First Fruits

It is a crying shame that at this point I have a mental block on Pastor Don's wife's name. But to continue on, we called her on the way into Slidell. We had a hotel room reserved and knew we would have some daylight left on Saturday. She told us everyone would be gone from the church area that afternoon/evening but what would be really nice if we could get some flowers to decorate the altar with for Easter Sunday. We drove over to the church to take a look see. It had started about half way across LA and intensified the closer we got to the church. The Oh God's and the Oh My Lord's. Cause you see, even though we had seen images on the news and thought we knew. Until you drive mile after mile with this level of destruction. Until you realize that this is 8 months later, well, we didn't know. And even after being there for a week we were going home to normal. These folks, over a million of our fellow countrymen, tens of thousands of our fellow brother and sisters in Christ had been living it for almost a year and as I write this have been living it for almost 3 years. We really don't know. So - back to the church, good thing the girls were with us cause given the task of flowers Stanley & I got no clue, but the girls! Dang had to limit them, sorry to had to do it too. But only so much in the budget and its our first day.

Back to Slidell to the Wally world (Wal-Mart) for you pureists. They was mostly out of everything what with not being fully restocked from the storm anyways. But the Lord provided some right pretty Easter Lillies for the altar and the girls got some oblong pots and flowers for the entrance to the church. Possibly the best thing about being on a mission trip is the fact that it free's you to witness to almost everyone you come in contact with. Especially when folks start the conversation with "ya'll ain't from round here, are ya?" Course you don't beat them with Jesus. Just that the Lord laid it upon our hearts to come lend a hand, that He provided a way, and that we have been and will continue to pray for you. Oh and could you lift us up in prayer also? It changes there whole expression. From a caucious almost closed expression to one of friendliness, more open, thankful. That thankfullness is what gets you the most. It makes you proud. Of them. Heck you know what your doing is less than spit in a rain storm but it makes you proud of yourself too. Not that your all that and a bag of chips, but that you obeyed the calling from the Lord and that thankfulness is part of the reward for doing so.



Now the word of caution. When ever you are working for our Lord you will be under some form of attack. It will come at you from the strangest directions sometimes but you will be attacked.

When we get back to the church with the flowers we get attacked. By knats. Biting knats. Thousands of em. So thick you could only stand it for a minute or so. The urge to run was very compelling. They was in our eyes, nose, ears, mouth if you tried to talk and oh yeah THEY BITE. We killed a bunch, ate more than we would like to think about and that only made room for the ones waiting in line to get at us. Now being mostly country folks ourselves we love dogs. And one of the scrawnyist I ever laid eyes on came across the street while we were at the church and Brandy spots him first. Oh dad, she says we need to feed him and get him some water. I take one look and had to tell him to scat. Had to tell Brandy to stay away from him. See, you could actually see the knats and fleas swarming on and around him. And where I had been feeling sorry for myself with all these bites, at least I could get away from it in the car. He could not. Drew to mind everything around me. I could go home in the car. This community could not. I cried. Typing this 2 years later the emotions still bring tears. The girls did a good job. The decorations turned out right pretty. Prayerfully it brought a little joy to the people who attended or stopped by.



Now in the links box, you will see rebuild lakeshore and because of grace. Since returning from our trip I check out Pastor Don's web site almost everyday and his locust and wild honey weekly.

Along with those blessings, a suprising one. One that influenced this blog spot. A young lady from way up north whom I never met cause she went to Lakeshore after our trip. Her because of grace, site is also a daily blessing. Shoot Jan & I even got to read some books from the 1500's because of it. We also get to pray for folks daily that we never even knew existed. Check them out. Pray for them. And when He calls your name say here I am Lord, send me. The rewards by far exceed what you may expect.