We’re in the home stretch, crossing Virginia under a beautiful Sunday morning sky.
The challenges of the mission trip are behind us, but the ongoing challenge of the mission remains. The regular rhythms of our daily lives await us, complete with the habits and influences and temptations that try so hard to drown out the voice of God’s Holy Spirit.
Will we be changed? Will anyone look at us and say “That trip really had an effect on them.”? Will we faithfully fulfill the pledge to continue being a light even after we return to our regular routines?
Not always, no.
God will continue to provide us with opportunities to reflect Christ, but it is up to us to grasp those opportunities and make the most of them.
By the time many of you read this, the 2011 New Orleans team will very likely have arrived at Bellevue. We ask that you pray for us, even though the trip is over; please pray that we hold our fire and cling dearly to the lessons that God taught us this week.
“Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” – 1 Timothy 6:12
Please ask us about our trip when you see us; we’d love to talk to you about it.
We have arrived in Roanoke, Virginia and are heading to bed. On the road early tomorrow! We hope to arrive somewhere around 2-3pm.
Passing through Tennessee.
The morning is crisp and we have almost completed loading our trucks. As we prepare to depart, each of us is taking away a different set of experiences. Yet, we are bound by this shared time. More importantly, we are bound by the blood of Christ and our commitment to the value of that sacrifice.
We ask that you pray for our safe and swift arrival in Virginia, where we will bed down for the evening.
We encountered a megaphone preacher in the French Quarter who was telling the crowd about the importance of repentance. I asked him if I could pray with him.
He refused.
All of our teams have withdrawn from their worksites, the tools are put away, and this part of the mission is drawing to a close.
But the mission does not really end.
The 2011 New Orleans team asks you to pray that God will give us the wisdom and the words to share our experiences with you when we arrive home. Please pray that we do not lose, forget or take for granted the things that God accomplished through his Holy Spirit this week.
It’s our last work day, and an abbreviated one. We need to be off our work sites by 2pm. We worked on four homes, but none of them are completely done.
Our satisfaction must come from having served obediently. The questions we must ask are not “Did we finish the house?” or “Did we make New Orleans better?”. No, the questions must be “Did we glorify God?” and “Did we show the love of Christ?”
The life of a Christian is, similarly, an ongoing affair. We must ask ourselves these questions daily.
The prayers of the 2011 New Orleans team are with you.
These trips go by fast. We’re finishing up dinner and then having an evening worship service. We have made really good progress on each of our work sites.
This trip has not involved as much community contact as other trips; it’s much more of a work trip. However, I think I can speak without fear of contradiction when I say that this community, Bellevue Presbyterian, has definitely been strengthened by the presence of the Holy Spirit this week.
The 2011 New Orleans mission team asks you to pray that we finish strong, that we strengthen the bonds between us, and that we store up in our hearts the things that we did and said this week.
God bless you.
Howard leads a devotion on holiness:
Anisa leads a devotion on reaching out to others:
Jody Melson does drywall work perched on a plank over a stairwell.