Prayer Request

Greetings everyone! A prayer request came in from Livermore Baptist Church in California that accompanied us on our trip to Lakeshore. One of the young men that served with us from Livermore, Patrick Schalin, was just diagnosed with liver cancer. Patrick was not feeling well for several days after returning home from Lakeshore, and eventually went to the doctor and received the diagnosis. After hearing the news, the first words out of Patrick’s mouth when speaking to his mother were, “I wonder how God is going to use this.” You can keep up with Patrick on his Caring Bridge website. Leave him a note and let him know you will be praying.

Lakeshore Needs

From the Rebuild Lakeshore website:

“We build most of the houses in Lakeshore on 8X8 piers. We have been renting a 24″ auger to dig the holes to set the pilings. Owning our own auger would make better use of our financial resources. We have a John Deer 250 Skid Steer that can accept an auger attachment. If anyone could locate and purchase an attachment to fit the Skid Steer for our rebuilding, we will put it to good use.

“We also could use a trailer, with ramps, to haul the Skid Steer and our Tractor from job site to job site. Right now we have been driving the tractor around town, which is slow going, or rigging precarious make shift ramps to load the equipment onto our trailers that are not designed for that sort of thing.”

My House Was Built on God’s Love :: Mrs. Redford’s Boards

Anyone who has gone to serve at Lakeshore Baptist Church probably remembers Mrs. Redford — an elderly widow member of the church who tells her story often. She is faithful to the Lord, and is captivating to listen to. The video below is of her talking about the boards of her house, which was rebuilt by volunteers that were in Lakeshore. Mrs. Redford’s house was the first to be rebuilt by Lakeshore Baptist Church after the storm.

Early Video from Rebuild Lakeshore Efforts

I came across a video that was produced by the Morgan Baptist Association that shows several pictures from early relief efforts taking place immediately following the storm. Our video is forthcoming, but this one is a good showing of how far they’ve come in the last 2 1/2 years as a community. Enjoy.

Lakeshore Baptist Church Needs

Prayer needs:

• Pray that God would raise up godly men at Lakeshore Baptist Church to be deacons and elders. Currently, pastor Don Elbourne is serving without any other pastors or deacons.
• Pray that God would provide Christian counselors to the Lakeshore community. There are many spiritual needs that have gone unmet, simply because there does not exist the manpower necessary to provide biblical counseling on a consistent basis.
• Pray for the God’s sustaining grace in the life of Pastor Don. He is serving his church and community for many, many hours, 7 days a week. After 2 1/2 years he is getting tired — pray that God would provide him with continuous encouragement, wisdom, and energy.

Physical Needs:

• Books/DVDs/CDs/Bible (ESV) on CD for the congregation to enjoy and share.
• Biblically faithful gospel tracts that are useful in an area with a high illiteracy rate (“Who Will Be King?” by Matthias Media is a great one — you can read the contents here).
• Others as listed on the Rebuild Lakeshore Website.

Day 5 :: Wrapping Up

I apologize for having waited so long to make this post. My group (Ephesus Church of Rincon, GA) arrived back home on Saturday night, had a wonderful Lord’s day yesterday, and are back to daily life today. Praise God for a wonderful trip.

Our last day, Friday, was mostly laid back for our crews. Projects were finished up, at least to the point of running out of materials, and everyone either left sometime Friday or got ready to leave early the next morning. With all the work that was accomplished throughout the week, there was still one more great thing to come — our Friday evening meal for the community, and the evangelistic worship service. By eyeballing the group, it looked as though we had a good turnout from the community that came to enjoy a meal with us. Many of them made their way over to the sanctuary for our worship service. Pastor Don preached a very clear gospel message, describing the utter sinfulness and rebellion of man, and our need for a perfect, sinless Savior. It was a rewarding experience for us all as we saw the wonderful work of God in a week filled with service. Relationships were built, and many people from our group commented on how wonderful it was to walk  into Lakeshore Baptist Church for the first time ever, yet feel as though we’ve all known each other for many, many years. The kinship we have as brothers and sisters in Christ is a beautiful, and often overwhelming thing. Good-byes were said and meetings were had — we’ve got a lot of work to do in hopes of getting this trip arranged again for next year.

The end of the trip to Lakeshore does not mark the end of this blog. In fact, it was/is only the beginning. This will be used as a primary source of information dissemination for everyone interested/involved in the ongoing relief efforts in Lakeshore. We will provide updates for prayer, Lakeshore’s needs, and future events pertaining to our next trip. If you have any questions and/or requests, please feel free to leave a comment or email me directly at: nickpastor[at]gmail[dot]com. We will be working on our video over the next week and will also be posting many more pictures. Also, I have received many different journal articles from several volunteers and will be adding some of their commentary as well. As you can see, there is much more to come on this blog — stay plugged in!

