The lovely weather yesterday certainly brightened everyone's spirits considerably! I was out on the ministry team in the morning, and canvassing a neighborhood was far more enjoyable on a sunny 50° day than on a cloudy 20° day!
Good progress was made on all the projects yesterday! There's a story of God's amazing providence from the Pike St. project. Apparently they were trying to put up the aluminum facia, only to discover that it is not available pre-bent down south here. I'm not sure what exactly this means, hopefully it makes sense to some of you, haha. But anyways, they were in a quandary about how to finish the project this week with this setback. And at that very moment, a neighbor came over to the house and in the course of the conversation he mentioned he had a metal bender device (no idea what its official term is) and would be glad to bend the aluminum for them. This was definitely not "coincidence" but rather the amazing providence of God! Additionally, this interchange with the neighbor at Pike St. allowed members of our team to invite him and his family to the dinner and service tonight. Lazslo made a great point about that last night. We are thankful for God's provision in material things such as aluminum facia, but that was only an opportunity for even greater work on a spiritual level.
Last night we all went out to dinner in nearby Waveland. It was a wonderful time of fellowship and downtime, especially for the kitchen crew! After dinner some brave and energetic young people went down to the beach. Others, who had no desire to stand outside in the cold wind, came back to camp.
This morning is overcast, foggy, and a little chilly, although much nicer than it has been! Everyone is hard at work preparing for the dinner and service tonight, which is the culmination of all our efforts through the week. The work crews are focused on trying to accomplish their objectives, since this is our final day. The ministry teams will continue inviting the community to the service tonight. The kitchen team is obviously at work preparing the food. Pastor Miller is organizing some music for our guests to enjoy before and during their dinner. Others are organizing the parking arrangements, making signs, gathering umbrellas in preparation for the possible rainstorm this evening, putting together gift baskets to send home with our guests, and working on a myriad of other tasks.
Today is especially challenging because on the one hand, we are near the end and must think about wrapping things up, but on the other hand, we aren't actually done yet, so we can't mentally leave until the work is complete. It is also a long and exhausting day for many. The kitchen crew has been up since 4.45am preparing breakfast and they won't be done until late tonight after the guests have left and the kitchen is clean.
So please be in prayer for all the workers here today, that God would give everyone strength and endurance to finish well. The theme of this week has been perseverance, and on a micro-level, that's exactly what we need for this day.
Please pray that God would bless the work tonight and bring many to hear the Word. Pray that there would be many fruitful and blessed conversations between Lakeshore Baptist members and the guests who attend. Since we're just here for the week, our focus tonight is on facilitating conversations between the church members and visitors from the community. Pray that God would use Pastor Don's message to work powerfully in the hearts of many.
I realize that due to my schedule here, the daily updates are coming out a day late. I anticipate the same tonight, as we probably won't get done until quite late. But I'll try to at least post something brief in the morning, and then will hopefully have at least a couple most posts to publish after I get home. We had 32 posts last year, and so far we're at only 14 for this year. I feel some kind of pressure to beat that, but I'm not sure it will actually happen, haha.
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