This is the forty-eighth 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.

Continuing on with Pastor Sprague’s weekly updates on the ministry of Trinity Evangelical Free Church of Covington, LA in hurricane relief.

“Morbid, yet beneficial…for me

“He is no fool to give up what he can not keep, to gain that which he can not lose.” Jim Elliot
“Only one life, will soon be passed, only what’s done for Christ will last.”
“What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul?”

I have a spiritual practice that I enter into annually on January 1 that propels me into the New Year. It is a bit morbid for some but it is beneficial for me. It is an exercise in counting (Read the rest of the story below the fold...)

his is the forty-seventh 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’s weekly update on the ministry of Trinity Evangelical Free Church of Covington, LA in hurricane relief.

“Amazing Teams

After returning from a Christmas break in Maryland with my family, I got to meet the other night with two large teams of predominately college students. The groups were from Fargo, North Dakota and St. Louis, Missouri. I was reminded what choice people God is sending us and how awesome college students can be.

1. A woman named Dakota illustrates the compassion and zeal volunteers have to serve God in our community. Dakota had to travel quite a distance on Christmas Day to meet with the bus leaving Bethel Church, an EFCA church in Fargo. As she traveled on a (Read the rest of the story below the fold...)

This is the forty-sixth 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.

This is another weekly update from Pastor Sprague of Trinity Evangelical Free Church of Covington, LA.

“2005 Katrina Year End Report – Yeah God!

I know that some of you love to be told hard numbers and facts, so here is our report as of 12/10/2005 after three months of Christ-centered labor:

Volunteers 1,309
Man-hours 51,498
Work orders 1,069
Work Orders done 487
Work orders not started 550
21% of churches have sent 4 or more teams
52% of churches have sent 2 or more teams
Volunteers have come from 29 states and Canada

I know some of you love stories of God, so I will include a few:

(Read the rest of the story below the fold...)

This is the forty-fifth 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.

The following weekly update is a Christmas Message from Mrs. Donna Sprague. Donna is the wife of Pastor Michael Sprague of Trinity Evangelical Free Church of Covington, LA.

“Michael asked me to share a few thoughts this Christmas season:

Merry Christmas to each of you! It’s hard to believe that Christmas is in less than a week. I guess that’s because we really didn’t have a fall here. Did we really have a September – November?

This has been a long year, but God has been faithful. We have been blessed with friends and family who have shown their love in so many ways! Thank you so very much for your kind words, support, and especially your prayers.

When we (Read the rest of the story below the fold...)

This is the forty-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.

This is another weekly update from Pastor Sprague of Trinity Evangelical Free Church of Covington, LA.

“A New Motto

I think my new motto should be “Unless God Shows Up, I am in Big Trouble.” We remain a group of Christ followers in over our heads. Conditions in the New Orleans area are still excruciatingly painful for many. I don’t know one person, not one, who isn’t up to their eyeballs in stress, pressure and the demands of life. I can identify – between pastoring and relief work, my days are full. Donna has the unending (so far) task of coordinating painters, construction workers, tree guys, and fighting the insurance company. Yet, we are learning, or in some cases, (Read the rest of the story below the fold...)

This is the forty-third 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.

This is the weekly update from Pastor Sprague of Trinity Evangelical Free Church of Covington, LA. What would you do with $50.00 if your Church gave it to you to help someone else? That is exactly what Trinity Church did last Sunday. Read:

“Weary, Yet Getting Excited in Louisiana

Anyone that really knows me knows that I love the Christmas season. There is not much I don’t enjoy – the sights, smells, and sounds of Christmas, glittering trees, the squeals of children’s excitement, good food, giving of gifts, traditions, extra time with friends, the opportunity to re-establish ties and reminisce with family and the message of the Christmas story where I am reminded, “I matter to God”. I love all (Read the rest of the story below the fold...)

This is the forty-second 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.

Here is another weekly update from Pastor Sprague of Trinity Evangelical Free Church of Covington, LA. This week his message is on being thankful.

“Thanksgiving

It was Thanksgiving and Snoopy was sitting on his dog house. He was upset because Charlie Brown and his family were in the house celebrating with a huge turkey dinner. Snoopy was stuck in the doghouse with dog food. He reflected upon this and said, It could be worse I could have been born a turkey. What true words. It could be worse.

Robert Hughes, in his book, The Culture of Complaint, writes, “We live in a society where people perceive themselves as entitled to have all desires fulfilled. When that doesn’t happen, we see (Read the rest of the story below the fold...)

This is the forty-first 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.

I have received Pastor Sprague’s weekly E-Mail update concerning the ministry of Trinity Church in helping those stricken by Hurricane Katrina. Here is his message:

“NASCAR Living or Soul Rest

Writer Dallas Willard states, “You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life.” This is true because we cannot live the life Jesus intends without entering into the rhythms of life Jesus designed for us. This, of course, is challenging when our lives are a whole lot more like NASCAR than rest.

