Christ Church

After a long couple of days of driving and camping along the way, we made it to Orange, Texas! We had pizza for dinner and then had orientation and worship to kick off a week of serving the community. We’re excited to hit the ground running in the morning!

We had our breakfast and are off bright and early for a great day of work! We’re splitting up into 7 groups to go to 7 different homes today. Looking forward to a great day!

Everyone is off to a great start. Team 3 has some great team work happening as they work together to lay floors and stain kitchen cabinets. They are also enjoying their time getting to know the homeowners son!

Often times in the Bible Jesus met a physical need before he met a spiritual one. That’s what we’re doing this week in Orange (pictured here Team 2 installing kitchen cabinets).

Even though it’s been almost two years since Hurricane Harvey hit, lots of people still have damage. As we progress through the week, we are hoping to have Gospel conversations with the homeowners of the houses we are working in. Please join us in prayer for opportunities to share the love of Christ. 

Tonight we had an awesome time sharing life stories and worship. It’s so amazing to hear how God has worked in each of our lives. 

We were also introduced to some Texas slang/southern sayings to help us get better acquainted with the area.  

Today Team 5, also known as Fab 5, were truly blessed at lunch. The homeowner asked if he could lead a devotion for us. He also shared part of his story and reminded us that we are adopted and loved by our Heavenly Father! 

Tonight as all of the teams shared stories of today, the theme was how appreciative the homeowners have been and how blessed we have been. 

Almost all of our teams have gotten to lay flooring in homes this week. Everyone is getting into the groove of the work they are doing and so much is being accomplished. The homeowners are so excited to finally see their homes almost complete. 

Here you see some of Team 1 measuring the flooring as they prepare to lay it. They have laid flooring in most of the rooms in their home this week. 

After a great day of work we got to go visit Shangri La Botanical Gardens that is right down the road from where we are staying. It was beautiful! It was so nice to take time to enjoy God’s beautiful creation!

Today is our last work day of the week! So much progress has been made in all of the houses we have worked on. God has blessed our team with perseverance, wisdom, and stamina to work through the Texas heat! The temperature nearly reached triple digits, yet we still pushed through and worked so productively! With a little help from some ice and water of course.

All of our teams were able to meet their homeowners and love on them and pray with them throughout the week. Today, each homeowner was given a blanket made me Ellie. What a great last day of ministry! 

Today was Rec Day. We went to Gator Country and saw some of the biggest alligators in the country! We had a blast!

We ended the day by going to Crystal Beach. We had worship and 18 people from our group were baptized in the ocean! Praise the Lord!!! 

It has been an incredible week of ministry! So many lives have been touched!!! 

We got an early start for our 2 day journey home! It was a great week and we can’t wait to be home to continue missions there!