Month: May 2011

Posted on

2011 CoEd – The flight home, a new friend.

Carl with Lisa, a new friend the team met on the return flight
Divine Appointment
Flying from Gulf Port to Houston the CoEd team made a new friend on the plane. Here’s Carl’s notes: 
Lisa is a remarkable individual and she inspired me.  Our plane ride back to Houston was a divine appointment … not a coincidence, as some would think!  Lisa grew up in Sacramento where her parents live today.  She finished her education and found a job and purchased a condo in the San Francisco area.  However, she felt that God was asking her to sell her condo so that she can be mobile and able to move wherever God called her to go.  Lisa is currently working to help administrate at a non-profit missionary organization to help out against trafficking children from Nepal.   
So here’s where our encounter begins … the monies from selling her condo assisted her to take numerous trips to New Orleans/Biloxi area. She has worked with Habitat for many years and built homes from laying the foundation to completing interior work on homes.  
Lisa was flying home from a conference for prospective new teachers in the New Orleans inner city.  She desires to do God’s will in her life and is reaching out in faith even if it means leaving family & friends for a season.  She has a godly heart and desires to know where God is leading her.  If accepted into the teaching program, she would leave the SF area and move to New Orleans in September.  Confirmation would come if she were to be accepted which she should know very soon.      
The Katrina co-ed group prayed over Lisa to support her in her desire to become a teacher, asking for God to use Lisa in a very special way.  She has such a testimony and caring heart for the children in New Orleans.
Please pray that Lisa will get into teaching program at Mississippi.
Pray that God will continue to guide and direct Lisa. 
Pray that Lisa will grow in confidence of God’s will for her life.   
Pray that Lisa be used by God to assist children.
     

Posted on

CoEd team returning, 2nd Men’s week flying out…

We’re assuming that the 2nd Week men’s team are prepping at the airport soon, and the plan is for them to greet the CoEd when they arrive in a couple hours.
The 2-Week men’s team pretty much have the whole church/center to ourselves, and since we’ve been eating so much fried food, we resigned ourselves to eating a salad for tonight 🙂

Steve O just walked in from his evening run. If he hadn’t returned by 830p local time, we were supposed to send out bloodhounds.

In the meantime, here are some pictures from today, and

Katrina 2011 05 15

Our visit to Mosaic, Gulf Coast

 another video from our dynamic duo of Carl and Esther (from Day 1)

Posted on

Gary M’s note… about noticing..

Gary M (with Gary H behind)

I have noticed this year that spending this much time with the various team members has had an impact on me.  I am starting to pick up behaviors and characteristics from the other people as we rub off on each other.  This is the way God meant it to be.  Here is how they have each given me something to imitate.

Roy – quiet plodding along with humility and not for show.
Kelly – polite and always thinking of serving others 
Esther – joyful and “thumbs up”
Gary H – wanting to learn and experience new things
Peter – being bold in engaging people
Carl – willingness to do whatever is needed
Bu – never complaining even though he wants to
Bart – searching the Scriptures for the truth
Chris – admonishing others very gently
Steve – never questioning God’s ability
Lorin – appreciating even the smallest things
Tommy – speaking positively about other people
Mo – thinking before jumping in and doing
Kyle – having a passion for people and wanting Christ to impact their lives

Beloved, do not imitate evil but imitate good. Whoever does good is from God; whoever does evil has not seen God.
3 John 1:11

Posted on

Note from Lorin: “God Instances”

Chris M, Esther, Lorin at The Shed
God definitely has a plan.   I came to Biloxi expecting-but not knowing what to expect.  This week, God showed me in many ways that He has all the details worked out. 

First, I met Chris M. from Chicago and had a chance to work with her on Wednesday and got to know her.  We both enjoyed each other’s company and as Chris M. was joining the team for dinner on Thurs. someone rearranged the seat “assignments” in the cars so that Chris and I could ride to The Shed together.

Next, Bu noticed that we’d made a “connection,” so he volunteered to trade job assignments with me for Friday so that Chris and I could work together again.  (Thanks Bu, sorry your sacrifice meant that  you had to clean up rat poop.  You were a blessing to your “honorary mom.”)

 

Chris spent the day cutting and hauling siding with me and we had a great time.   We would not have had a chance to bond if:

  1. we’d both chosen not to come work with Habitat
  2. we’d both chosen different weeks
  3. we’d stayed at different camps at night
  4. we had not switched car rides
  5. if Bu didn’t take a “bullet” by making the sacrificial trade

These, along with a few other personal events led me to see that God’s hand had orchestrated all these details and that they were not merely coincidences but were God instances.  In the process of all the sharing, Chris and I both felt blessed by each other’s presence here in Biloxi.  Neither of us wanted to go home and we felt it was the Lord’s divine appointment and provision that we have this time together.  Chris shared that she  felt covered in an unconditional love by our Katrina team.  She even joined us in our worship and small group time.

