What Can We Possibly Offer?


A week from today we'll be setting our feet down in Houston, Texas, embarking on a mission of being the hands and feet of Jesus to people who experienced Harvey up close and personal. They made an evacuation plan. They watched the rain blow sideways, bending trees like they were twigs. They watched the streets fill up with water and spill over into their homes. When the rain stopped and the flooding receded they tore apart their ruined homes, piled their possessions at the curb for pick up and began the work of starting over.

Into such devastation, what can we possibly offer? 

 For our team there are many unknowns.

  • We don't know exactly what we'll be doing, though we know it will involve construction work. 

  • We don't know who'll we'll be serving. We don't know what their stories are. We don't know how those stories will affect us and we don't know how our presence will affect them. 

  • We don't know what this trip will pull out of us. The good, the bad, the ugly? We hope and pray for peaceful unity, humility, and servant hearts. We hope for laughter.  

But there are knowns. 
  • We know who it is we are going with. Our Savior, Sanctifier, Healer and Coming King.

  • We know that 2 Corinthians 12:10 stands just as true for us as it did for Paul. "When I am weak, then I am strong."

  • We know that nothing can separate us from the love of God, not "trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword" (Romans 8:35).

And that is the prayer of our team, that we would strip away ourselves and let Christ embrace the unknowns.

What we hope, by God's grace and His power alone, to offer,  is Christ. May this be in the form of encouragement and renewal for Christians who have found this year to be very trying. May this be hope and the glimpse of a future for those softened by hardship now seeking healing and a new way after the storm.
Prayer Send Off at York Alliance Church






We hope you will join us. What we do is pour out the love of the Body of Christ (that's you).

Please Pray:
Unity for our Team. God has already been pulling us together. Praise Him!
That we would have the eyes and heart of Christ, to see opportunities, to serve without complaint, to love and accept no matter what the situation.
Safety and good health for all team members
Our families back home (especially the team members with little ones at home).
Our leaders - Todd Jackson and Mike Carletti (stamina, grace, wisdom, and lots of humor, and patience.)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Surrounding with a Prayer Wall - Last Day of Camp - 8-3-18

Image
We begin the day with some rousing games. Here we're playing four square. We have some downtime throughout the day. We have made some beautiful connections with the children. It's a bitter-sweet feeling, to think we will have to say good-bye to the children soon. Then the day finishes up with a number of fun games. This is the infamous bobbing for berries challenge. This girl was determined to get that berry! At the end of the day we gathered, the children in the middle and prayed. At the end, we all held hands, formed a wall around the children and blanketed them in prayer. This was a deeply moving time for all of us.
Read more

Pictures From the Youth Retreat - 8/1-8/2

Image
A major goal for this trip was to bring the youth from York Alliance and the Church of Faith and Worship together, to strengthen and encourage each other. The retreat took place over two days up on a mountain. Memories were made and bonds formed. God's family is large and knows no boundaries, whether that be nations, languages, or cultures. Praise God! Mario's truck broke down on the way back, but they were able to get it running safely again and made it back to San Salvador. We were all glad to be reunited!
Read more
Image
Today we start gearing up for the children's camp. Colin and I walk down to Mister Donut, order breakfast and use the wifi to upload the blog for yesterday. I feel so adventurous going out in the city and using my limited Spanish skills to order breakfast.  We stop at Super Selectos (grocery store) and grab a few groceries. We get some oranges since they're out of bananas. We grab some more mint gum while were there. There are a few team members with queasy stomachs and achy guts. Chewing mint gum seems to offer some relief and we're going through the packs we brought pretty quickly. After paying, we grab my backpack left with the guard at the front of the store (no backpacks are allowed in the grocery store).  It's an gentle uphill trek back to the apartment. We pass dog's chilling on the sidewalks or sorting through the trash, parents walking to the hospital carrying children, and many little shops and venders selling everything from fresh plantains and
Read more