The Fruit

This past week in Houma, LA, through the transformational power of the Holy Spirit, we were blessed to witness 24 people profess faith in Christ! We now have the blessing of following up!

Our team working in Houma wrote this of an experience last week....
"We went to Bill Witty house and was there to check his trees that were down. After I met Bill I looked at his trees with him and told him we should be able to do it next week or the week after. He told me “wait a minute fella how much is going to cost me” . I told him how’s about zero dollar and zero cents. He stood back and was in shock , asked where we from and who we were. After I told him who we were and what our jobs were he in Houma, New Orleans and Texas. He told me that he has been praying for God to send him some help for these tree, he had been praying almost every night asking God to please help. Well last night he said that when he prayed he told God that this was it he was at the end of his rope and that he was throwing in his chip with God. And then I showed up today and offer free help and where from a faith base group. The tears just flowed. He was thanking me and thanking Go."

The rest of the story is that the team went to serve him and connected so well. They showed the practical, tangible side of God's love, and also shared the Truth of the Gospel. Earlier this week, we got word from one of the team members from NV, that Bill had called him and told the team member " I prayed to become a Christian". God is so gracious, and we rejoice with Bill in his new life.
In TX, we had a big weekend of ministry of ministry today. Thanks for praying for workers for the harvest....keep it up. We had groups serving with us today from First Free Austin, Grace Houston, Trinity Fellowship Friendswood and Grace Bible Killeen, about 60 people total on Saturday! Teams from Coasthills Community, CA and Community EFC, PA arrived today.

I met John, pictured, who works for the sherrif. We were blessed to serve his family this weekend. He had 4+ feet of water in his home. He has been working 12 hour days since the storm, and has not been able to do much on his home. He started to tell me how he has seen God's hand of blessing on his family through this, but stopped as he was trying not to cry. ....and now I had to stoptyping for a minute as I am trying not to cry...the background of the picture is the entire contents of their home trashed on the street... John told me that they had wanted to do some remodeling two month ago and applied for a loan. They were denied, but through the process they were 'forced' to apply for flood insurance, which they got and paid for. They felt rejected and taken, as they were now not able to do the improvement, but also had paid in a lot of money for some seemingly impractical insurance for a neighborhood that never flooded. He knows it was God.

His family had wanted to stay for the storm, but he prevailed on them to leave. He again teared as he told me all he could think about was his wife and kids alone in the house the night of the storm in the dark in 4+ feet of muddy water. He knows it was God that a hotel room just happened to have a cancelation on Friday afernoon at 2pm, as the storm was already blowing in.

He spent an hour walking me room by room through the house, still finding ruined photos of his family in the mess in the rooms, keep sakes caked with mud, pictures of his now flooded police motorcycle, and the room that his wife and daughter had just so creatively painted over the last 2 months. All Gone...

We signed up dozens of more families today that need help working on their homes, and found dozens more without insurance that are going to need help rebuilding. We need workers! Pray. ml