Missions

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I just wanted to share with everyone here that I was blessed to be part of a 45-person team to Houston, to help the evacuees who came from New Orleans, because of Katrina. We became a part of this effort from a call from our church for volunteers to go.

We were there from 9-11 to 9-17, serving wherever we were needed. This included helping at sites where clothing and food donations were dropped off, to picking up trash at one of the churches where many of the evacuees were processed to receive financial aide.

At that site, St. Agnes, there were as many as 10,000 from New Orleans being processed each day. What was awesome about being on a trash detail there were the opportunities to be among many of the displaced and talk with them. We even had a couple of days where be set out boxes of Bibles for any who would want one, once they saw them available.

When one person requested one of the "trash men" to hand them a Bible, often another Louisianan would see and also ask for a one. Soon thereafter, we saw that we had to go around and hand them out. No Bibles were left over, and, in fact, the church that sponsored us donated more Bibles in an attempt to meet the need.

During this time, many were very open to having one of us pray for them and encourage them, despite where they may have stood with the Lord.

I was also privileged to be on one of the phone lines, helping the Red Cross take calls concerning the relief efforts. I talked with many of the evacuees themselves, as they relayed what they were going through. As one could imagine, it was very heart-wrenching to hear.

One from New Orleans, a elderly gentleman, who was handicapped, talked about how he needed a mattress for his wife, who was bed-ridden. They were holed up in an apartment for them, donated for their use for 14 days.

I was blessed to be on this team, as were also my teammates. We had apparently made such an impact that the mayor of Houston had heard reports of us, as to what we were doing to help. We were only happy to do what we could.

It was a lesson as to how the Lord can use mundane tasks, like picking up garbage, to glorify Himself. We will never forget the opportunity we experienced.

Pray for those from this tragedy. Thank you!

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