Locusts and Wild Honey

I preached Psalm 46 today. Although the building we used to call our “church sanctuary” lies in ruins, we know that God, our sanctuary, our strong shelter, our mighty fortress, never crumbles.

A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing;
Our helper He, amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing:
For still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe;
His craft and power are great, and, armed with cruel hate,
On earth is not his equal.

Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing;
Were not the right Man on our side, the Man of God’s own choosing:
Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He;
Lord Sabaoth, His Name, from age to age the same,
And He must win the battle.

And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us:
The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble not for him;
His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure,
One little word shall fell him.

That word above all earthly powers, no thanks to them, abideth;
The Spirit and the gifts are ours through Him Who with us sideth:
Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also;
The body they may kill: God’s truth abideth still,
His kingdom is forever.

- Mar­tin Lut­her, 1529

My friends from Grace Bible Church have launched a new web site, rebuildlakeshore.com. Check it out.

Speaking of new web sites, Stand to Reason just revamped their online presence. I have not had the online time necessary to explore it, but I trust them enough to point everyone to their ministry. “Stand to Reason trains Christians to think more clearly about their faith and to make an even-handed, incisive, yet gracious defense for classical Christianity and classical Christian values in the public square.

When I dove into the blogosphere back in January I said,

I doubt I’ll make much of a splash, but want to use this site to record some of my thoughts, highlight my interests, chronicle my studies, and interact with the world outside of my little pool. I look forward to the new adventure.

Little did I know that the plunge would serve to send waves of support in the wake of the worst natural disaster in American history. God’s hand of providence works all things to his glory - even the blogging urge of a simi-recluse Ph.D student. I’ve talked to more people from around the country in the last 6 weeks than I have in the last six years.

Since the storm I’ve only been able to mention a very small fraction of what God has been doing. I travel two hours from Lakeshore for internet access. Simply listing all the people who have come to help would prove impossible. It appears that most of our help has come through folks reading my blog and then offering to come get dirty in the local recovery effort. In the last couple of weeks we have had at least two wonderful groups who maintain blogs of their own.

An 8 man team from Chapel on the Hill of New Jersey gutted homes, cleared land, and other things. Check out Bill Breckenridge’s blog Chapelccino. While here, he made five audio blog entries:

• Thursday, October 20, 2005 - 3:51 PM
• Friday, October 21, 2005 - 8:28 AM
• Saturday, October 22, 2005 - 7:31 AM
• Saturday, October 22, 2005 - 5:39 PM
• Sunday, October 23, 2005 - 4:47 PM

Bill posted a few pictures when they got back to New Jersey and promises more, so keep checking his blog.

Bill’s wife, Donna-Jean, also maintains a well written blog, Liberty and Lily. She chronicled her husbands trip:

• Heading Out
• Overwhelmed - and Giving Hope - in Mississippi
• A message, a picture, a reminder
• Another Passion for Lakeshore
• They’re Back

Donna-Jean found us through my friend Cindy Swanson’s blog. Thanks Cindy!

I’ve already mentioned my friend Nathan White and his blog. Nathan’s mom, Ann. also blogs. Apparently my wife and Nathan’s mom hit it off great. My wife Courtney has not stopped talking about her since they left last week and already looks forward to when she can make another visit. Ann made a few posts about their trip:

• Mississippi Mission Trip Next Weekend
• “Our God is an Awesome God. . .”
• Rest —whatz that??

I also just found Stephen Ake’s blog. He tells about his Trip to Lakeshore and does a great job giving you a picture of a typical day on the church property.

I hope to have more pictures soon. It looks like I’m going to have to buy my Dad a new digital camera. I’ve been borrowing his and I cracked the view window. I’d also like to get a nice one for myself so that I can keep sharing images as progress moves forward. If you would like to contribute toward the purchase of a camera

or snail mail:

Pastor Don A Elbourne Jr
1451 Great Oak Drive
Baton Rouge,LA 70810

For more great pictures, see Stephen Ake’s Hurricane Katrina photo gallery.

Our greatest need right now is to keep the water and ice flowing. With people still sleeping in tents awaiting their FEMA campers the Lakeshore community depends upon the ice and drinking water being distributed through EOC. As of yesterday the volunteers manning the distribution pod returned home. Either Lakeshore Baptist Church must find a volunteer staff of 4-5 people to man the pod daily for the next four weeks or the ice distribution will discontinue. We need your help.

This morning our team from New Jersey stepped in, but they must head home this afternoon. (I’ll try to post about these great guys later) We are trying to coordinate locals for the effort, but that proves more difficult than you can imagine. Our local people struggle to survive daily themselves, as they clean the ruined remains of their homes from their property, live in very difficult conditions, care for their children and try to bring their lives at least one step closer to normalcy.

We also need volunteers to sort the mountains of clothing we want to distribute to the community, volunteers to work our food and supply relief center, volunteers to work heavy equipment, volunteers to clear debris from property, and volunteers to do pretty much anything you can think of. If you would like to come down and lend a hand please contact our project coordinator, Greg London at (770) 402-3419.

Come, ye sinners, poor and needy,
Weak and wounded, sick and sore;
Jesus ready stands to save you,
Full of pity, love and power.

Come, ye thirsty, come, and welcome,
God’s free bounty glorify;
True belief and true repentance,
Every grace that brings you nigh.

Come, ye weary, heavy laden,
Lost and ruined by the fall;
If you tarry till you’re better,
You will never come at all.

View Him prostrate in the garden;
On the ground your Maker lies.
On the bloody tree behold Him;
Sinner, will this not suffice?

Let not conscience make you linger,
Not of fitness fondly dream;
All the fitness He requireth
Is to feel your need of Him.

Lo! the incarnate God ascended,
Plead the merit of His blood:
Venture on Him, venture wholly,
Let no other trust intrude.

I will arise and go to Jesus,
He will embrace me in His arms;
In the arms of my dear Savior,
O there are ten thousand charms.

- Jo­seph Hart 1759

This past Sunday, October 16, we began worshiping in our newly erected quonset hut. I gave a brief summery of our building plans in a previous post, A Place of Worship. My friend, Nathan White, posted his impressions of the Lord’s Day in Lakeshore. I was humbled by his account and I praise God that threw our weakness, the Lord proves himself strong. Nathan wrote:

The Lord’s faithfulness fails not, as many have seen the ‘new song’ of this pastor, many have seen the ‘established steps’ of this congregation, and many will ’see it and fear, and will trust in the Lord’ because of it. Myself being among them.

Read Nathan’s full post: The Lord’s Day in Lakeshore.