The video and pictures tell part of the story of the Tysonesque punch Ike delivered to the Gulf Coast. For many it is total destruction of all their lives built. For others it is major life interruption. For God and His people it is an window of opportunity to act in Jesus' name.
I know two guys who are doing just that.
Greg Avery is one of our own at NHC. He and Cathy volunteer a large part of their time and their income to serving the victims of disasters via the work of NC Baptist Men's Disaster Relief team. Truly Greg and Cathy are living out the vision of Nags Head Church in sending out missionaries. Greg's somewhere down there right now. He has been in Louisiana, but his last communication with me indicated he was likely headed to Texas. Right now he's involved in the provision of feeding thousands of meals every day to those without the ability to fend for themselves.
Glen Sartain is the other guy I know. Four years ago, right after Hurricane Isabel hit us, Glen preached at NHC while I was on a sabbatical. And prior to that he led a Transitioning conference we hosted along with Dan Southerland.
Glen lives in Houston and chose to ride out the storm. I thought he was nuts. He and I were actually chatting via Facebook while Ike was coming down on them. But checking in on Glen yesterday I found him doing two things. First he was clearing debris in his neighborhood. Then later he was cooking for his neighbors. They have no electricity, so my hunch is that Glen either has a generator or a gas grill and was hosting a "post hurricane block party", emptying out his freezer and feeding his neighbors.
Both guys are going to see God use their efforts into the lives of hurting people and produce a harvest because they were willing to do whatever it takes, even in the hardest of times.
Thanks Greg and Glen for your witness and your example to us. God give you safety and bless you in ways you never imagined.
If you want to go to the Gulf and help follow the link above to NC Baptist Men (women can go as well!). Or if you want to give a special offering to support those who are going, make a check out to NHC and indicate it is for the hurrican disaster relief effort and we'll see that it gets into the hands of those who are serving.
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The latest (Sunday) email update from Greg:
The Lord has given us a unique opportunity. We have been asked to put feeding units 1,2 and 3 in one place to serve 80,000 meals/day in Baytown, TX. Manna One left tonight from Hammond headed to Baytown.
Unit 2 will leave tonight or tomorrow a.m. Unit 3 left this morning @ 6 a.m.
This morning I prayed, as I have been each day, for our nursery, children's and youth ministry teams. God is blessing our church with young families. Even though tourist season is over we are still having great attendance in the kids' church and nursery on Sunday mornings. Last night we had around 40 youth at youth group and about 8 of those students were guests. NHC is reaching our community and I pray we keep our focus where it needs to be not on self or on "our" church but on our purpose of reaching Outer Banks (and the world).
Pray for these immediate ministry opportunities:
1. a few more ladies to serve each week in the nursery, ministering to the parents so that they can worship without distraction. Our nursery team is moving from a rotation to a consistent ministry team.
2. 5 more ministers in Kids' Church, our kids church has grown and we have lost some team members to college. What a privilege it is to get to invest into the lives of children and help them to learn about our God. Teaching skills not required just the ability to be a friend.
3. Our youth ministry is growing. I have been praying that God will grow us, there are lots of unreached students on this beach. Will God grow us if we aren't prepared? We have immediate ministry opportunities for 4 men and 2 ladies to lead family groups on Sunday nights and we have ministry opportunities on the kitchen crew as well.
4. I continue to pray that God will provide the finances to finish off the upstairs. The space is badly needed.
Please join me in praying for these ministry opportunities, BUT let me warn you, when you start praying for a ministry God may end up giving you a passion to serve in that ministry. ;)
Since last Friday I've been seeing interviews of residents of Galveston. Many of them had what they felt were good reasons to stay. They trusted their structures. They felt they were self-sufficient. They felt they had no where else to go. The bottom line, though, has to be... they just didn't believe. They were told the truth, but they rejected it. This morning during my prayer time, it washed over me what an illustration this is of the ones I know and love who are rejecting the belief that they need Jesus,that they are not self-sufficient even though they are nice people with good intentions. I pray for them now, that God would send someone into their lives who will say exactly what will move their hearts and break through.
It was wonderful to be in the room yesterday when two men were born into the kingdom of God! What a day!
"Our nursery team is moving from a rotation to a consistent ministry team." When Andy first suggested this direction, I thought he had to be kidding. But God worked on my attitude. These babies DO need consistency, and it is such a blessing to see their smiles when they recognize familiar faces each week. I have truly found my ministry.
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