Thursday

My update begins with Wednesday night.  After we returned from the service at the Baptist Church our AIM staff had an interactive prayer and Bible study experience waiting for us at our host church.  We had a chance to dwell in God's presence, confess our sins to each other, take communion, write our thoughts in worship, and others.  It was an amazing way to worship God and it was amazing to see our teens and adults ministering to each other and worship God until long after 11:00.   It was a very encouraging time for me to have a few conversations with people who are letting God work in their lives in amazing ways.  Sins were confessed and repented of, hurts were left at the cross, friends cried together, and God was worshipped individually.

Today was another amazing day of meeting felt needs and prayer walking.  After spending more than an hour praying together - one on one first, but then a spontaneous concert of prayer broke out and we didn't want it to stop!  We prayed for our trip, those we're ministering to, for each other, and that God would use us like this when we returned home.  We had six different groups working on various projects around High Island and Crystal Beach today.  it was a tough day of saying good-bye to the places we've been working - because our work wasn't completely done yet.  Our team on at the project house had about a room and a half that still needed to be drywalled, and there was more painting to do, but we were definitely encouraged by the amount of work we WERE able to accomplish.

Another team went to the beach at the site where we had sunrise service Easter morning.  The site was just covered with debris.  They collected a number of bags of trash and prayed for the people who use the beach. 

Another group worked on Mildred's house, completing the work they started yesterday.  They ended up painting a bunch of the house, the carport, and a bridge out to the road, as well as the ceiling in the bedroom. 

Another group continued the work on the pastor's roof.

Another group did a prayer walk around the neighborhood.

God has been speaking to us every day of this trip and God has put the idea of a baptism service on Melissa's heart ever since Josh was spontaneously baptized on Tuesday.  Paul has never been baptized and was very reluctant in the past, but thought it would be great if he could be baptized on this trip.  I was hesitant about baptizing on a trip far away from home - away from families and friends and our church body.  We went to the Lord about it and felt a confirmation to go ahead with the service.  Paul Pennington, Kathryn Clark, Tory Bueno, Hannah Dunker, and Deb Roberts were baptized today - telling their salvation story and giving God thanks for the way He's been work in their lives since then.  Dominick and Rachel expressed in interest in ceremonially marking an amazing God experience last night so they dirtied their hands and arms - symbolic of sin - and rinsed them off in the ocean - symbolic of the cleansing of the Holy Spirit they've experienced on this trip.

We will be sure to have those baptized on this trip tell their stories during the next baptism service at church so you can join in their blessing.

After the service Melissa and I were walking back from the beach when a lady pulled up in a truck.  She was a construction worker working on the clean-up.  We told her why we were here and we learned that she was a Christian and we took the chance to encourage her and let her know that we'll be praying for her when we return to New York.  She, like many other Christians we spoke with, appreciated the encouragement and promise of prayer.

Tonight our debriefing and evening service was filled with prayer for one another, worship, and testimony of how God worked through this week. I wish each of you were able to experience the brokenness, spirit of forgiveness, ministering to each other, and encouragement we experienced tonight.  This group loves each other and wants to meet one another's needs in a powerful way.  They've quoted Scripture, prayed for each other, and had such a spirit of healing tonight.  The body of Christ in action.  People from 12 to 72, different spiritual journeys, different home experiences, all coming together to love and care for each other.

Our amazing week in Texas has come to an end.  Our Friday begins at 2:00 AM as we wake to pack and load the vans and make our way to the airport to head home.  I'm sure we'll all be sleeping on the plane!!!  We're excited to see you tomorrow at the airport and Sunday morning at church.  The info that has been posted on the site has only been a hint of the amazing things that God has done this week.  There are many things that have been done in the hearts of those who are on this trip that can't be posted in this format.  There are experiences, sights, moments in God's Word that may have only made slight adjustments, but they're going to put us down a path that's closer to God.

Thanks for your prayers and encouragement!!!

We tracked down these pictures of the damage just a day after Hurricane Ike passed through.  This is the road we drove in on - it's under water after the bridge.	The ocean here is about 1/2 a mile farther inland than it normally is.  The green area is High Island, where we've been staying.
This house was on the beach - now it's in the water.	Look at the debris in this picture.
Our team led worship at the Baptist Church Wednesday Evening Service.	These guys jammed to some country bluegrass gospel music after the service was over.  Este and Paul made a new best friend.  This guy was talented!
Kim working on getting dinner ready.	Cindy working on cleaning up the beach where we had the Easter Morning Sunrise Service.
Josh was working on the beach too.	They got a lot cleaned up!
A group picture of those working on Mildred's house - along with Mildred and her husband.  They later attended our baptism service on the beach.	They were so blessed to have us help them with their house.
The finished product of our "project house."  It still needs a bit of work yet, but we definitely got a lot of work done on it this week!	The guys didn't want to leave the house until it was completely finished - but that would be at least a week of more work.  They really took ownership over the work they were doing.  It was great to see.
Deb Roberts being baptized in the ocean.  The waves and undertow made it a difficult to maintain footing, but it was an amazing experience!	Marianne helps her walk the rest of the way.  Deb has wanted to be baptized for a while, but her fear of the water was keeping her from doing it.  God gave her the strength to overcome that fear today!
Here's our baptism/rededication crew (minus Rachel).	This is Shea (our worship leader), Elizabeth (our project director), and Christy (AIM staff).  They were a blessing to us on this trip!