Sweating in Houma

I’ve written a bit more about the work in Louisiana at efcacrisisresponse.blogspot.com. There you can find more pictures and what we’re doing. It’s amazing to me that 48 hours ago I was in Costa Rica wondering if this trip was going to happen at all. Now I’m cutting, dragging and talking to people who are wide open to the gospel in a town I’ve never heard of before. Houma took a big hit with high winds from Gustav. From the way some trees are twisted and torn, it appears there may have been some small tornados as well. As of yesterday, we were the only ministry on the ground helping people get trees off roofs and bringing them food and water. A cornerstone principle of this type of ministry is that where crisis occurs a new mission field opens.

Yesterday Mark Lewis and I were searching for the disaster management center that we knew had to be around somewhere. We stopped next to a police car and told the officer what we are doing and asked if we could help him in any way. His eyes told the story of exhaustion and worry. His house was fine but his parents house had a tree on it and he had no opportunity in the near future to help. So he led the way to their home and we soon had a team there removing the tree. Soon the call went out on the police radio that there was a church group seeking to help officers and their families and as we were cleaning the first officer’s parents’ home two more squad cars drove up. They couldn’t believe we were really willing to help them and they were amazed as we took down their information so we could go to their homes. Yesterday morning we had no idea what doors God would open…now we are finding doors open into the law enforcement community. Pray that God would use this opportunity for something amazing.

I’m sitting in a man’s home who has a generator going and amazingly, has Internet working. He has lived here fifty years and says this is the worst storm ever to hit this area. It’s not on CNN, but the drama is real and people are in crisis.

Tonight the team will return to Covington and tomorrow we will do some consolidation of the strategic planning we’ve done as we’ve been together. We had the week all worked out….strategic planning and team building in Covington. God had other plans for the location but both goals are being accomplished.

Be sure to visit the efcacrisisresponse.blogspot.com blog to see more pictures.