Our Weekend

Yesterday I spent the day on our church bus with Nathan Segars, Clif Mims, and Joe Briggance. Bruce was with us also for a while. All day long we drove the city, giving out food, and supplies of all kinds. We were able to give some toys to some kids along the way. One kid was having his fourth birthday, so we were able to give him some toys. Another young child had lost all of her books in the flood, so we gave her a stack of children’s books. Still other little girls received Barbies. All of these were sent from everywhere to our town for relief. The smile of a child is a great motivator to keep going. New toys are great items ... especially ones that can be handled easily (small, still in box, for all ages). I would also say that Children's Bible story books would be great items to send. (New or in new condition, please!) We see lots of kids on the streets in the afternoons and on Saturdays. One man we met asked us if we had anything to cook with. Funny question. We have been giving out canned food for weeks, but I haven’t thought much about how to cook it. Most people’s stoves are ruined and haven’t been replaced yet. Someone had put a hotplate in the bus, and I happened to notice it earlier. So we gave the man a hotplate. (Note to readers: this would be a good item to send!). He told us that he had been cooking on his mother’s piano. On the piece of wood that covers the keys he had placed a sterno burner. He took two wrenches and taped them to the next level of wood on the piano. Then he lit the sterno and placed the can on the wrenches. We nicknamed him ‘McGyver’. At the end of the day my family went to Mobile to have an evening meal out of town. It was nice to get away for a few hours. That seems like a normal thing to do. One normal thing to do is play my guitar. I took it with me to Ruleville when we evacuated. There was no room to bring it back home with me. I miss it! Today we had right at 100 in attendance (that’s a preacher’s expression for when you have 98). We had some community visitors, which is great! Nathan did a good job leading singing and Clif blessed us with a communion meditation. I spoke about why we are never defeated in our Christian journey, no matter how discouraged we can become. We can pray to a Father who knows our every heartbeat. We can believe in a God who can do anything. We can serve those around us, thus becoming like our Master. This afternoon we had a ‘church meeting’, a ‘business meeting’ of sorts. It was a fairly positive meeting and I hope we will have many more. We have some people here working this afternoon in distributing items through the community, assembling food bags, and working with the clothing. It’s a happy sound as they chatter while they work. We have lots of people here helping at the moment, which is a source of great joy to me. The days when the workers are few are very difficult, but not difficult enough to cause us to quit. If my last blog sounded a bit alarming, I’m glad. Everyone who comes here notes that the pictures do not do justice to the situation. A friend brought me a bag of Starbucks Gazebo Blend coffee this morning. He is a good man with a tender heart. He is experiencing some big problems right now. If you would, say a prayer for him and his family. They are precious people. Thanks for reading!