for widows! We broke her in slowly, first by doing her yard work with the dream team from Saturday, plus Corey who climbed up into trees to cut down limbs. Corey was with Starr from New York. The second day, we came back and did just one room. The whole time, we would apologize for having to do this to her home... and tell her regretably that the things that she said she wanted to keep were going to have to go. When those flood waters hit anything, the whole thing is just ruined. You would think that you could get a little water and bleach and fix it, but it's too much yuck for that. We finally returned today and finished her up. A brother on the way back had a fender bender on the causeway.
The Montagut experiment
We tried something new with farming out some of our volunteers to other churches. We sent Brad Childers and the group from Providence Road Church of Christ down to Montagut to the South Terrabonne Church of Christ. Don Neyland is the preacher there (yes, sister Kelley, THAT Neyland is in his family tree!) . They de-mucked houses with lots and lots of mud and visited with the church there.
Brad walked in on Don praying in his office and he was visibly upset. When he finished, Brad asked him what was going on and Don said that out of 55 members, about three families are moving away from the church and moving to Houma.
The team worked themselves out of a job, so they, disappointed, drove back. Arriving about lunchtime, they fed and went out and did a job. The man they had to borrow a lawnmower from got to talking to them, telling how he had been a music minister for a church and ended up having bad marriage problems and leaving the church. They asked him what he was going to do and he mentioned that he may move to North Carolina, not knowing that these men he was talking to were from the same town! He took this as a sign from God bringing him back into the fold and they all promised to keep in touch.
Providing a channel of ministry
Brother Brad Hayes did the devotional message and quoted this phrase concerning the Tammany Oaks Church of Christ. That's exactly what's going on here. It's wonderful to see God working so mightily every day. I'm tired, but it's worth it.
We're looking forward to seeing Tim come back for a while, and I'm looking forward to taking some time off. I'm planning to "walk" when I get back to Valdosta. Then I'll take some time and then have a camping/canoing trip planned before I get back to Louisiana. Much love to the peoples.
posted by B. | 11:26 PM
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