Honest House

After a lot of travel, the team has arrived!

A huge thank you to our partner church, Christ UMC Leigh Acres for hosting us this week.

We’re so excited to see what the Lord is going to do in and through us!

We had the privilege to worship alongside our brothers and sisters this morning at Christ UMC. What a blessing to start our week praising the Lord!

This morning Seth had the opportunity to help lead a special song at church. It’s an incredible thing to use the gifts God has given us!

Today we’re sorting through donations that have come to Christ UMC since hurricane Ian!

While half of the group helped the church sort through donations and organize the church, the other half went out to help a community member with work around their house.

They helped clear trees close to a home, replace soffits that were blown out by the storm, landscape the yard, and repair a retaining wall in a garden, as well as fix a leaking toilet.

God planned these projects exactly for this team and it was a beautiful example of God equipping and mobilizing the body to serve one another!  We are excited for another day of service tomorrow!

Yesterday we were able to spend some time packing food bags in preparation for the Christ UMC food pantry! 

After preparing food bags for the Christ UMC pantry we worked our way into the kitchen for a deep clean. It’s amazing to see how such a small task can be such a big blessing!

Today a portion of our group is helping to set up for the One Starry Night Christmas event at Christ UMC this weekend. This event is an interactive story about the birth of our Savior! It’s also a huge opportunity to encourage and build up the community!

After a long day of hard work, we took a nice stroll down to a local ice cream shop. Such a great time of fellowship to end our day! (And some pretty good ice cream too!)

Today we sorted through what some people refer to as “the disaster after the disaster”. Often after tragedies such as hurricane Ian people send emergency supplies and donate them to local churches and nonprofits which is incredible!

However, after things settle down, the leftover donations are often a mess and hard to get rid of because no one has time to sort through and take inventory.

oday we sorted through hundreds of donations to help relieve our ministry partners of that responsibility! Even something as simple as sorting clothes can be the biggest blessing!

Yesterday we spent some time tearing out drywall at a house that was severely damaged in the hurricane. Tearing down the old to prepare for the new.

Over the last few days, we’ve been working with different homeowners to clean up debris left in the wake of Hurricane Ian. 

After the first few weeks, we typically don’t hear much about disasters and what they entail unless it is directly affecting us.

Yesterday one of the homeowners shared with us some details that we had never even considered. It can take 2-5 years before the damage of a hurricane is truly resolved and things are “normal” again.

She also shared that she and her husband lost power on September 28th and since then they’ve only had enough electricity to run their fridge and a small hot plate. 

These after-effects aren’t something we often think about when we consider disaster relief.

While we were sifting through debris we uncovered this wooden pelican. In several cultures, the pelican is a sign of hope. This is partly why we are called Praying Pelican Missions. What a beautiful reminder that even in the midst of tragedy and destruction we have HOPE because of our Savior!

Last night we enjoyed a beautiful sunset on the beach! A team member sent the photo to his wife and she replied, “A hurricane can take a lot but it can’t take the sunset.” 

In Psalm 113:3 it says, “From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the Lord is to be praised!”

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What a beautiful reminder to praise the Lord through it all!

After an awesome week of service, it’s time to head home! Thank you Jesus for incredible opportunities and divine appointments! Thank you for sweet connections through you!

Lord willing, we’ll see you soon Florida!