Sermon Audio

Pastor Don Elbourne’s sermon from Wednesday evening, January 9, 2008, can be accessed by right-clicking here and selecting “save as…” His passage was 2 Corinthians 1:3-11 and he shared a lot of personal testimony regarding Hurricane Katrina. This is a very powerful and spiritually challenging message. I highly encourage as many as can to listen to this sermon.

New Photos

Click here to see new photos that have been made available for viewing and download.

Statistics

Lakeshore and Surrounding Areas

• 28 months have passed since Hurricane Katrina
• 10,800 homes destroyed in Hancock County, Mississippi
• 4,000 FEMA trailers still occupied

Lakeshore Baptist Church has…

• Spent over $1 million at Home Depot for building supplies (not including other area hardware stores)
• Served over 300,000 distribution center visitors
• Hosted over 14,000 volunteers from around the world
• Hosted groups from approximately 350 churches
• Rehabilitated 115 homes
• Built 26 homes from the ground up and is beginning work on 2 more this week
• 50-60 members!

Day 4 :: Fatigue

God has been gracious to sustain His people through works of service this week. Early mornings, hard works days, and late nights have taken a toll on everyone’s bodies, but nothing has slowed down, and great things continue to be accomplished. Yesterday the Lord provided an opportunity for rest by bringing strong wind and rain for several hours. While the work crews had hoped for another day of good weather, it was certainly time for many to rest. For many, this type and amount of work is a daily occurrence. Yet, for others it’s a stretch to be putting forth such an effort for an entire week.

Last night, several people traveled to nearby New Orleans, LA to get a taste of some creole cooking! Gumbo, etouffe, and alligator tail were on the minds of our people, and what it feast it was for each one! Many people commented on the comparison between New Orleans and Lakeshore after the storm. Traveling through New Orleans is nothing near the experience of Lakeshore and surrounding areas. While it was mostly reported that New Orleans endured so much, which they did, it is very apparent even 2 1/2 years later how much more the community of Lakeshore was affected. Very few indications of a major hurricane hitting New Orleans still exist, while in Lakeshore one cannot help but see it all over the place.

Click here to view and download these, and all our other photos.

First Person :: Mercy and Burnout

By: Pauline Tremmel, Livermore Baptist Church, California

“Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due. When it is in the power of your hand to do so. Do not say to your neighbor, ‘go and come back tomorrow I will give it to you.”

-Proverbs 3:27-28

I cannot speak for all 150 volunteers in the ARBCA group, but I can well imagine that everyone was like our Livermore group — excited and anxious to get to Lakeshore to work. Most of us come to this disaster area willing to spend and be spent in ministry from the people who have lost so much. We are “green horns” coming into the area and work being done here – where the local volunteers are seasoned (maybe grissled) veterans. One of the benefits and blessings of the week has been spending time with the Lakeshore residents who day in and day out come to the distribution center to work. These people are like us — volunteers — but over the last two years they have spent countless hours helping to provide for their community. They have seen a lot and they are tired. They have lost homes , but they faithfully come to help.

A sad outcome of years upon years of service to the needy community is that they not only see the best of people, they see the worst — people abusing the distribution center, people lying about their situations, people angry and taking it out on volunteers. It’s hard to keep the vision when they frequently see the worst coming out. There are two sides to every story and stress causes people to act in ways they normally wouldn’t, but we have learned a lot about the nature of man from the stories we’ve heard this week. Hopefully, we have been able to give the local volunteers a renewed sense of goal and vision that we are Christ’s hands and feet here in Mississippi, serving Him first, then the needy. Maybe they need us as much as we need them — we are in this together to encourage and learn.

Pray for these dear volunteers who will continue working when all this ARBCA team returns home — that they will find joy in this long term ministry, a renewed vision of service and practical ways to apply Proverbs 3:27-28. Theirs is not an easy task — but it is on blessed by the Lord.

**Pauline has been the team-leader in the distribution center all week, and those involved in cleaning, organizing and distributing have done a fantastic job!

Day 3 :: Distribution and Testimony

Yesterday was a very powerful and forever memorable day for us here in Lakeshore. The work crews continued their jobs, and the ministry and distribution center teams had the wonderful opportunity to meet many of the residents as they came to Lakeshore Baptist Church to visit the distribution center. The shelves were stocked with books, Bibles, toys, canned food, clothes, and much more — it seemed like only minutes later that everything was gone. Praise God that so much was there to provide! The ministry team was hard at work, helping individuals carry their items to the car, sharing the gospel as the opportunity presented itself, handing out tracts, and distributing fliers advertising our evangelistic meal and service that will take place on Friday evening. We are all very excited about seeing what God will do on Friday amongst the people who attend.

