The team arrived from Illinois this morning having driven all night. Being the kind leader that I am, I promptly put them to work! We divided the team into 3 separate teams for Friday. My wife took the two ladies to the storage unit to organize and prepare for the next shipment of groceries due to come in on Tuesday. The ladies also had a Bible study with an evacuee from New Orleans at the Days Inn where she is living. The Day’s Inn agreed to allow us to advertise that counseling would be available from 2:00 to 4:00 on Friday and Saturday.

While the ladies were busy organizing the storage unit and helping with counseling and Bible studies, the men with the exception of Jason and I, went down to Abbeville, LA to help rebuild Faith Baptist Church and the pastor’s trailer. Hurricane Rita hit this area hard. The church is about 30 – 40 from the levy, which broke putting the community under six feet of water. The church had to be completely gutted and rebuilt. On Friday, the men did a wonderful job laying the sub floor and putting up insulation.

Also today, Jason and I helped relocate Ruby Pearce from New Orleans to West Lake, La. When the team from North Carolina was here we focused on canvassing area hotels and in the process the Lord led us to Ruby. The North Carolina team had left some money to help pay for the rental truck, Miss Ruby (as she is called) helped pay for gas and Baptist Mid Missions World Relief Fund took care of all the rest expenses for the day. It was a long day of driving for my brother . . . he had driven all night to get to Lafayette only to get into the truck with me and drive to New Orleans and then to West Lake (West Lake is about 25 miles from the Texas border). We figured that in the 36 hours, my brother had traveled approximately 1700 miles!

Miss Ruby and her family were extremely thankful for our help and even invited us to spend Christmas dinner with her in her new home! At the end of the day, we all gathered together in the living room of her new home and thanked God for His goodness to each of us. Both my brother and I felt humbled and privileged to help someone in their time of need.