This is the thirtieth 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 an E-Mail update on the Sunday Services October 9, 2005.

“Stories:

I have marveled for a long time at how the book of John ends:

“And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books which were written.” ~John 21:25

Wow! What are those stories? What a life well lived. There is no one like Jesus and I’m finding He is still creating story after story in the lives of people. In the service yesterday at Trinity Church, you couldn’t help but sit on the edge of your seat wondering what God would do next.

1. The first man, a church member, shared how he had so many trees fall on his property, it took two and a half 18-wheelers to haul away all of the debris. The company he hired was from Texas and over the three days that they worked, he shared with the owner Jesus and God’s way of living. At the end he bowed his head and prayed to receive Christ. When it was time to pay the man, he declared, “You have hauled away more debris from my life than I have from your yard. You owe me nothing.” Yea God.

2. A woman told her work team that when they go back to Chicago they were to tell their friends that “You saved a life and a marriage.” This person told the story of how a work team had labored over days to dig out her family from the devastation.

3. A woman boasted of the love of God which was being shown through the people of Trinity. She told a story of one divine appointment after the next. I felt like I wanted to come out of my seat and cheer.

4. One team helped a man who was a Jehovah’s Witness. He declared his affiliation and one team member asked, “But are you saved?” He admitted he wasn’t. They took the time to share the gospel and God opened his eyes. He was saved by the power and blood of Jesus. Yea God!

5. Remember Spiderman? The tree trimmer who fell 60 feet out of a tree and lived? He has more broken bones than Evil Knieval and is in great pain. His family and extended family were at Trinity on Sunday. They declared that they want to be baptized and join the church.

6. Another church member told about leading a person to Christ last Sunday during the 2nd service. He started with these words, “You came in here thinking you have lost everything, but you are about to gain everything.” She did because she met the pearl of great price – Jesus!

7. Seth was the first volunteer we had at Trinity. Just after the hurricane hit, when things were really bad in Covington, Seth and his buddy, Ryan, left Trinity Seminary and headed south. They arrived when there was no electricity and the city looked like it was hit by a nuclear explosion. They pioneered the work and now hundreds of people have followed in their steps. Seth was back this week with a work team from Chicago…all valiant workers for Christ. Seth had to leave Sunday but told his parents, “All I want for Christmas is a plane ticket to Trinity Church.” His heart is to come back and help us again. I told that story in the service and a member of Trinity Church said, “I will buy his plane ticket.” Seth, if you are reading this letter…God provided!!!

I preached yesterday on Rev. 2:1-7 and commended my staff, Trinity Church, and the teams on their toil, labor and perseverance. They are an awesome group of people who deserve a great “Well done.” The caution in the passage was to make sure we don’t lose our first love. Ministry that flows out of devotion to Jesus is potent, but if we drift in intimacy with God and simply go through the motions, we become like travel agents passing out brochures to places we’ve never visited. To put it another way, the church that doesn’t passionately love Jesus is like decaf coffee…smells like coffee…tastes like coffee…looks like coffee…but has no punch.

Pray that Trinity Church remains a place head-over-heals in love with Jesus Christ and serves out of that strength. I can tell you that at age 48 I’m finding Jesus more compelling, more interesting, more awesome, more surprising, more fulfilling, more attractive than ever. I pray that will be true of you as well.

Betting the Farm on God,

Pastor Michael Sprague (11:58 AM 10/10/05 CDT)”

We continue to see evidence that God is sweeping the North Shore area with the winds of revival and awakening. We pray that God will call out many workers for this time of harvest. There is still so much suffering. Physical and Spiritual needs are so great. Ask God what He might have you to do to provide help for this great ministry.

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 Monday, October 10th, 2005 at 4:04 pm 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