Samaritan’s Purse, Elections, and Baptisms and so much more!
Phew it’s been a lot!
First off some of you might have realized that my website changed again back to the World Race page. That’s because while in my last week in Louisiana I got FULLY FUNDED FOR CGA!!! Thank you all so much for partnering with me! It is such a relief to finally be focusing on fundraising for Squad Leading! They are still updating everything on the blogsite so it will be figured out soon with my new team!
MINISTRY UPDATE
Our partnership with Samaritan’s Purse was such a blessing! My team worked in DeRidder, Louisiana for both of our weeks there. Many of the staff and volunteers there became like family! We had rubber band battles, great community, amazing worship nights, and a lot of hard goodbyes.
I remember being on my World Race and being surprised by how often I was blessed by those we were there to help. Once again I was surprised while we were in DeRidder. Most of our jobs involved tree removal and tarping roofs but that was nothing compared to the relationships with the home owners. Many of the Squads who served with SP had the blessing of seeing people come to Christ!
Don’t get me wrong. I love the physical work we did. I love cutting up trees and fixing the physical home for these people. But the real blessing was seeing these people find emotional and spiritual healing that is going to last so much longer than anything we do to their house.
One of the Ladies we helped was Mrs. Charolette! What a woman! We spent two days at her house doing some massive tree removals. We got to know her really well and the second day of work she made us all breakfast (because who can say no to a home cooked meal)! We took turns listening to her stories and her work within her community. To hear her story made the work for her feel that much more special. We helped replant a lot of uprooted trees that go to supply fresh fruit to her community since the outbreak of Covid 19. I could go on but that is just one of the many we got to come into contact with!
Saying goodbye after two weeks was hard and I think one of the hardest goodbyes was to our Team Leader Ms. Christy! But I love hard goodbyes because it means that time was intentional and not wasted.
BAPTISMS!!!
November 5, 2020 is still one of the top days of being as a Squad Leader! And probably all of 2020 if I am being honest. It was a cold Thursday and we had a few people ask if they could be baptized. So we did a teaching that morning on the background and the importance and significance of Baptism. Turns out a lot of people had been thinking about it just did not know how to go about asking for it.
Well the Lord did His thing and provided!
That afternoon we went to Lake Lanier and stood in the freezing cold water and we did THE THING! We had so many get baptized for the first time and so many rededicate themselves to the Lord!
As a leader I love seeing my people give themselves fully to Christ!
But the biggest blessing was some of my Racers asking me to Baptize them.
Never would I have thought myself worthy to be able to participate in someone’s holy moment with Jesus in such a way. But He quickly reminded that He makes me worthy and it’s him who put me here for such a time as this…
So
I GOT TO BAPTIZE MY PEOPLE!!!
It was such an amazing day! We were cold and it took a while to feel the toes again but it was worth every minute!
I do not think there is much more I can say to top this so this is where I will end part one of my update! Thank you to everyone who has partnered with me and making things like this happen. I would not be here if you all were not here walking alongside with me!
Love you all so much!
Carter
***TO DONATE: https://www.adventures.org/give/donate.asp?giveto=staff&desc=Carter%20Groves&appeal_id=GROVESCARTER
