Spurgeon quote relevant to recent conversations

"I believe the doctrine of election, because I am quite sure that if God had not chosen me I should never have chosen him; and I am sure he chose me before I was born, or else he never would have chosen me afterwards; and he must have elected me for reasons unknown to me, for I never could find any reason in myself why he should have looked upon me with special love. So I am forced to accept that doctrine," (Lectures, book 2, page 47).

shrimp, pickles, and dancing

Saturday was a semi-slow day. We have very few volunteers around, which allowed for a little bit of a break. Because there was so few volunteers, Chris our cook, made us all sorts of seafood for dinner. We had catfish, shrimp, shrimp scampi, hush puppies, and coleslaw. It was a great meal. I tell you, the shrimp they have here isn’t anything like the shrimp (bait) they serve in WI.

For the evening I was able to get away with Justin and Daniel (2 volunteers from AL), Chris our cook, and a Lakeshore resident and we went to the crab festival in Bay St. Louis. I tell you, that is quite the event. They got crab roulette (I don’t know what it’s really called, but it is where crabs crawl off the board and whatever number they crawled off at is the winning number kind of like roulette.) People get really into it. They have a ton of crabs and shrimp and other things that I am not used to seeing for food at fairs, and more things are fried than I knew you could fry (though they don’t have the fried cheese curds, which still tops my list). We rode a couple of rides, I ate my first fried pickles (that was interesting), and we danced/watched others dance.

It was a great day after the busyness of the week. And as for how I am getting used to the southern culture…I am still trying to get use to some of the phrases. I’m sure there are times when someone uses a phrase that I don’t understand and I stand there with a confused look on my face. It’s different than WI, but I really kind of like it here.

On a side note:

This is a picture of the water that had come in recently in glass beer bottles from the Miller brewing company. I will admit at first it was weird to see people walking around drinking out of these 32 oz. beer bottles.

Series of random thoughts

I know I have been a bit inconsistent with keeping the blog updated. But what can I say, life can be a little busy at times. There are days that I cannot put into enough words to truly explain. So what you get is a bunch of random thoughts, put together in some way. I tried to make as much sense of my thoughts as I could.

As I sit here and reflect on the week, I can't help but think about God's grace. Grace that has gotten volunteers through the day, grace that has been given to residents of Lakeshore who have lost everything, grace by which I have been saved, grace that is only given by the Lord and Savior. Fully deserving of death and hell, He gives eternal life to me a sinner who was so wrapped up in sin. I know I never deserve to be called a child of God, but I am grateful beyond what my words can describe that He's called me.

It is grace that is given that overcomes obstacles. On our own we are inconsistent and undependable, I am glad the He has not left us to operate under our own power. It is my prayer for myself and other believers that we would not try or want to operate by our own power, but desire to be bound to Christ who gives grace.

I agree in prayer/song with those who have sang:

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I'm constrained to be!
Let thy goodness like a fetter
Bind my wandering heart to thee:
Prone to wander, Lord I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here's my heart, O, take and seal it;
Seal it for thy courts above.

I like what John Piper has to say about this song
"Make your goodness like fetter a chain that binds my wandering heart to you Seal my heart with an unbreakable bond for the courts of heaven. In other words: Keep me! Preserve me! Defeat every rising rebellion! Overcome every niggling doubt! Deliver from every destructive temptation! Nullify every fatal allurement! Expose every demonic deception! Tear down every arrogant argument. Shape me! Incline me! Hold me! Master me! Do whatever you must do to keep me trusting you and fearing you till Jesus comes or calls"

I hope that this would be our prayer. To be bound to God and have my heart sealed for the courts above and to do whatever it takes to keep me trusting and fearing the God who saves the most undeserving.

On a side note:
Things in Lakeshore are busy. this past week we had somewhere around 10 teams of volunteers that were out working in the community. Tasks that they were working on varied from cleaning yards, gutting houses, putting up drywall and siding and insulation, laying carpet, and all sorts of other things.

I have been able to get around more and meet some of the Lakeshore residents. There have been times that all I could do was give them a hug as they tell me of losing family members, homes, and possessions. But it is my prayer that as teams go in and work on these peoples homes that the residents will be given hope and that the gospel message would be presented to those who are not yet followers of Christ.

It’s been quite the week. We’ve been very busy with teams out in the community, teams leaving, and new teams coming. But each day a little bit of progress is made or a little hope is given where hope seemed to be lost. I been working on getting teams to clean up people’s yards, move trees/branches, pick up trash, help some of the elderly get things organized in the yard, among other things. The teams have been great in doing whatever they are asked to do. Most of the jobs have been working out in the hot sun and humidity, but they go out an do their things each day. Its fun to talk to the teams at the end of the day when I am checking to see how things went, many of the teams have been blessed getting to talk to and serve the people in the community.

There was also a great team in from Florida who led a Vacation Bible School for the kids in the community this past week from Grace Baptist Church in Cape Coral Fl. They had a pretty good turn out and were able to teach the kids great biblical truth. Friday night they also had a family program which drew people from the community who do not attend church regularly or at all.

The Lord remains faithful, and He continues to teach me and reveal new things each day. I am learning a lot about myself and daily I'm being taken way out of my comfort zone. But while there are times I am a bit awkward, I know that scripture promises that He will work all things out for the good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose. I'm being stretched in ways that I never would have thought of before, but I remain grateful to my Creator who knows how much I can handle and gives me just that.

I am encouraged by Paul's encouragement to the Philippians when he says "Rejoice in the Lord always, again I will say rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand. do not be anxious for anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Phil 4:4-7

Here are a few pictures of the things that went on around here this past week.

A little of last week's work

Here are just a few of the projects that were going on this past week and a little of the progress that is being made. More volunteers are coming in this week, many of them teens who will be working on cleaning up the yards of people in the comminty. Grace Baptist Church is also here to put on a Vacation Bible school for the kids in the community, I'm praying word has gotten around and many children will come to hear God's word taught.

These are only two of many places where teams are working.
This team had the cement poured on Tuesday and by Wednesday they had made great progress laying the cinder blocks.

This team was working on a woman's house

At the end of the day

After a fairly relaxed morning (Some paper work and helping Ms. Bea put a few things in the distribution center), things picked up. A few teams came in today and after showing some where they'd be sleeping, answering questions, and eating dinner. I was ready to run and hide. I gained even more respect for what the Greg, JoEll, and Pastor Don do here, but this was only a very small part of what they do.
I will say though at the end of the day, I love to see and grateful for the way that God is bringing volunteers to Lakeshore Baptist to serve with brothers and sisters to bring the gospel and hope to this community.

Here are a few pictures of what the community looks like almost 10 months after the storm. The first one is of the rubble that remains from someone's home near the beach. The second is what a lot of trees look like (this one was taken near the beach, some trees a little further inland have a few leaves, but are still quite bare-it reminds me of winter in WI). The third is a historical church building that sits across the street from where it sat before the storm.