This is the twenty-eighth update for the Hurricane Katrina disaster relief fund for the Lake Pontchartrain North Shore. This includes the Covington, Abita Springs, Mandeville, and Slidell, Louisiana area.

Pastor Michael Sprague of Trinity Evangelical Free Church of Covington, LA, has sent some words of wisdom from the ministry on the North Shore.

“Friends,

A friend of mine wrote the following words to me:

“Gather in all that has happened since August – would the mighty wind of the Holy Spirit be seen like it is right now without the disaster? Would you have witnessed the mighty unstoppable Hand of God like you have without the hurricanes? Would Trinity Church have become ‘Jesus with skin on’ without a community desperately in need of His arms, His strength, His love? A community that suddenly had nothing but Him?”

“Nothing but Him” …. What a great statement and an apt description of who we are. Prior to Katrina, I had been meditating on an old C. S. Lewis statement, “The man who has God and everything has no more than the man who has God and nothing.” Could C. S. Lewis be right? I can tell you that many of the props to my life have been kicked out from under me over the past month – tap water, home to live in, electricity, newspapers, phones, computers, friends scattered – yet in a mystical sort of way I feel more alive, fruitful, and focused than ever before. Jesus really is the One who gives life and life abundant.

The service yesterday at Trinity was so inspiring. God is showing up in ways that leave us inspired and encouraged.

1. “Spiderman” showed up at Trinity. Let me explain. Just before the hurricane major newspapers carried the story of a local tree trimmer, nicknamed Spiderman who had amazing agility over the years working at great heights in tall trees. He fell 65 feet from a tree and barely survived. Unknown to me, Spiderman’s wife wandered into our free store last week for groceries and got an invitation to Trinity. During our sharing time, “Spiderman” from a wheel chair introduced himself and told his story. He has more broken bones in his body right now than Evel Knievel had in a lifetime. He gave glory to God for being alive and said he has found a new church home for his family at Trinity.

2. A team of 21 students from the University of Georgia went out on a work team Saturday. They met a woman in Slidell who had lost everything. Her house was flooded, 3 trees destroyed the frame and she had been displaced. While living at a shelter, she was robbed several times. They helped her gather some belongings from her ravaged house and brought her to Trinity. At the first service her story was shared. One of our families made provision for her to live at a home in Slidell. Others met with her during our 2nd service to pray and care. At the end of the 2nd service the word came to the auditorium that she had just prayed to receive Christ as her personal savior. We rejoiced!

I could tell story after story – they never seem to end. God is so good to us. As has been said, “You never know Jesus is all you need, until Jesus is all you got, and then you know Jesus is all you need.”

Betting the farm on God,

Pastor Michael Sprague

p.s. During the service we showed a 10 minute video production that highlights visually God’s work over the past month and the devastation from Katrina. Pray that this would be used all over the country to “Glorify God” and express the need. If you would like a copy, let us know. We haven’t worked out yet how to cover costs but we will soon. (10/03/05 6:06 PM CDT)”

A reader from Stockbridge, Georgia wrote the following about Grace Team 1 and the work they had done through the ministry of Trinity Church:

“FEMA just needs to give y’all the mobile homes/travel trailers and y’all will get them hooked up and running for nothing compared to what they are probably paying a contractor to set them up and who has NOT delivered.

Y’all have my prayers and GO LSU!!!”

We thought it was quite a testimony of what God can accomplish through His people who work together for His glory.

If you haven’t yet contributed to the combined efforts of this blog and Grace Community Chapel of St. Peters, MO, in raising money for Trinity Evangelical Free Church in Covington, LA, to be distributed locally to the Lake Pontchartrain North Shore area, you will find detailed donation information by clicking here.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 4th, 2005 at 9:25 am and is filed under Katrina North Shore Relief. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

Tags: Hurricane Katrina, Katrina, New Orleans, North Shore, St. Tammany Parrish