Monthly Archives: June 2006

In the wake of hurricane Katrina, thousands of volunteers have flooded into our community to serve in the relief, recovery, and rebuilding efforts. From day one of the disaster we clamped onto a solitary overarching trust that God will work all things to his glory. In our first church service, I said, “we believe He will use this catastrophe to amplify the truth of His word and call many to anchor their hope in Him.” We still desire nothing more than to magnify the greatness of our God. By His mercy he allows us to continue participating in that grand purpose along with countless selfless volunteers from across the country.

Each week I urge our gracious teams to proclaim the gospel of grace in word and deed. As we provide help and hope to hurting people through hundreds of projects, let us never stray away from the shadow of the cross. If we rebuild someone’s home, reroof their house, wire the electrical, hang sheet rock, lay down flooring, paint the walls with fresh color, add trim, install the air conditioning, and all it takes to move a family from tents and campers into a beautifully renovated house and shut our mouths concerning Christ our supreme treasure, what have we done? We must accompany our benevolent actions with explanations of hope. Let us do more than provide folks a comfortable home to go to hell from.

When you stock the shelves of our food distribution center, speak of the greater storehouse of God’s sovereign mercy and grace. When you carry groceries to a families car, tell them of the boundless provision of Christ. In this blazing south Mississippi heat, when you offer them precious bottle water, urge them to turn from their broken cisterns that can hold no water, to the all satisfying fountain of living water who is Jesus Christ. When you gut a house, clean a yard, or remove storm debris, share Christ’s almighty ability to remove the grotesque debris of human sin. When you find someone’s storm soaked Bible amidst the rubble or replace their lost Bible with a new one, crack it open and proclaim the glorious gospel of grace. When you roll out tar paper and hammer down new shingles, herald the mighty fortress that is your God. When you pour a slab, or dig footers, or set floor beams, share how true “hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.” When you pressure wash a house or roll out fresh paint, speak of the powerful cleansing effect of the blood of Jesus Christ that washes away sin. When you hang doors or hang sheet rock point to Jesus Christ who hung on the cross to pay the penalty of sin and make full atonement for all who believe. When you help storm victims replace their possessions, glory in the all satisfying treasure of Jesus Christ.

Above all pray that God will overpower rebellious hearts as He irresistibly draws the people of Lakeshore to Himself, so that they stand drop jawed, not at the unspeakable devastation wrought by Katrina, but at the wonder of a gracious God who rescues undeserving sinners. Understand that we can not coerce, manipulate, or trick people into new birth, only the effectual power of God opens blind eyes, unstops deaf ears, and pounds alive dead hearts to beat with faith in Christ. Know that God uses our feeble imperfect witness in His economy of grace. Trust that God will accomplished his chief end as he glorifies himself on the gulf coast. Rejoice that God’s goodness, grace, and renowned continues to overflow the levees of our making, to the praise of His name.

God acomplished a tremendous amount of work this past week through the sweat of all the teams with us here in Lakeshore. Folks from Georgia, New Jersey, Wisconsin, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Mississippi, Texas, and Florida joined us as we continued ministering to our storm ravaged community.. Tonight a fresh group from Kentucky roll in. As I’ve often noted on my blog, Its sometimes difficult to keep all the teams straight, much less thank them personally as they rightly deserve.

I beg forgiveness, once again, to point out one team among many., but I felt especially blessed to spend time with the Grace Baptist Church contingent. Their pastor, Tom Ascol stands tall as one of my heroes of the faith. I mentioned last Sunday that if I had to list a handful of the most influential pastors/ preachers/ theologians in my life over the past several years, Tom Ascol would rank right up there with Charles Spurgeon, John MacArthur, John Piper, and R. C. Sproul. His leadership through the Founders Ministry serves to mold my understanding of God and His church in Lakeshore. Last year I preached through Galatians and part of my weekly routine involved listening to Tom’s Galatians series, so I felt almost as if I had attended church right across the pew from the Cape Coral crowd.

Through the busyness I stole away a few moments to spend time with a few of these wonderful people. I can’t express the encouragement God granted me through sending them our way. One of my only regrets of the week is that I never captured a snapshot of the Ascol kids square dancing.

In addition to digging ditches for electrical conduit, removing storm debris, and a host of other labor intensive tasks, the folks from Grace Baptist led our successful Vacation Bible School this week. The gospel driven, Bible saturated Genesis 1 Space Probe blasted off each morning with a growing number of kids enjoying God’s exciting word. The Friday night commencement drew many parents, who had never been to our church property before, in to see what their kids had been doing throughout the week. They heard the gospel clearly presented by Ken Puls and I pray that God will use the activities of the week as he effectually calls many to Himself for His glory.

