Sharing the Love of Jesus

by Betty Johnston

Sunday morning, April 29, 2007, a caravan of vans, trucks, cars, and tool trailers began its journey from the Madison Baptist Association parking lot to its destination of Lakeshore Baptist Church, Lakeshore, Mississippi. The trip had been in the minds of many for more than a year because of the memory of a previous trip there last year. We received such a blessing by building a home addition for a family whose house had been flooded to the rafters and severely damaged by Hurricane Katrina, as well as completing projects for several other homeowners. This return trip held excitement and anticipation to view the progress of the area during the past year as well as the desire to help another family in its effort to move from its FEMA trailer into a real home.

As we arrived in Lakeshore, before dark, following the familiar road, we were greeted with the welcoming white steeple setting by the roadside, which had been one of just a very few remains of the Lakeshore Baptist Church after the storm. Ever since the steeple was recovered and erected by the road to identify the church's location, it has continued to welcome the hundreds of folks from the community with an offer of assistance for daily necessities and help for rebuilding. Hundreds of volunteers, from all parts of the nation, come there for a few days or a week at a time to share their love of Jesus and their many skills and strengths in whatever project they are assigned.

The young pastor, Don Elbourne, had been working on his doctorate degree in theology at the time of the storm, but felt in his heart that God wanted him to place that work aside and minister to his community. He, along with some other church members, prioritizes construction requests and coordinates assignments to volunteer groups according to their skills. Others work with assigning the available sleeping accommodations and planning the food service for the volunteers. All structures on the church property are still temporary, as Pastor Don and his people felt the needs of the people of the community should be met before focusing on a new church building.

Our 17 men found their quarters to be in a Quonset hut lined with cots and, thankfully, equipped with air conditioning. The eight ladies had been assigned to two cabins in a unit of four cabins with single shower on the end. Each petite cabin has two sets of bunk beds and a sink, as well as A/C. There are real bathrooms and showers in the large sanctuary Quonset nearby, as well as porta-potties available.

The project which had been assigned to the Southside team several weeks ago was to frame a house of approximately 1500 square feet for a single woman with a son. The concrete pad had been poured the previous week and 28 eager people were on the site by 7:30 Monday morning. We circled up for a prayer of thanksgiving and a request for God's blessing on the work of the day. Unfortunately, the concrete pourer's of the previous week had experienced some difficult circumstances, so a number of hours of pad preparation work were required before teams could begin erecting walls. And, although we were disappointed with a delayed start, we had come to this job trusting God and we couldn't deny that He knew exactly what the circumstances were, that we were to do the work before us, and in the end we would accomplish whatever He intended.

Monday taught us to work together as a team and to trust God for the outcome. By days end, one of the four main walls was up and the second ready to be raised. By mid-morning Tuesday, all four exterior walls were standing and interior wall work was underway. Meanwhile, several of our men were hard at work ‘squaring up' the standing walls, which was an extra effort due to the wavy pad. Each day had its challenges, no doubt so that God could show us what He would do for us if we gave ourselves to him wholeheartedly. Wednesday and Thursday were filled with long hours of hard work. Thursday night's rain became a slow drizzle by Friday morning, and so the workers were back on the job trying to make every minute count. Just before 11:00 am lightening began to appear and although we asked for God to move the storm away from us, we had to concede that our work was finished for the week.

On Wednesday afternoon, we were blessed by a visit from the lady and her ten year old son, whose future home we were building. We could see their excitement at the possibility of a house instead of a FEMA trailer. Although she is not a member of the Lakeshore Baptist Church, the church was reaching out to help this single mom school teacher to be able to have a home. As I talked with her, my heart melted and God spoke to me of how He loves the single moms of this world, including those not in the church, and surely brought our team to minister to her. Even though we were just one step in the construction of her new home, I am certain that we were right where we were supposed to be, working for exactly whom He had chosen.

Each evening, after dinner and showers, our group met together for fellowship and testimonies. Because this exact team had never worked together before and some had never met (several team members were from other Baptist churches in our association), this time together proved invaluable at getting to know each other, as well as being a time of spiritual encouragement and strengthening.

The highlight of the week for me was the Wednesday night service when Pastor Don spoke to us from the Word and from his heart. He is a servant who is gifted with both a brilliant mind and a compassionate heart. A man so in love with his Savior is one for whom I will gladly travel 450 miles to work with again (bugs and all!).

For more pictures of our trip please see our Mississippi Gallery. For more information on how you can help with Disaster Relief, please see our Disaster Relief page.