So I feel like I just need to write about today. No deep thinking spiritual stuff, It was just a marking day, one that I will look back on and appreciate for a very long time.
So I woke up in New Orleans and get the day started filling up water coolers, my stomach with some lucky charms, and looking up prayer requests for my world race team. Today I decided to fast from Facebook, Twitter, and just plain nothing time. I decided that any time I felt like I needed a break from work, I would sit and pray for my team as a whole and for them individually. Well that’s the beginning of the day.
We started off the day driving to the duplex. Daniel was parking (backing up in reverse) and hit a pole. It was very timely and hilarious because we were talking about how nervous we were with him driving on the way over. No serious damage done, just some plastic stuff in his wheel well.
We framed and patched the roof where we took out a chimney yesterday, then started working on holes in the floor. We stopped and ate lunch. I used some of this time to isolate and pray for the team. I prayed that we would have the discipline to see things through before our trip and that we would have the trust in God when it comes to providing. We have 60 people on the trip right now and I estimated it’s gonna cost close to a million dollars for all of us. Even though that’s a HUGE number, when I thought that, I felt at ease, because I know God can handle that. I had a sense of peace.
After lunch, a guy pulls up on the street and asks someone for me. He had my driver’s license. It was an undercover cop. What?? My license was in the car that we drove over in, in my backpack… uh oh. The car is open.
Someone had stolen my backpack, a long with one of my friends’ backpack. He had ran around the corner, dumped some stuff out (my license included) and ran off. We didn’t even notice. He also got my friends backpack, emptied it out on another block, and took his iphone and wallet.
So here we are. Tasha comes outside, hears the story, and is very mad. Tasha is family to us and we’re family to her. And little did the kid know that stole our stuff, Tasha is well respected in the neighborhood and gets what she wants. So she and Calvin start walking around asking everybody if they had seen the kid that met the description we got earlier. I felt very loved. She was very determined. Then the other neighbors got irritated. They would tell us, “I got your back”, or “I’ll look out for ya” and be just dead serious about it. Even though it was a “rough” neighborhood sometimes, they didn’t want the reputation of robberies.
I wasn’t very mad. I mean the most the kid got was my backpack, ipod, and my BIBLE. I really hope he reads it. But to end to just wrap up this story, we thought we had it nailed down to one kid, but that kid came up to Apple St later and said it wasn’t him (everybody had been on his case since he had gotten home to his house a few blocks away), and Tasha believed him. We didn’t get the real guy. Filed a police report (which is a whole other story in itself… got to meet CSI: New Orleans).
NEXT, we went back to the church and showered.
Afterwards, I called my Dad because he’d called me earlier, left a voicemail (saying he had good news) and I needed to tell him about the earlier events. I had the feeling that the good news was probably another pledge of a few hundred dollars and was excited about that. He told me he wasn’t going to say what it was, and wanted me to wait until it appeared in my support account. I told him, I’ve had a bad day, cmon, I need some good news. Ok, so he talked with a donor (that will remain unanimous for this post) and watched him write me a check today for ten thousand dollars for my trip. Yes. I spelled it out because it really is that big. ($10,000). All I could say was Oh My God! For real? I kinda stopped breathing, got teary eyed i think, and just stood in awe. I’m still in that state as I write this 7 hours later. God is so good. He is so kind and awesome.
If I had any doubts that this trip wasn’t for me, or that God didn’t want me to go, they left at that moment. I mean, there’s no turning back now. This donation brought me up to 80% of my total support for the trip (everything included)!!! I’m still sitting in amazement of how God works and just how favored I am in all this. I don’t deserve it whatsoever.
NEXT, we left to go back to Apple St.
We hosted a huge block party tonight. It was phenomenal. There were kids everywhere, people from all over the neighborhood, and food. Authentic New Orleans food. We had 80 lbs of craw-fish (i think i had about 7 lbs personally), potatoes, corn, french bread, Boudin, and watermelon. I really think the kingdom of heaven is at hand when I ate tonight. I love craw fish.
I got to sit and talk with Mama Francis for over 2 hours. We talked about her former drug problem, her kids, her grandkids, her man (not married), how they met, their love for each other, and so much else. We laughed so much. I’ve never had that much fun with just random people. We played with the balloons and the kids, took pictures, face painted, and just all kinds of other stuff. People kept coming and eating with us and ministry was happening. The group I’m with is awesome and I watched them truly love others just as Christ did.
SO ALL IN ALL. Very emotional day, a few ups and downs, but a very very good day. Got great news, got to spend time with God, got to see ministry happen, got to work outside in the heat, got to give my Bible away (kinda), and just live the life i’m wanting to live. I give God all the glory for providing for me today, and for how he’s providing already for me in this next year. He’s so kind and i’m humbled to be able to serve him in the capacity that I already am.
