[LSF-Announce] spring break update from Pastor Marty

[Nicole Kooistra]

hey all,
We are deep in the Bayous of Louisiana serving God and our fellow man. After
a wacky trip down that involved an awesome lunch at Brad and Sabrina
Urlaub's house, as well as a tour of Concordia seminary in St. Louis, AND
being asked to sing an impromptu song (the group, not me!) in the worship
service on Sunday at Hernando United Methodist church, we finally arrived in
Chauvin Louisiana and began work. Our group is divided between three job
sites and are working on people's houses. We are scraping paint, painting,
tearing off siding, replacing siding, building stairs and replacing doors.
It is keeping us all very busy. We have also been meeting the people and
developing some wonderful friendships. We are working closely with a group
of "grown ups" from Minnesota as well as a group of students from Purdue
university.
We have also been eating well. Last night we had gumbo and red beans and
rice. It was AWESOME! After dinner (cooked by locals) we heard about the
costal erosion issue facing this region. While we may only play a small part
in helping people in this community continue on, we do feel that we are
serving as God's hand and feet in the work that we are doing. The big
picture, which involves some national influence, is beyond our grasp at this
time, but simply put, it is obvious that our brothers and sisters here in
Southern Louisiana do need our prayers, our physical assistance, but they
need a bit more. They need us also to be their advocates. In our Bible study
in James last night we were reminded that we are not to show favoritism to
those who are wealthy. As a matter of fact we were reminded that those who
are poor are those in "high standing" and most in need of our friendship,
support and care. In a global sense these communities represent exactly what
James is talking about. By powers largely out of their control (yet man
made!) these communities are facing extinction in the next decade or so.
Imagine the thought of your home town being "wiped from the map" by forces
beyond your control, yet being completely preventable. The prevention does
involve some cost and support from others (other States as well as the
Federal government) yet those with the power and wealth prefer to channel
that wealth in to other pursuits because it is easy to write off the poor
amongst us. Perhaps we have a greater role to play here than we first
thought! A role that that may have some far reaching consequences for how we
interact with our own community, state and federal leaders in asking them to
offer care to those in need. While our calling as Christians may be to be
His hands and feet, it is also to be His mouth, especially when it comes to
advocating for those whom God says "will inherit the kingdom!"
While these folks may be lacking in some physical resources (what we might
call "poor") we are no doubt serving amongst a rich spiritual people who
love the Lord and even with their faults, can still be God's presence to us,
just as we are the presence of the Lord to them. We are learning a lot from
our friends here and will come back changed people.
We miss you all, but are thrilled with our trip so far. Thank you for your
continued prayers, and I ask you to consider the bigger picture of what we
might be able to do to influence change and support for this group of God's
people who are in great need.
In Christ,
marty
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