Hurricane Harvey Relief Missions Trip Day 4

The devo this morning was about work. It was based on verses in Matthew and Colossians. It was a very well done and much-needed one, as everyone was super tired. After breakfast, we did our chores and packed lunches. When we got to the work site, we started hanging more drywall. Jaclyn and I were raking up the leaves in the driveway.

A little bit after we got there, the guy who owned the house showed up and told us that there had been a miscommunication, and the studs (the wood post you drill into) hadn’t been sprayed to kill the mold.

We had to undo everything we did yesterday, so we could spray the posts. It’s okay though. I believe we were able to get twice as much done as we did yesterday, even though we had to take stuff down.

We got almost the entire yard done. We had to clean out the pool, which was filled with leaves and bugs. The pool was also where Snakey Boi resided (we couldn’t find him and figured he ended up getting scooped up, so we held a fake funeral using a worm😁). After we got all the leaves out of the pool, I took the hose and sprayed the bottom of the pool. It was fun, but got monotonous.

We were able to pray and talk with the guy who owned the house. He has been through five (or so) hurricanes/floods/large storms because he used to live in Louisiana. Anyway, lunch was great. I did the devotion. It was on Philippians 1:12-13 (“I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ.”).

These are the points I said:

1. we are always praying for our safety, but what if that’s going against God’s will? I’m not saying its bad , but maybe  we should say, “God, please keep us safe, but only if it doesn’t interfere with having the gospel spread or Your will be done” instead.

2. Also, when we’re praying for our safety, we’re not really focusing on God’s will. We’re focusing on what we want, which is our safety. Maybe we should just ask for His will to be done knowing He has our safety in His heart.

3. God uses everything for good, even being stuck in a Roman prison (which were quite awful). In our quest and wish for security, we might be missing opportunities.

4. He uses this for good in more than one way. God uses it to have Paul write Philippians and spread the gospel throughout the imperial guard (the guys who guarded Ceaser). If Paul asked for his safety and it was granted, would God have had Paul do any of this?

We visited Walmart right after the workday to buy some more food. I also got some tiny ponytails, so I could have Abi braid my hair.

Then we came back to the campsite, cleaned up, ate dinner (which was spaghetti), and then we didn’t have anything tonight, so our group played games. Carson, Cassidy, Ethan, Hope, Jaclyn, Me, Sydney and two people from the other group played ultimate frisbee. After a rousing game of that, we went into the mess hall and played Apples to Apples.

By the way, the organization that we’re doing this with is Reach Global. Click here to find out more about them.