Just before Hurricane Katrina hit, I got hit between the eyes that my RPM’s were set a little too high. Driving across Lake Ponchartrain via the Causeway to New Orleans one day I distinctly remember approaching (Read the rest of the story below the fold...)

This is the fortieth 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.

The following is a video shot and produced by Grace Community Chapel – Team 2 of St. Peters, MO, while serving with Trinity Evangelical Free Church of Covington, LA., Compassion Ministries International, and Urban Impact Ministries. Don Wagner put together the pictures, video clips, and audio.

To view the video you will need “Real Player”, which can be downloaded from here, (at the bottom of the page) for your operating system.

The four minute video contains a powerful message about the ministry of Trinity Church to those impacted by hurricane Katrina.

The video is entitled, But for God’s Grace, There Am I.

The first two files can be viewed with dial-up internet access. The (Read the rest of the story below the fold...)

This is the thirty-ninth 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 and New Orleans.

I have another message from Pastor Michael Sprague of Trinity Evangelical Free Church of Covington, LA. Here is his message today:

“Katrina Fatigue

It’s midnight and as I sit down to write this letter with the television on in the background, the commentator on CNN is doing a story on “Katrina Fatigue.” The case was made that Washington has already forgotten about New Orleans and has moved on to other events: Iraq, tornado’s, elections, deficits, etc. Politicians aren’t so sure that they want to fund a levee system or help New Orleans in ways that were initially promised. The new coined phrase is “Katrina Fatigue.”

I write to you tonight confident that our network (Read the rest of the story below the fold...)

This is the thirty-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.

I got a new message from Pastor Michael Sprague of Trinity Evangelical Free Church of Covington, LA. His message is one of the realities facing many who live in the Gulf Coast region. It is a time of removing the destruction, tearing out the old, and rebuilding into new.

“Empty Nest – No Nest – Messy Nest – No Nest

As I write this letter it is hard to process all that has happened in recent days. One week prior to the hurricane we dropped our only child, Jonathan, off at Baylor University in Waco, Texas to begin his freshman year. We experienced the “Empty Nest!” A week later we fled Katrina and found ourselves as refugees in (Read the rest of the story below the fold...)

This is the thirty-seventh 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.

The following is a video produced by the Evangelical Free Church Association in cooperation with Trinity Evangelical Free Church of Covington, LA., Compassion Ministries International, and Urban Impact Ministries.

To view the video you will need “Real Player”, which can be downloaded from here, (at the bottom of the page) for your operating system.

The ten minute video contains a powerful message about the ministry of Trinity Church to those impacted by hurricane Katrina.

The video is entitled, Katrina – Rebuilding The Gulf Coast.

The following two files can be viewed by those who have at least 256k high speed DSL internet access or higher.

Internet Explorer users, please click here.

Mozilla or Mozilla-Firefox users, please (Read the rest of the story below the fold...)

This is the thirty-sixth 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, continues to update about the ministry on the North Shore.

“The Backside of the Hurricane

This week one of the team members told me about one of the families that were helped a few days ago on the Pearl River near Slidell. The family decided to ride out Katrina in their sturdy, raised home. Despite the ferocity of the hurricane, they thought that they had thankfully survived. The violence of the storm subsided and they went outside to enjoy the calm and survey the damage. For a few moments they experienced euphoria but that soon gave way to fear. They realized that they were in (Read the rest of the story below the fold...)

This is the thirty-fifth 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.

The following two audio messages are from Pastor Michael Sprague of Trinity Evangelical Free Church of Covington, LA., which he delivered to the Church on Sunday Mornings October 9, and 16th, 2005.

To listen to the messages you will need “Real Player”, which can be downloaded free of charge from here, (at the bottom of the page), for your operating system.

These recorded testimonies and messages are insights into how people survive catastrophic disasters. These audio files are not sermons in the usual sense of the word. They are interactions between Pastor Sprague and his congregaton which is made up of church members, visitors, and survivors of hurricane Katrina.

These Real Media files are between 15 and (Read the rest of the story below the fold...)

This is the thirty-fourth 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 about the ministry on the North Shore.

“The Fellowship of the Burning Hearts

Two years ago Trinity Church went through “40 Days of Purpose.” It was excellent and many grew, but that time doesn’t compare to “50 Days of Katrina.” Christian pollsters have asked believers to look back on their lives and identify what has caused them to grow the most. The number one response was “suffering.” We might not want to hear that, but it is often true. It’s amazing how this crisis has created simplicity and purity of devotion to Jesus in me.

The Jesus I (Read the rest of the story below the fold...)