May 2016 – Page 3 – SGVServe.org

May 17, 2016

OKC 2016-Courtney, Amy, & Will Brackin

Courtney, Amy, & Will Brackin

A Note from our leader, Craig

Chris and Craig thanking the Brackins for their generosity

Less than two hours after our arrival in Oklahoma City, the Lord demonstrated his goodness to our team. Who knew that a team dinner at a fast-food fried chicken dinner restaurant in Moore, OK would lead to the first God moment of our trip.

As I entered the door to Chicken Express, I heard the voice of a man at a nearby table. Since I was the last one to enter, he had seen our entire team invading the small ordering area and he quickly asked “Are you guys a team?” I politely responded “Yes, we are from a church in Los Angeles here to work with Habitat for Humanity.”

“Well, that’s nice of you folks. So, are you taking a week of vacation to come here and help?”

“Yes. It’s something we’ve been doing for a couple of years now. We first came two years ago after the large tornado hit this area.”

“Are you a church group?”

“Yes.”

Courtney introduced himself, his wife, Amy, and their son, Will and immediately I knew this was not an accidental meeting. I noticed that Courtney got up from the table but didn’t think anything of it. I made small talk with Amy about tornadoes and how their family was been affected by the most recent storms. Courtney returned and stated that he had attended conferences for a few years at a prominent church in southern california, and shared that his family attended a small church in Norman, OK called Wildwood Church.

I said “It’s nice to meet you folks” and thanked them well. “God bless you, Courtney, Amy, and Will.” Before I left, other team members made their way to their table. “Thank you so much” was the repeated phrase. I had no idea why but I soon discovered that Courtney had paid for our team dinner. What a wonderful blessing it was to receive this gift as a blessing from brother to brother. More importantly, it was God’s way of telling us that He was present and taking care of us. I am grateful to God for this moment.

Thank you, Courtney, Amy, and Will for you generosity and thoughtful welcome to OKC.

Courtney, killing us with kindness, with Jeff

May 16, 2016

Sendoff sunday photos

https://goo.gl/photos/V57wetexfEc5noRH9

May 16, 2016

OKC Day 1-Teamwork makes the … team work…

This is a personal note from the editor.

Originally schedule to be on this trip, Gary is staying at home, to tend to some family matters. As much as he’s pretty important to us, we can always have another team member pick up his responsibilities, but there’s only one husband/father/etc. for a family. He made the difficult and correct choice.

However.. Gary’s also a computer guy. So am I.

I’m a private computer consultant, and when I’m away on mission or other travel, need to have people cover for me when I’m gone.

Gary’s got us covered
It’s worked out that Gary’s been covering and participating with our team even from home!

We’re uploading videos that we’re shooting, and he’ll try to edit them from home.

But also, I’ve had some clients that needed someone on site today, and Gary drove out to take care of them.

His participation on the team, even from LA, is much appreciated. It helps me be at ease knowing someone’s got my back, and being a team member is even better.

Thanks guy!

Gary on left

May 16, 2016

OKC 2016-Day 1 (non habitat day)

Morning
Day began with a morning devotional from Jeff regarding servanthood. He mentioned how serving others and blessing others should be our main motivation. He took note his most recent example was from his wife, days before he left, as she really took care of some of their shared responsibilities, allowing him to prep for the trip.

OKC Memorial
We went down to the OKC Memorial. A trip we have made every time we visited, but this was the first time that we were able to have time enough to go into the museum.

It was a moving experience for the team, and really helps you keep in perspective what the park outside the museum represents. The museum takes you through the tragedy of that day at a very personal level.

Actual artifacts from the blast

Lunch
Then it was a lunch, returning to Leo’s BBQ from previous years.

RRR Ranch – “Triple R” Ranch

Having met and worked with Skip on our previous trips, we accepted his invitation to come and visit.

We got a tour of the rabbits, really big quail and “pasture” chickens (more free than free range)

On previous trips, we were impressed with his vision for building a site for retreats and people to recover. But at that time, we had encouraged him to take a sabbatical so he could find God’s focus and calling on his big plans

Pam asked him what came out of that sabbatical.
His answer was unexpected.

He felt as much as this was a good work, and continues to grow and thrive both spiritually and practially…. that he felt God was emphasizing tending to the “widows and orphans,” and he realized his ministry was much closer to home and heart than he realized. His wife’s mother was a widow… and Skip felt called to go to Texas and tend to her. So after much thought and prayer, he has decided to downsize and sell RRR Ranch to go to Texas and care for her.

(Editor’s note: as impressed as I’ve been with Skip in the past for the plans he’s had and the work he’s done, choosing this humble path is the thing that makes me admire him most)

Okay, back at the church. We’re back at the church and about to tackle the sorting of the clothes and items for sale.

Items of note:

Tuesday will be our first work day on the site, maybe a new build, we’ll see…
Tuesday evening, Pam/Art will be visiting Pam’s relatives in a suburb of OKC
Tuesday evening, some of the team will be visiting with Aron and Ronit’s family, Peter’s relocated friends from LA, and will be attempting teaching Ronit how to cook Kosher Asian dishes. We’ll bring the Asian part, Ronit will teach us about the Kosher part

May 16, 2016

OKC 2016 Sendoff

Today we left LA, with a sendoff from our church, Evergreensgv.org

It begins with a commissioning/prayer for our team at church, then a mini-sendoff after service where each team member is prayed for by supporters

LAX

Good news and bad news
Nice sendoff from people who drove us to LAX, everyone pretty much made it on time. Then security. Stood in line, and then a TSA terminal broke down, so it took some reorganizing and a lot of walking, but we got on the plane with 15 minutes to spare.

Arrived at OKC

Who was waiting for us at baggage claim?
Paul and Denise, our (previous) Habitat site supervisors from our visits to Mississippi, now good friends, who have joined us on their TIME OFF, to work at Habitat in OKC!

Dinner
Got the cars and ran over to our first meal in OKC, at chicken express in Norman.

While we tried to figure out just how many gizzards and livers our group would eat.. (don’t worry, we got regular fried chicken stuff too), Craig was talking to a family that was dining…

(note: Craig will be supplementing with a little more detail later)

Feeling humbled by someone’s generosity

But, when our cashier was checking over our order, Pam pulled out the team credit card, and the cashier said “No, your dinner is being paid by that gentleman” (pointing over pam’s shoulder). We turned around and started chastising Uncle Roy for his generosity…

Roy said it wasn’t him.

It was the fellow that Craig was talking with.

He had gone up to the cashier and paid for our dinner.

We were dumbfounded. And humbled.

We thanked him and later, we prayed that we would be able to receive favor, as well as use it as an example to bless others, wherever we find them.

We showed up at hilltop, and tomorrow will be sorting through their items for a flea market sale, raising funds for a playground they hope to buy.