Hurricane Katrina North Shore Disaster Fund Update #54
This is the fifty-fourth update for the Hurricane Katrina disaster relief fund for the Lake Pontchartrain North Shore. This includes the Covington, Abita Springs, Mandeville, Slidell, and New Orleans, Louisiana.
Pastor Sprague has sent another message concerning the ministry of Trinity Evangelical Free Church of Covington, LA and hurricane relief.
"Sorrow in the Evening, Joy in the Morning
There are a lot of stories told and testimonies given at Trinity Church these days. Last night was no exception. A man named Clarence gave praise for the work team from Minnesota that cleared up his home freely, lovingly, diligently and in the name of the Lord Jesus. Yet, he also revealed his family’s tragedy. His missing 22-year-old nephew was found the day before, shot in the head, maimed and burned. His charred body was found in his SUV. So much pain, yet he stood before us all, giving glory to God and expressing his hope in Jesus even though the funeral was the next morning. Pray for Clarence!
The Wednesday before, a member of a work team from PA expressed his mixed emotions about New Orleans because of all the negative reports he heard prior to his arrival. He pictured a complaining people with a handout mentality. God placed him in the 9th Ward for the week, the hardest hit area in New Orleans. (Donna and I saw it for ourselves last week!) Far from the media’s portrayal of the truth, he discovered all week long a people who had lost everything yet were working hard and were hope-filled and praising Jesus though their suffering was great. One man he worked with had been a drug addict prior to Katrina, but made a choice in the aftermath to choose the path of honor and care for his family. Katrina was bad, but God is working it for good. He said, "Michael, you have to get the real story out to what is really happening." How God is working through this will not be portrayed on your television sets.
Another family graced our doors last week and they were so moved by the help they got that they arranged for the whole story to be told in a leading article today in the Times Picayune newspaper. The man runs a Girl Scout camp in our town and had a daunting task of acres of clean-up. The man had given up on church and dabbled with Buddhism over the years. At first he was totally skeptical of our team, but soon discovered they were as genuine as they come. In the newspaper article he said, "I’m not a big church person, but I think I’ve changed my mind. These were really sweet people …they didn’t ask for a thing. I’m not used to that." The newspaper heading read, "Ranger is blown away by group’s generosity." Seeds were planted. Pray for Mike and his family.
Here is another story from a team member that blows me away. This dedicated servant drove 23 hours to Trinity and then had to turn around 2 days later to drive 23 hours back home because of a death in the family. She struggled …Why, Lord, after just 2 days? Here’s what she wrote:
"When we returned we prayed…and prayed…and prayed…seeking answers…"My journal from our trips to Louisiana had one recurring theme…thank you Jesus for allowing me to understand what you truly meant by the ‘church’. Thank you Jesus for helping me to realize that the church is a family, not a building. When we returned it became clear that where we live is seriously lacking for ministry. We have to drive 30 miles to Waushara Community Church as there are no outward focused churches in our area. They are all, as our pastor would say, ‘arguing over the color of the carpet’. People are broken, sad, lonely…and most of all…hungry for Jesus. We started calling around to look for a group of people to pray about this situation as there are several local churches currently experiencing fallout. The bulk of the population is either unsaved or in great spiritual need."
"I pushed…’Lord…I don’t want to leave…I love my church’! It became clear that he was preparing us. Before we knew it the situation seriously escalated. We started calling on families. We got, ‘what are you doing Sunday…can you meet Sunday’???? This Sunday we have nearly thirty people meeting in our living room. Our senior leadership at church is seriously investigating an EFree Church Plant in our area. Praise God for the unknown, praise God for the unsaved as they are future servants of Jesus, Praise God for all He is everyday."
I’m undone by this. God is working in such powerful ways and I hear stories like this everyday. One church in St. Louis has started a new ministry in their town after serving for a week at Trinity. Entitled, "Simply Service", this ministry is dedicated to reaching lost people for Jesus Christ by doing very specific, unskilled tasks such as raking leaves, cleaning homes, and manual labor. In the process of "Simply Service" God does His work. Yeah God! Way to go Kristen and St. Louis E. Free!
A team from my home church, Forcey Memorial Church in Maryland, returned home after spending two of their days gutting a home without getting to meet the owners who were still out of the area as evacuees. Upon their return home to MD they got a call from the grateful homeowners who wanted to express thanks. The Forcey team discovered this refugee family was now living in …Maryland, not far from Forcey. A grand meeting of the team and the family is being planned.
Pray for revival in New Orleans and the Gulf region.
As you can tell from the stories, there is so much pain, yet God is present. There is sorrow at night, but joy comes in the morning. As Paul put it in 2 Cor. 4:8-12, 16-18,
"we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death works in us, but life in you …Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal."
Please pray for:
1. The weary. This is everyone, everyday. Pray for Donna as she feels the effects of Katrina, especially at this time. The demands on her life are rigorous and she has many friends moving away, including one very special friend.
2. Pray for our four new staff needs. We are bringing in a candidate for our Children’s Pastor/Director position soon. Pray for God’s wisdom.
3. Pray for the multitude of decisions we need to make as we bring on a new building, figure out how to pay for the building and furnishings, and reach out to our community. Praise God for the Hershey Evangelical Free Church who has agreed to co-lead our summer VBS with our team.
4. Pray for revival in New Orleans, the Northshore and the Gulf region.
Betting the Farm on God,
Pastor Michael Sprague (2/24/06 7:02 PM CST)"
It is so easy to forget how many lives have been uprooted, and how many possessions were lost when we don’t have it in front of our faces on the television. It is evident from Pastor Sprague’s message that so many are in so much pain and heartache. Let’s work together to help alleviate some of the pain and suffering of these people.
Please consider a contribution to the combined efforts of this blog and Grace Community Chapel of St. Peters, MO, in raising money and volunteers for ministry teams to be sent to Trinity Evangelical Free Church in Covington, LA, to be distributed locally to the Lake Pontchartrain North Shore and New Orleans area. You will find detailed donation information by clicking here.