The Lord continues to expand our scope of ministry as he sends us a steady stream of volunteers to rebuild our storm ravaged community. Nearly 10 months after hurricane Katrina slammed into the gulf coast, most of Lakeshore MS still looks like a carpet bombed war zone. Large machinery has removed thousands of tons of debris, but so much more needs to be done.

The new sound of pounding hammers and buzzing saws finally begin to join the ongoing roar of chain saws, the crunching of demolition equipment, and the beeping of relief supply forklifts.

We praise God for allowing us to be a part of hundreds of ongoing rehab and rebuilding projects. Several folks have moved into their homes after dozens of teams file through with house gutting crews, clean up teams, roofers, electricians, plumbers, sheet rock hangers and finishers, painters, finish carpenters, and helping hands of every sort.

One new construction project, begun this week, saw a widow’s footers being poured and the floor beams put into place. Mrs. Redford, a 76 year old Lakeshore Baptist Church member, with parkinson’s, rode out the storm with her dog. Miraculously she survived the ordeal but lost her home. We plan to build her a new 600 sq ft house.

We heavily rely on the volunteer crews that God sends our way. If you would like to plan a trip to Lakeshore to lend assistance, please call us at Lakeshore Baptist Church (228) 469-0110 to schedule a trip. also visit our web site rebuildlakeshore.com Monetary donations serve to fuel and feed our volunteer efforts and supply building materials for many of our projects.

Lakeshore Baptist Church
6028 Lakeshore Road PO Box 293
Lakeshore MS 39558

Back in March, Mike Hain, Director of Youth Leader Connection, led a team from Iowa to Lakeshore. He reports:

My heart is full as I reflect on the blessings of God as He worked in and through us on our Xtreme Relief trip to Mississippi. It’s hard to put this kind of a trip into words, especially because of the overwhelming devastation that we saw due to the hurricanes of 2005. As many of you know, after returning from a mission trip, you find yourself periodically saying, “You had to have been there”. But maybe through the following brief report of our trip, you will at least get a small glimpse of how God used our team of 14 teens and 5 adults in this relief effort at Lakeshore, MS.

Driving into the area of Lakeshore was a shock, to say the least. We just couldn’t believe the damage that we saw, and the stories that we heard of destruction. It seemed like a war zone, as if a bomb had been dropped. Now the people are re-building their homes and their lives.

We stayed at the Lakeshore Baptist Church, which was sort of the hub for the relief effort for that community. There were temporary housing and portable facilities that volunteer groups like ours used while helping out. One of the greatest blessings to us was to hear the vision of that church: to use their resources to help their community re-build before they re-built their own church. What a Christ-like example of sacrifice and giving! It is apparent that God is using this attitude to give them numerous opportunities to share Christ with the community, including times when neighbors come on their property to receive food and water donations.

We decided as a group that our role in the relief effort would be to help out in any way we could. Basically, we asked those leaders that were coordinating the projects on campus and in their community what needed to be done, and we made a task list from that for our group. We did a variety of things including: painting, hauling, cleaning, cooking, loading, sorting donations, carpeting, and some demolition. At the end of the week, the pastor said that he had been encouraged by our group’s flexibility and willingness to do whatever needed to be done. What an encouragement to know that we had blessed them!

Our group enjoyed time with each other! After a long day’s work, we would hurry to the beach and then re-cap the day with our Bible study in Nehemiah. We also enjoyed a day at New Orleans, which was only an hour away. The 2-day bus ride to MS from Des Moines, IA also provided plenty of opportunities for memorable moments!

What did we learn from this experience?

I am grateful to Pastor Don Elbourne for speaking to our group of volunteers on Wed. night and articulating what he saw was the purpose of our being there. I felt this was exactly what we needed to hear! He challenged us to think past our being there just to do work projects or team up with others in this relief effort. He wanted us to look at the lives of the Christians in that community, and see their example. He spoke from 2 Cor. 1:3-11, and shared with us that just as Paul received comfort from God in his trials and suffering, so the people of Lakeshore were also receiving comfort in their trials. But not only for their sakes…but for ours as well. Don communicated that it was his desire for us to see their dependence on Christ, and apply this truth to our lives as we face suffering and trials or our own. He shared that this tragedy was worth it if their lives could be an example to others. I feel that this reality radically impacted our group, and I pray that it will stay with us forever.