Mission Team Is Safely Home

The West End Baptist Church bus arrived back at the church about 8:30 PM on Friday night.  After two days of moving along with the huge storm that brought rain and snow to much of the eastern half of the country, the team was weary and glad to be home.  Team members report having had a wonderful experience in spite of the bad weather that cut the mission short.

The team wants to express a tremendous 'thank-you' to the church for the support that made the mission possible.  Team members will find a time in the near future to share a report with the church.  We are extremely grateful to those members who faithfully prayed for the church throughout the mission.

Building the Church at Marksville proved to be more difficult than any of the volunteers could have imagined.  About forty volunteers drove from Virginia to Louisiana to do the initial framing of the new church.  Local church members and members from the Hessmer Baptist church welcomed the team with great excitement in spite of departure snow, local rain, mud, and more mud.  The construction team slid out of Virginia and drove into Louisiana believing that they had dealt with the greatest obstacles.  However, the rain on Monday proved them wrong. 

After a day of working under the tent and building walls, the rains subsided and by the end of the second day the walls were going up, but the mud made work very difficult.

Team members slipped and slid through the Louisana mud and erected most of the exterior walls by the end of Tuesday.

Wednesday proved to be another welcomed day of sunshine and some of the mud dried up as the day went on.  All of the interior walls were completed and hauled to the building from the tent where they had been made.

About 3:00 PM, Sunday, January 31st, our West End Baptist Mission Team arrived in Louisiana when we crossed the mighty Mississippi River at Natchez Mississippi.  Once on the Louisiana side, the team stopped for a photo by the river.  The trip had been long and arduous.  The team departed the church on Saturday morning in the midst of a snow storm that became more daunting as the trip continued.  Mike Barr successfully drove the bus over rough roads south through Virginia and into North Carolina where snow plows had hardly touched the interstate.  Beneath the snow a layer of ice made for rough travel well into South Carolina.  At Atlanta, Georgia, the team called it a day and got a good night's rest before heading out the following morning.

Every day the news flooding into our homes brings horrifying images from the earthquake in Haiti.  Anyone with half a heart responds by saying, "What can I do?"  Daniel Vestal, Coordinator for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship reminds us that there are things we can do.  We can pray; we can give; we can go.

Prayer is not something we do before we get started with our mission work, it is in fact the first work we as Christians should think of doing.  Through prayer out work is clarified.  Prayer is two way communication with God.  As we pray, we must intercede for the suffering Haitians, but we must also listen for the still, quiet voice of God to speak to us.  He may nudge us toward sacrificial giving.  He may remind us of skills and talents we have that could be used to help alleviate suffering.  He may make us willing to offer the gift of hospitality to some of those who will become refugees in search of relief.

It will take a lot of money to help the people of Haiti.  Millions of dollars are pouring in from countries all over the world and we may be tempted to feel like our contribution is too small to count.  This is not true.  God is in the business of turning small contributions into miraculous gifts.  Next Sunday West End Baptist Church will receive a special offering for the people of Haiti.  The money will be channeled through VA Baptist and will all go to alleviate suffering in Haiti.  Don't be tempted to shift some of your regular gift from the budget offering to the special offering.  I believe God expects this to be a gift over and above what we would have given anyway.  Let's give in a way that expresses gratitude for the abundance of blessing we enjoy every day.  Even as we give sacrificially, we must give joyously.  God loves a cheerful giver.

Some of us can go.  You can go onto the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship's web site and fill out an application that indicates your skills and your availability.  Teams are being put together to help with the long-term rebuilding that must take place immediately following rescue and recovery.  If you are uncomfortable filling out an application, let someone on our local mission committee know of your interest.  We will explore what we as a church can do through direct involvement.

Ava and I lived and worked in Haiti.  One of our sons, Telius, is Haitian by birth.  We had the privilege of adopting him.  He learned today that his relatives in Haiti are safe.  They live in the Cap-Haitien in the north of the country.  We are grateful, but our hearts are broken because of the suffering and devastation that has touched millions in the Port-au-Prince area.  One of our grandchildren, Lucson, a Haitian child, was adopted into our family last year.  Over twenty of his playmates are still in the capital city area.  They are safe, but they are basically homeless as their home was badly damaged.  Please join us and the thousands of others who are seeking God's leadership to find what we can best do to help.