A photo of our group on July 4th, from left to right: First row is Kristin and Jess, Second row is Myself, Al, Kim, and Paul, and in the back is Mike.
To get to Louisiana, three people flew and four drove (including me). The drive went great and was a good time for Mike, Kristin, Paul, and me to get to know each other. And even though we kept it near the speed limit, it only took us 18 hours to go over 1,200 miles! That's four and a half hours quicker than what Mapquest said it would take!! Another little known fact about that stretch of road, it contains the most words with the letter "J" than any other stretch of road in the entire world (sorry, it's an inside joke). Thank you all for your prayers as we traveled, and thank you God for your constant protection. When we arrived in Louisiana, we took a jaunt over to Gulfport, Mississippi to pick up the other three from the airport. On the way back we took a tour of some of the damage along the shore. It was unbelievable. Where entire subdivisions of houses had been, there was nothing. Most of the debris had been cleaned up by this time, so it street after street of just foundations of houses. The emptiness of it all was eerie. Then every now and then you would see a random boat on the side of the road thousands of feet from the ocean. The hurricane had literally just picked them up and plopped them down in the most random of places. We even saw one that had landed on somebody's house. And then every now and then there was a house that was untouched, as though the hurricane went right around it. I didn't take any pictures; they wouldn't have done it justice anyways. It was a lot to take in, and we were still pretty tired from driving through the night before, so after dinner at a good Mexican restaurant, we headed back to the church and went to sleep. Well, actually we were planning on going to sleep, but a bunch of us went crabbing instead! Yeah, real down on the bayou crabbing. It was a good time and Kristin caught one monster of a crab.
See how excited Jess is to go crabbing!
Sunday we had an awesome time of worship at Faith Bible, and then at night we went out to the neighborhood where we would be doing our VBS and handed out fliers and invited kids to come the next morning. It was cool to see the park where we would be working and to get an idea of the neighborhood we would be serving. The neighborhood is middle class and underwent severe flood damage during the hurricane. Flood waters filled the first 8 feet of the whole subdivision for over 3 days. Since most of the houses where one-story, these families had lost everything, and when we arrived they were almost all still living in FEMA trailers that had been installed on their front lawns. After seeing all this damage, we knew that kids that we would be working with would need a lot of love and attention. But how would we provide the one-on-one time they needed if we had 80 kids and there were only 7 of us?
The park where we held VBS
Kristin cleaning out the port-a-potty where someone had left us a special suprise. Kristin rocks!
Well, on Monday morning, we saw God's faithful provision again. We had only 6 kids come for VBS! At first that seems a bit disappointing, but God knew that these kids needed extra special attention. Most of their parent's time is spent working on their houses and other tasks, so their time with an good adult influence is limited. By God's gracious plan, the seven of us were able to spend an enormous amount of time one-on-one with the kids. The most kids we had at any time that week was 15. The week before a team of 60 people had come down to do another VBS at Faith Bible in a different area; can you imagine if they only had 6 to 15 kids come each day? It was just another example of God working out His plan in His way. And what a blessing it was for us to spend so much time with these kids. Each day we would sing songs, have a skit, do some crafts, and play some great games. We were also able to share the gospel with them through a time of Bible teaching and through the love we showed them every minute of the day.
Tyler and I building tool boxes, where we put our "tools" like a children's bible, a prayer journal, and a gospel bracelet.
The awesome skit team, from left to right: Hammerinski,
Plierson, Wrencher, Jigsaw (who really loves jumping jacks!), and Coach Parking Lot (aka Mike) who did an awesome job preparing and leading the skits!
Our morning ralley where we sang songs, had a skit, and did our Bible teaching
The best part of the week was getting to know our kids. It was such a blessing to get to know them and to see their personalities come out over the week. These were the most respectful and fun kids I have ever met. Let me introduce you to some of them:
Monica. This was the cutist girl. The first day, when her mom came to pick her up, she exclaimed, "Mom, this is the best camp you've ever taken me to!!" Her mom replied, "Honey, this is the only camp I've ever taken you to."
D'Sean. She is possible the most athletically talented young girl I've ever met. She also was extremely giving and thoughtful. One of my personal favorites :)
Tyler. He was a bit of trouble some times, but with a bit of extra attention and positive reinforcement, we saw the best come out of him.
Robbie. This one was all smiles. And he loved to show people his "huntin' hat
James. He lived across the street, and after some coaxing joined us in the VBS fun.
Kyle. This little fella was full of energy, and while at first very shy, he became very attached to Mike.
Hadi. His family is from Syria, and while he only spent about a half hour with us before he ran home, we later learned that it was the first half-hour he had ever spent away from his mom and dad.
D'Lane. As you can tell from that smile, this was one awesome kid. He loved to play ball-tag and was always willing to help out.
When we weren't hanging out with these great kids, we were helping to prepare a site where another group would come the following week and do VBS for a different neighborhood. Also, on the fourth of July we were able to take the afternoon and night off and enjoy a great time of fellowship and fun. A family from Faith Bible, the Benoir's, invited us to a BBQ at their home complete with swimming in their pool! that was an extra special treat since it was so hot. Then that night, we traveled to downtown New Orleans to catch the fireworks and to see some of the city.
The very generous Benoir Family
New Orleans
Jess and Kim watching the fireworks.
Ohhh!
Ahhh!
To cap off the week, we held a big block party bash on Friday night at the park. Many people from the neighborhood came out and we celebrated with music, cotton candy, sno cones, and a big bouncy blow up thingy (you know what I mean). Also the kids that attended the VBS sang the songs they learned and we presented the park benches that we built and the kids painted. It was a great time to meet more people from the community, especially the families of the kids we'd been with the whole week.
The kids singing
One of the benches we built and the kids painted
As you can see, the week was an amazing blessing from God. He provided in so many ways. One of the most obvious was the weather. We had no back-up plan if it rained, so if the weather did not cooperate, VBS would be canceled. And until this point, there had been no rain for over 40 days, but the week we showed up it was suppose to rain everyday! So we prayed and we prayed and we prayed. We claimed the promise from James 5, "The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. 17 Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years." Relying on the righteousness that Christ has given to us, we prayed in faith and God answered. It rained everyday and nearly all the time, but never during our VBS. And on friday it was suppose to pour all night, so we prayed. not even a drop fell. It was amazing. I could write on and on, but I won't, so if you want to hear more awesome God-size stories, please grab me and ask!
I hope from what I wrote above you've gathered about 100 different things to praise God for. Some things to pray for are:
1. The seeds of the Gospel that were planted in these kids. That they would make Jesus their foundations.
2. For the encouragment and the salvation of their parents.
3. For the reconstruction effort and sustained work of the church in the Louisiana and Mississippi area.
4. For God's blessing and continued direction with Faith Bible Church.
I would like to give a huge thanks to the team for an awesome week. The unity we had was amazing and the times of fellowship and service we had together were an enourmous encouragment to me. Thank you to all those who supported us through prayer and financial giving, especially my family and Church of the Saviour. Lastly, thank you God for seeing it fit within your plan to use us in this way and for loving us so much that you sent your Son to redeem this world from destruction and death.
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