We loved having Chris join us and she later mentioned how lucky we were to have our church and the love of the people there.  She feels that the Lord is calling her back into a deeper relationship with Him and she credited our team with having a big part in that decision.  Please pray that the feeling Chris experienced will continue to encourage her and that she will find a church group that will bless, support, and continue to encourage her.

Posted on

LAX on, LAX off

We just sent the CoEd team off, on their way back to LAX. They got off safely after a morning visiting Mosaic. It was a great church, and Dustin, the pastor, preached a good message from Colossians about being focused on God first, then marriage, then children and then work next. Sounds familiar….

The church meets in a roller skating rink, and is used almost all week long. Afterwards, had good time hanging with Brad and Paul at a local seafood restaurant. Once again, food was good, but sharing faith and life with them was better.

As we sent off the CoEd team, they knew they had done a good thing, with a week’s worth of hard work behind them, and shared memories among them. We pray they have a safe and meaningful trip home. Just as Kyle had spoken a few nights ago, the mission began before they ever left L.A., and will hopefully not end.

It’s odd to think that even as they fly, our church is just ending service back home, and the next Men’s team will be flying out a few hours after the CoEd team lands. And we’ll receive them in less than 24 hours.

We look forward to joining up with them.

Posted on

Dear support groups…

As we post pictures of Gary’s “One Drop,” we can’t but help to think of our support groups. Time after time, we meet individuals that come out here on their own, or often church groups that come out here as part of a service mission. Either way, it’s rare that we find folks that have the same level of support that we do from home. It’s not bragging about how wonderful our supporters are, it’s just being humbly appreciative of those that send us and partner with us.

We do believe the ease of our experiences and the extra-opportunities we have to bless and be blessed by others are largely because of the prayer support we receive from home. Every person out here has a group of several people to pray for them, for their safe travels, for their family and jobs they are separated from, and their spiritual health. But most of all, we feel this covering allows us to have faith beyond our own. We are able to see spiritual opportunities beyond our own eyes, and to act with confidence beyond our own strength. It’s great when people are praying to God on your behalf. It’s a great way to not have to do this mission on your own. And for that we thank you.
And we thank you for the practical things too. Notes of encouragement, comments on the blog, little snacks that we open as the trip goes along, and yes, a little bottle in Gary M’s care package that makes sharing quarters with other men a little more manageable…..

Posted on

Last day on the site…

Saturday was our last day on the site. Also our last day working as a combined team.
Bittersweet, but quite rewarding.

Steve, Mo, Tommy and Chris went to another site for half the day and worked on baseboards . Chris was excited because it was something he could use back at home. They met Dave, a supply sargeant in the Navy, who volunteers with Habitat on the weekend. Eventually, he might be stationed in San Diego, so who knows, we might see him back at home.

Dave joined us for lunch, which we bought from Bozo’s and took back to the site. We had lunch all together, including Brittney. Brittney was doing her first day of volunteer hours and had never worked with tools before. Although she expressed a bit of apprehension at first, within a couple of hours, she was confident and capable. She’s raising a beautiful 1 year old daughter, who we met later in the day, and we enjoyed her company.

After finishing our work, we got to pray for the homes and area. Some of us wrote on the studs with verses or words of encouragement. It’s very moving having worked on a home, and then being able to pray for the future owners. They really are beautiful homes, and we hope the families that move in will have a good life with them.

We’ll be going to Mosaic tomorrow, to worship with Brad, Paul and Denise.
Click here for some pics from the day

Katrina 2011 05 14

Please enjoy this as much as we do…

Posted on

Gary H’s note from the second night

Gary H at the Chop Saw

After arriving to Biloxi in the morning of 5/9 we took a drive in the Mississippi gulf coast to see the devastation aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.  It was an eye opening experience to see so much damage that Hurricane Karina inflicted on so many people’s lives and so much property damage.

We made a stop at a pier and at the end of the pier we approached a guy named Brian who happened to be fishing.  I sensed from God that he wanted me to talk to him. Although I do not really know a lot about fishing I struck up conversation about fishing.  Then the conversation became more personal about his work and his life.  Although we didn’t “officially asked if he has accepted Jesus”, we told him why we were here in Mississippi.  Our feeling was that when we had to leave, we planted the seed.  My hope and prayer is that we planted the seed and that somebody that he will encounter later would reap the benefit of him someday receiving Christ.  I emailed my MSG to pray for him.  I thank God for taking me out of my comfort zone and approaching individuals I do not know and striking up conversation with them.  I pray and hope for other opportunities like this

Posted on

Katrina 2011 Reflections..

