Wednesday Morning

Yesterday Maggy and I spent the morning in Lowes, assembling a list of materials that will be needed at our house for some further work. Of course they do not have much of what we need. We hope to paint some baseboards today. Tomorrow Danny Dodd and Dennis Daughty will come over and place them for us. I'll go back to Lowes today to see if they have what we need. I enjoyed a conversation with Chris Robey yesterday. He is the leader of the team from Vernon, Texas. He has his youth group and three or four youth ministry friends with him. They are hard workers and a good hearted bunch. I drove around in the afternoon looking for some of the work teams. I saw big piles of debris by the side of the road, letting me know that our teams had been present. I did find one small team working at Mildred's house. This is a second Mildred that we have helped. Both of them widow ladies. This Mildred's husband died four years ago. Can you imagine living in a house for forty years, having your husband pass away, and then being faced with the worst natural disaster in US history? Mildred is so thankful to have someone to come and help her and she bragged on the young people who were there in her yard. I am sorry not to know the name of the man in the picture, he is one of the wonderful relief workers here helping us. I asked Mildred if I could take her picture with him, and she said, "I'd love to have my picture taken with this handsome man!" Mildred lives in a FEMA camper. Even in her circumstances she maintains a sweet and gentle spirit. Before I left she kissed me on the cheek and thanked me for what we were doing. I was just sorry that it took us six months to find her. To the right is one of the girls working in Mildred's back yard, which is full of debris that is not even hers. It just washed up in her yard. Last night we continued our series of Good News Nights with a message from Rick Whittle. Rick has been the preaching minister for the Spanish Fort, Alabama Church of Christ for three years. Before that he spent many years as a football coach at Mobile Christian School. Rick has also worked with us at Gulf Coast Bible Camp. I was so glad that he made the drive over to speak to us last night. It was a very inspirational message that was at the core a GOOD NEWS message, centered around the Gospel of Christ. Rick brought good news about the Spanish Fort church and their growth. They hope to build a new church building sometime soon. I have many friends from Spanish Fort from across the years and I pray the Lord's great blessings upon them. Last night I was thankful to have my friend Bill Collins in attendance. Bill's excellence in leading worship always has him up front, but last night he was able to simply participate, and he enjoyed that. After services a lady who attends another church here locally asked to say a few words. She had met some of our young people and they invited her to church. She was so thankful for their energy and love for Christ to come to the Coast and work for others during their Spring Break. She wanted the teenagers to know that what they were doing was truly making a difference. Amen! Although there continues to be much work to do, the signs of Spring and renewal are evident all around us. In the picture to the right a relief worker adds to a pile of debris, while in the background there is a blazing beauty of an azalea bush. To me, this picture illustrates two kinds of true beauty. One, the azalea flowers, are stunningly beautiful - but only for a short time. On the other hand, the beauty of the spirit of Christ shown through service makes an impression on the heart that lasts forever. With which kind of beauty are we most often concerned?