Last night was particularly wonderful for all of us. As we gathered for the Wednesday night service, Pastor Don Elbourne preached from 2 Corinthians 1:3-11 on the “Father of Mercies” and the “God of all comfort”. Woven throughout his masterful exposition were many of the stories about the days immediately following Hurricane Katrina on August 29, 2005. To watch the events unfold on television and on the internet is one thing. To see the devastation first hand, 2 years later is another. But even more so, to hear the first-hand accounts of those who endured much suffering and hardship in simply mind-blowing. Pastor Don commented: “There was no news coming out of Lakeshore — everything was about New Orleans and Biloxi, and even some out of nearby Bay St. Louis, but nothing from Lakeshore, where the center of the storm made landfall. We later realized it was because news reporters couldn’t even get into the area.” Who had heard of Lakeshore prior to August, 2005? Furthermore, who had ever heard of Lakeshore Baptist Church before this community started getting rebuilt? All the sudden, they were launched onto the national scene. Pastor Don remembers, “when I got down Lakeshore Road, it was mind-numbing… I was seeing it, but literally not believing it – This is not an overstatement.” He described the rubble and devistation. “We started going to church member’s houses — house to house to house to house… Gone, gone, gone — completely gone. Many of the houses were sucked into the gulf, never to be seen again.”

The best part of his message and testimony was yet to come. “So what do you do? No homes, no stores, no schools, no phones, no goods, no gasoline… Nothing. What do you do?” Then he began to unfold the story of what Lakeshore Baptist Church did, and continues to do to this day. He drew a wonderful parallel between the 2 Corinthians passage and all that was going through the hearts and minds of the people, first reminding us all that “on August 29, 2005, if God decided to wash every one of us into the gulf, he would have been completely justified.” Amen. Nevertheless, He’s the “Father of Mercies” and the “God of All Comfort” — “Everything was in rubble and a huge mess, but we knew that our sovereign God did not move.”

Pastor Don’s sermon was followed by about 1 hour of testimony from church members, as well as volunteers from our group. It was a heart changing evening that will certainly be with us the rest of our lives. The audio of Pastor Don’s sermon will be available on this website for download in a few hours. Please take the time to listen.

You can have a full size view and download these, and all our other photos, by clicking here.

Day 2 :: Hard at Work

“So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.“
– 1 Corinthians 10:31

The crews have been working hard and are beginning to get the hang of things! Many projects have been completed and many more are in the works. ARBCA is the largest group Lakeshore Baptist Church has hosted for Rebuild Lakeshore to date. While it makes things somewhat difficult as it relates to logistics, it makes the work go faster, the community happier, and the ministry opportunities more plentiful. Thousands of dollars have been spent, miles of siding have been hung, gallons of paint have been applied, trees have been cut down, boards have been cut, sheetrock is forever being put up, fences built, doors, windows, bricks, fans, wiring, plumbing, etc! No one is without a task, and everyone seems to be taking the biblical commands to heart “rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man, knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a slave or free” (Ephesians 6:7-8). Many Lakeshore residents have expressed great appreciation for our efforts and service. The Lord has been faithful to provide us with many opportunities to present the gospel and encourage the people of Lakeshore with biblical truths. Continue to pray for us as we strive to glorify the Lord in all that we do.

Click here to view and download all of our photos!

Feeding an Army

One of the greatest things about our time in Lakeshore has been the meals! Our chef and his team of kitchen volunteers are doing a fantastic job, and are working selflessly for hours and hours every day. Sara Jo Wright, age 16, is one of the hard working volunteers. Here is her story about a recent trip to Wal-Mart — it’s not easy feeding an army!

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“Do you mind if I come?” I asked Rachel when I had heard she was going to Wal-Mart to buy food for the camp.

“I don’t know why not,” Rachel replied. Good, I thought, I had been wanting to get out of the camp for a while. Besides, I need to get a few things. I only wish I knew what I was going to be in for!

As the five of us loaded in the van, we had no idea what was in store for us ahead. Think about it — Five girls, and one insane shopping list! Think of the possibilities!

40 pounds of hash browns. 120 pounds of beef. 50 dozen eggs. And many, many more items! Have you ever heard of beef base? I sure haven’t, but we got it anyway! Imagine this, a 105 pound girl (that’s me!) trying to push and pull two carts that are twice my weight… those carts wouldn’t even budge! At least the trip was exciting. The best part was when Deb bought us all milkshakes!

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Below are several pictures of our kitchen staff hard at work. You can view and download these, and all of the other photos by clicking here.

 

 

 

Timber!

Everyone has particularly enjoyed watching Dave, an arborist by trade, doing what very few are even willing to try! This is just one example of the diverse group of skills that God has blessed us with to be able to offer the Lakeshore community.

 

Click here to view and download this photo and others, full size.