Gustav Recovery

We all arrived back this weekend to discover minimal damage here in New Orleans. Our church facility has one tree and one portion of the fence that were damaged. The tree is fixed. The fence will hopefully be taken care of this weekend. 

We immediately began assessing the needs in our body after the storm. It seems like we have needs that range from unskilled cleanup to skilled repairs. We asked our body to fill out this form in order to let us know that their needs were as well as how they could help meet other's needs.

This Satuday we will be gathering at church to go out and help others in our city. We will meet at 9am, work until around 1pm and then eat a hot lunch together. If you are a church member, and would like to be involved, please let me know.

Thank you to all of you around the country for your support, prayers and phone calls. They are much appreciated. As I watched Gustav disintegrate in the Gulf of Mexico, I couldn't help but wonder if your prayers had anything to do with it.

exactly what we needed

Well, it's Tuesday morning. Gustav has moved on. We are all still evacuated and waiting for the OK to come home and see things with our own eyes. While no levees broke, it sounds like we could come home to find downed trees, fences or roofs. Right now, I know that the church property has lost one fence and one tree.

As I think over the past three years, so many faces flash before my eyes. My pastoral heart has been broken to see so many hurting on an emotional level. Those wounds were torn back open by the collision of the Katrina anniversary and the Gustav evacuation.

We gathered on Saturday night to pray. We prayed for our people and for our leaders. We prayed for God to intervene and turn the storm.

We asked God, "why?" Perhaps this is exactly what we needed.

Evacuation forced us to re-live many of the emotions and moments of Katrina. It hurt so badly that it caught us off guard. After all, that was three years ago.

We needed this. We need closure. We are ready to move forward. God has much to do in this city. We as a church need to be ready to dive in and be used by Him.

Maybe this is exactly what we needed.

So many seeds of the Gospel have been planted over the past three years. As many of you who have come down on work teams know, we believe that revival will flood this city. We have been waiting. It it has seemed as if God needed something to occur to trigger the outpouring of His Spirit.

Maybe this is exactly what we needed.

I believe in a God who has a firm grip on the winds and the waves. He intended for Katrina to decimate New Orleans. He intended for Gustav to scare us to death. He is moving us toward the Kingdom of God. I trust Him. He knows exactly what we need right now.

Post-Gustav plans

It is noon and so far it looks like the greater New Orleans has by and large been spared by Gustav. BUT, we fully expect to come home to find some houses through the metro area affected by wind damage. I'm sure there will be trees down, shingles missing and perhaps even some wet carpets.

Coincidentally (huh?), we really don't have many work teams scheduled for the month of September. So, if you feel the itch to come down in the next couple of weeks to help out with the initial aftermath, we would love to host some teams!

Feel free to contact me now via email or cell phone (504-975-7570) if you are interested. Obviously, things won't be abundantly clear until we get back into the city to see the damage with our own eyes. We will keep you updated.

Sam Update

Whats happening, well here is a little update from me. We decided to leave NOLA earlier then we had planned. We got on the road about 10pm. We arrived in Jackson, MS around 3am. Not bad. We got to our hotel and saw signs posted everywhere say No pets allowed, NO EXCEPTIONS. As you can imagine, It brought me to tears. They said this last time, when we evacuated for Katrina, then they told us we could bring him in our room. But this hotel opened 5 days ago, and they have white comforters, so mom didn't see that happening this time. I prayed, I know God is in control. I kept telling mom... watch tomorrow they are gonna change the rules. I just know it. I told her not to worry. Dad slept in his company van with Cubby. What a good man. We got to bed around 5am and woke up 8am. Mom and Dad brought Cubby to a vet where they boarded him. I always get sad to leave Cubby and it puts stress on mom and dad when im upset. Around early afternoon the replaced all the "No Pet" signs with "Only pets 25lbs or smaller" Mom went to the front desk and talked to the man and talked to him, Cubby should be around 25lbs, hes just really fat :) He said it was their headquarter policy, it wasn't up to him. Then i punched him in the face. Im just kidding. My mom asked about federal laws, he said yes, if she could find it, he would call him manger and tell him. then she started to tear up and the man told her he could stay with us! YAYYYY. God is good! Just something as small as having Cubby with us has made everything so much better. Less stress, less tears! Im so happy.
I just stayed in bed all day, occasionally dozing off. When I woke up i felt like i was at home, then i heard the tv with the news on. I just couldn't believe this is happening again. its crazy to me.
We walked over to the Bass Pro Shop, really cool. They have a shooting range arcade type game. That will be good if we need to blow off some steam later. haha We are also right across the street from the Mississippi Braves baseball field. They are a AA team. Jon and Dad went to the game last night, they had discounted tickets for LA residents.
Just laying in bed right now watching the news. Everytime they say Westbank or Harvey Canal we turn the tv really loud, and yell at everybody to shut up. Or ill punch them in the face...just kidding.
Im going crazy with my camera being broken, but im taking lots of video, can wait to make a DVD! I took these with my phone at the Bass Pro Shop.