Some Highlights

Well, I apologize for not writing in a while. It seems there hasn’t been a free minute until this afternoon. Some highlights over the past few days . . .

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Wednesday night was the last night for the youth group from Kansas, so we had devotions at the beach around a bonfire. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been to a bonfire. For that matter, I couldn’t remember the last time I’d hung out with a youth group, nor did I realize how much I missed it since my youth group all got married off several years ago. Maybe I’m just immature for my age, but I really had a good time with all those kids for whom the average age was a decade younger than me.

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Because we went to the beach for devotions, we didn’t have our “hot seat” prayer time. The kids must’ve missed it, because when we got back, one of them requested that we pray for his grandpa. That turned into a prayer time that lasted until one in the morning.

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Most of the Kansas teenagers were guys; big, stocky, football-playing guys. Needless to say, they didn’t actually exhibit a whole lot of tenderness and vulnerability towards spiritual matters (although they were very nice and respectful most of the time). I guess that’s why I was so touched by what happened with one of them. During that long prayer meeting, Landon sat in the chair and asked us to pray for his dad.

“What’s the matter with him?” Rick asked.

“I know something’s wrong,” he said, eyes wide and hurt, “But I don’t know what it is because we don’t talk much.”

There was a brief moment of silence, and I could see it in everyone’s eyes: our hearts broke for that poor kid. Then it was so neat to watch as these big, tough jocks gathered around and prayed their hearts out in support for their buddy.

***
As people came to the hot seat, Rick kept praying for them to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. None of them said anything about it, but I wondered how they felt about that, if anything. I never did get my courage up to ask them how they felt about Pentecostal beliefs, but I understand there is some openness to it and curiosity about it on the part of one of the youth ministers, so who knows what seeds were planted while he was here?

I think I should take a moment here to digress and say that I’m not one of those people who is all for the denominations to coming together and unify. Not only would that require some serious compromising of the truth, but it’s also unrealistic to work towards. In fact, I don’t think that we’ll even see that happening until the One World Religion begins to form, and I definitely wouldn’t want to be a part of that.

I am, however, all for the Body of Christ coming together. In the most beautiful prayers ever prayed (in my opinion), Jesus prayed in John 17:21 (Amp.),

That they all may be one, [just] as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be one in Us, so that the world may believe and be convinced that You have sent Me.

And we know that scripture applies as much to us as it did the 12 disciples because the verse right above the previous one says

Neither for these alone do I pray [it is not for their sake only that I make this request], but also for all those who will ever come to believe in (trust in, cling to, rely on) Me through their word and teaching.

It’s my opinion that a person’s denomination has somewhat of an impact on whether or not that person is a part of the Body of Christ, because the teachings encountered in certain denominations are more truthful than others. However, I believe the Body of Christ is probably scattered throughout the denominations because there are people in them in who have genuine relationships with Christ despite being misled in some areas. I believe we are in the days where we will see Christ’s prayer in John 17 being answered. I can’t tell you how many people I’ve seen, here and in my own non-A/P family, who are hungering for more of God and whom Christ, the embodiment of truth, is revealing more of Himself, and that is so exciting to me.

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We have 80 people coming down this Sunday. This house has never seen such a large crew. Fortunately, someone donated a really nice tent with sides on it, so that we will have a place to gather for the nightly devotions.

50-some-odd of the people coming down this weekend are Amish (we seem to get a ton of Amish down here), and there’s an interesting story behind that, but this blog has gone on long enough already so I’ll tell you guys about it next time.

Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail me!

A God Full of Surprises

One of the things I really love about being here at this ministry among so many different types of Christians is seeing how much God is working beyond my life and my little circle of people who believe and think like me. It doesn’t matter how different people are or what traditions they follow or don’t follow – God is always reaching for people. Can I get an amen?

I found out today that the group here from Kansas are Methodists, and let me tell you – they really make the Methodists look good. It’s all about Jesus for these people, and the youth leaders are such awesome people in that way. We just finished up our nightly devotion (which is really a church service) in which we discussed the church’s situation in Acts 2:42-47, where they were literally sharing everything with each other. They were living communally (many people saved on the Day of Pentecost were Jews from out of town, so when they got saved, they just moved in with the local believers), eating together, praying together, meeting each other’s needs, etc. We compared that to how similar the situation is here, and how powerfully God moves when believers come together in such close communion with each other.

Afterwards we had such an intense time of prayer that I was shocked to find out we had been praying for over two hours. One of the “traditions” down here is to put people in the “hot seat” and the others take turns praying out loud for them. It’s so neat when that happens because everyone winds up praying a completely different prayer even when praying for the same need or the same person. You know that when people are done praying for you that your prayer has been totally saturated from every angle, and you can feel the difference in your spirit almost immediately. Tonight we prayed prayers that require very specific results, so it ought to be interesting to witness the fruits of those prayers over the next few days.

A Different Experience
I don’t normally do well at praying out loud. For one thing, I get very self-conscious, and my mind goes blank. For another, as well as I am sometimes accused of writing, I don’t have a gift for oral speaking at all. That’s why what happened tonight really surprised me.

There’s this college guy here named Brandon who is such a sweet guy; he spends most of his free time doing dishes or mopping the floor even though he has back problems and is in pain a lot of the time. Anyway, we were praying for a friend of his who had just been stricken with a brain hemorrhage, and after some very thorough prayers for that situation, I took the opportunity to pray an encouraging little prayer and thank God for Brandon and his servant’s heart. When I opened my eyes afterward, I was sort of disoriented to find myself in the living room again – it was like I had been in another place while praying for him, a place where I wasn’t self-conscious at all and the words flowed freely. And I was just like, “Thanks God! That was so cool!” One thing I can definitely say about God is that He never fails to give me pleasant surprises.

Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail me!

Day One of Hard Manual Labor :)

Boy, am I wiped! I spent all day hauling limbs and clearing brush, but thankfully it wasn’t too hot or too buggy. I am all scratched up as well but I did get a little sun, which my skin hasn’t seen in years. I’m hoping to have a nice little farmer’s tan by the time I leave.

Something you can always count on when you work for people who stayed here through the hurricane is that they will always tell you their stories. Most of them will even start crying as they relive that terrible day all over again. We like to listen and ask lots of questions though, because it’s therapeutic for them to tell their stories. They can’t very well run to their neighbors and say, “We got nine feet of water in our house!” because their neighbors may simply reply and say, “Well, we got fifteen!” So it’s good for them to tell their story to outsiders who can’t top theirs.

Anyway, the lady we were working for today told us her home received $90,000 worth of damage, but received only $9,000 back from the insurance. Her son, whose home was flattened, received only $2,300. It’s a horrible injustice what FEMA and corporate insurance are doing to these people, but so many of them will tell you that the church stepped in when the government and their insurance companies failed them.

A Little History Lesson
Okay . . . I promised a little background on this ministry, which is quite a story. Like I said yesterday, Rick and five other ministers came to Bay St. Louis twelve days after Katrina. They made this town their destination when another minister, Darren, who was working for FEMA, told the five guys that this was one of the hardest hit areas he’d seen. Darren met them in town and began passing out chainsaws.

“Here are your pulpits,” he said. “Now go preach.”

And preach they did, spending the next two weeks pulling bodies from piles of rubble and praying with the survivors. A couple of days after they arrived, while driving around, Rick passed up a group of people working in a yard and felt the urge of the Holy Spirit to help them. Afterwards, one of the ladies offered the use of her property to park the motor home they were living in while she left and took her parents to St. Louis for three months.

To thank her, Rick and the other men began mudding out and cleaning her house, only to realize it wasn’t in that bad of shape. With her permission, they moved in and in two weeks’ time, they had electricity – even before the street lights were turned on. People began to come over to charge their cell phones, and so began the ministry here, as the men got a chance to pray for the people, talk to them and listen to their stories and figure out more ways they could help.

The ministers sent out a mass e-mail appeal for volunteers, and the flood of people hasn’t stopped. Churches from all over the country have sent truckloads of supplies and building materials, and it’s truly amazing how God has supplied. To date, three houses have been donated to the ministry, as well as an SUV and other miscellaneous items.

More tomorrow, cuz right now I’m beat . . .

Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail me!

Yesterday, Texas. Today, Mississippi!

Good mawnin’ from southwest Mississippi! Yesterday Mack and I loaded up my little car and drove five hours to Bay St. Louis, where we will be for the next two weeks doing hurricane relief work. And when I say “loaded up my car,” I do mean that literally. It’s sort of embarrassing how much I require in order to survive for two weeks with my looks somewhat intact.

But here we are, in our home away from home ever since I first came down here in Thanksgiving. My pastor, Rick, oversees a base of operations here, which is basically a house large enough to squeeze in about 25 sets of bunk beds. And three bathrooms, heh, meaning there’s always a line and a five minute shower limit. (Which Mack and I shamelessly break every time we step inside. Lord . . . for all those people who have gotten cold showers because of us, please forgive us . . . ;)

There are always a bunch of different crews down here from various parts of the country, volunteering their time to help rebuild this devastated little town. Right now, for instance, there are about 47 people here from Kansas, most of them teenagers. Of course, I, ever the people person, am reveling in the craziness – so different from my quiet, boring apartment at home!

So I will be carrying on my regular blogging duties from here, hopefully tossing in a story or two as the people here give me new material to work with. An unharvested field of blogfodder! How I do delight in it!

It’s Like Real World Meets the 700 Club
From the beginning of this ministry (Rick came down here twelve days after Katrina hit, with several other ministers), Rick has insisted that this camp remain open to any person who calls him or herself a Christian. Which makes this operation a little bit unique – the Baptists, for instance, have their own base camp where all the Baptists go, and so do the Foursquare people (and probably other denominations of which I’m unaware), but this is the only ministry I’m aware of who accepts any Christian of any denomination.

Frankly, I think Rick orchestrated it that way simply because of the amusement and hilarity he gets from putting a bunch of Pentecostals and non-Pentecostals together and forcing them to work and worship together for a week or two. Actually, in hindsight it’s been an excellent decision – I can’t even begin to tell you of the scores of people who’ve come down here and discovered – as did I – that there was a greater depth and power available to them in their walks with God than they had previously experienced.

Freedom from Religion
Take, for instance, the group of young Amish people who came down here for a few weeks. They left completely different people, going home and having beard-cutting and bonnet-burning parties. The ladies went shopping for new clothes and the guys got driving permits. Needless to say, their newfound freedom from religion did not go over real well in their communities. A council convened, they were banned, and Rick went up to help them start a new church. Last Wednesday, during an all-night prayer meeting, all of them – I believe there’s about 15 of them – received the Holy Spirit and began speaking in tongues for the first time in their lives. Since then, one of them even called Rick with a report of them praying for a little boy who had been hit by a car. He had no pulse and was feared dead, but after two of the formerly Amish guys prayed for him, he sat up from where he’d been lying in the road, completely healed and free from pain.

So now you know why I come down here! God is so obviously working here, and I love being in the thick of it. Tomorrow, I’ll give you some background about this ministry and some of the people here and answer any questions you may have, but right now my friend Sabrina (in whose room I have my computer) needs to go to bed. She’s talking to her stuffed animal Eeyore, so yeah, I better let her go to bed quick!

Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail me!