Lakeshore, Day Four

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. 

Lakeshore: Day Three

After our meeting last night Pastor Eddie Exposito from Sovereign Grace Fellowship spoke to the young people. That didn't wrap up until nearly 10pm,  so I didn't have a chance to get any updates from yesterday posted.

Here are the notes I took on the reports each team gave us last night.

Canvassing yesterday went well. We had a ministry team stationed at the Mercy House for the day and they had a fair amount of visitors come. There will be another team assigned there today as well. Please continue to pray for the Friday night service, that God would draw many from the community to attend.

At Pike St, the insulating and drywall is done. Most of the house should be ready for painting this week, and they hope to install the kitchen cabinets and facia by Friday. There is something that they are needing inspection on from the city, so please pray that they get the inspection done quickly.

As you may have seen from the pictures posted last night, the columns for the sanctuary were set yesterday. The crew had to overcome some challenges in figuring out how to get the pillars up, but after finding a good method of setting them, it went well. They are also making good progress on the other projects, such as siding, electrical work, HVAC, and the elevator pit. Please pray for safety over the next few days as the crew works in the rafters and on the scaffolding. There is an inevitable element of danger in this type of work, and while everyone can work carefully and safely, it is still dangerous. So just pray that God's hand of protection is over everyone and that there are no injuries this week.

I haven't been outside much yet, but judging by all the coats people have left in our bunkhouse, I think it is much warmer today than it has been all week. My weather app says it is 38° and forecasts a high of 57° for this afternoon. We've been looking forward to warmer temperatures all week! : ) 

There are a few here who are not feeling well, probably due to the cold weather, so please be praying for general health for everyone. And please be praying for Sister Sheri, who is unable to be with us this week due to illness. Pray that God would give Pastor Mitch and Sister Sheri comfort and that Sister Sheri would have a speedy recovery. 

I'm working on more picture posts and a couple other projects for the blog, so there will be more content as time allows today. : ) 

Lakeshore: Day One!

Our theme for this week is "going the distance." After years of rebuilding the community, Lakeshore Baptist is finally seeing the construction of their own permanent church building. So for everyone who has come down to help Lakeshore Baptist, we are being encouraged to press on to see the completion of the church building. And for the church community here, they are moving into a new phase of ministry as the rebuilding is coming to a close and they look towards other ways of serving God through the church here. There will be closure to this phase of ministry at Lakeshore Baptist, but God's work is certainly not complete. On the contrary, the church continues to expand their outreach and influence in the community, and we rejoice with them in this.

The overall goals of the Rebuild Lakeshore Project have been to:
- Rebuild personal homes
- Rebuild church facilities
- Minister to members and community
- Promote inter-church fellowship
- Exemplify mercy ministries for other churches
- Minister and witness to the young people involved with the Lakeshore Project

The specific goals for this week are:
- Siding the church building
- Renovation on Pike St. House to make it sellable
- Outreach to the community through the Friday night service and the daily ministry team efforts

Today during the morning devotions we talked about the first line of Psalm 117, "praise the Lord, all ye nations." We were asked to reflect through the day on specific reasons for why God is worthy of praise. As time allows, I'll share my thoughts on this over the next few days and I encourage you to meditate on this also. You're welcome to leave comments on this post if you'd like.

Because I'm a strong advocate of efficiency, rather than rewriting the informational posts from last year, I'll direct new readers to those posts if you're wondering about the Lakeshore Project. This post recaps our daily schedule, which hasn't really changed from last year. Also, last year we did videos on each of the different areas of ministry here at Lakeshore, from the kitchen crew to the ministry team. Here are those posts, if you would like to get a better feel for what it is like here. Please note that these are videos from last year, so the specifics (like the construction projects) have changed. Of course we'll be sharing more about what we're doing specifically this week, but these posts might help you catch up if you're new to the blog. : )

Welcome to Lakeshore 2014!

The intro post to this week has been slightly delayed due to the lovely weather we've been experiencing across the country! I (Savannah) originally planned to get to New Orleans around noon on Saturday, but instead got to spend Saturday afternoon in Chicago and Saturday night at the Houston airport. This was my first time attempting to sleep at an airport...I can say it was interesting, but not exactly fun, haha. Many others were held up in their travels here over the past few days, and apparently the last two attendees have arrived or will be arriving tonight.

Today we've been preparing for the cold weather that's supposed to hit sometime tonight. We are expecting wind chills in the teens, and while back home (Midwest) the temperatures are in the negatives  right now, that's definitely not normal for Mississippi!

While I've only been here since about noon today, I'm already being blessed and encouraged by the fellowship and communion we have here together. Today has been a restful day, physically and spiritually, as we prepare for a week of serving the Lord and completing this phase of the work that He has set before us.

We will be writing more on this tomorrow and throughout the week. This post is fairly brief as it is late and  we have been admonished to make sure we get a full night of rest tonight to be ready for the week. After discovering that it is nearly impossible to sleep on an airport floor, I am just slightly sleep-deprived as well, so I'll wait to write anymore until my brain is functioning better. : )


Pastor Mitch has asked us to spend this week memorizing Psalm 117, so I'll post that here in closing.

Praise the Lord, all nations!

    Extol him, all peoples!

² 

For great is his steadfast love toward us,

    and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.

Praise the Lord!