During this trip, one of our members wanted to share their feelings, but has chosen to do so anonymously.

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.”  I John 4:7
This mission trip has been such a blessing in seeing the love of Jesus Christ lived out through our team members.  There have been many “God moments” on this trip where God was doing great things through our team members that we all marveled at and praised God for.  It is so encouraging to see so many team members being intentional in stepping out of their comfort zone to meet and bless others. 
The Holy Spirit is doing a great work through the men and women of this trip.  In addition to being outstanding servants on the job site they have been sharing personal testimonies with people, ministering to people, encouraging Habitat supervisors, building relationships with other volunteer co-laborers, and being great servants on the job site.     
The first day we arrived we visited the houses the teams from last year’s trip worked on.  One of the houses the teams worked on was bought just four months ago and the home owner came out to meet us.  The men were able to share how much it meant to them to meet the owner of the home they had worked on and had actually prayed for the previous year.   The team was able to pray and bless the man and his family. 
 At a later time the team had stopped by a Gulfport pier and met a woman fishing with her son who had lost her house in Katrina and shared how hard it was.  She shared how the church had built a house for her and had been radically changed by the love from the body of Christ.  Her heart is for Christians to live seriously for Christ and help people in need.  One of our team members asked if they could pray for her and she was moved to tears from the prayer and shared how she had never been blessed like that.  There have been a number of other encouraging things God has been doing on the trip.  We give God all the glory for everything.
On Friday the Coed team had finished cleaning and preparing eight mobile homes that would be driven up to give relief to the tornado disaster area.   After finishing the team was able to prayer walk each of the mobile homes.  They prayed for God’s blessings on the families who had lost everything and would occupy the mobile homes.   They prayed they would find  comfort from trusting God.
Thank you for your prayers and support.  God bless you!

Posted on

Katrina Day 4-Separate sites, one storm

Today was the second day that the teams were split over two separate sites.
The CoEd team went to work on the trailers, the 2-Week Men’s team returned to the Pascagoula site to work with Brad.
As mentioned before, it was nice to be able to help in the recovery from the tornadoes as the FEMA/MEMA trailers will be moved up north, such as Smithville. We were told that although utility companies were in that area to reconnect homes to power, there were many homes no longer there to reconnect. Sad.

Bu’s Sacrifice
On the way to last night’s dinner at The Shed, Tommy’s car picked up Brad and Chris M (whom we affectionately call “Chris Girl” to distinguish her from the male Chris on our team), rode with Kelly’s car. Chris and Lorin really hit it off, and became even better friends.

When we arrived back home that evening, Bu asked if he could switch teams the next day (today), so that Chris and Lorin could spend the day together. It was touching. Bu’s a good guy, but his unseen sacrificial act was humbling. So today, Bu and Lorin traded teams, so that Lorin could hang out with her new bud Chris. Bu made his offer without much fanfare, and it wasn’t for acknowledgement from anyone, the least of which, Chris. In fact, I hesitate even to mention it here publicly.

Tonight, when we prayed for Chris, as it was our last evening with her, I felt that Bu’s unseen sacrifice for Chris was analogous to Christ’s sacrifice for us. Sometimes, unseen, unnoticed, but yet it is still there for us. But this type of sacrifice has not been unusual for the team members, as I see them intentionally trying to bless others, including their team members. And it’s nice to know that they’re just not on “good behavior.”

The Work
The CoEd team worked with Mark, a fast-talking, personable good ol’ boy that works for Habitat. they spent the day cleaning and painting trailers. Apparently part of his humor includes a stuffed mouse on a fishing line. There came a moment when Mark (and I suspect Steve O) tried to scare her with the scrambling mouse. As it “ran” across the room, Esther firmly turned around and said “I’m not scared.”

The 2-Week team worked on the siding again with the folks from St. James/Thrivent, finishing the side and rear of the house. During lunch, half our team joined St. James near the beach for lunch, when a very fast moving, rainy and noisy thunderstorm struck the area. It threatened the work schedule, but an hour later, it was back to normal.

See the video of Chris (C, “Chris Boy”) and Lorin during the storm below…

Meeting time.
At the end of the day, we gathered as a group and were able to reflect on our motivation and our attitude while serving. Kyle’s devotional reminded us that if we are not serving using Christ’s sacrificial love towards those we meet, and those with whom we serve. Chris M joined us for our worship, teaching and prayer time, we were able to bless and pray for her as a group, and then she joined Esther and Lorin in small group.

This is so much more than just hammering nails.

Pictures:

Click for some pics from the day

Katrina 2011 05 13