Mud Out Team in Louisiana
Here are comments from the chaplain of the mud out team that returned from Louisiana:
MONDAY, our first workday, we assisted a lady who had been widowed for nineteen years. She was a basket case. The size of her house and property overwhelmed her and she wanted as little torn out as possible, with the intensions of putting the house back together and selling it. Our blue hat did an excellent job dealing with her and assuring her we would tear out no more than necessary but to combat the mold, things had to be removed. The entire team ministered to her as we worked and assured her we would do all we could for her. The lady claimed to be a Christian and said she was Catholic. As I presented the plan of salvation with her and her daughter using the EvageCube, she repeatedly told me what she did and did not do. I feel her daughter was a believer as well as her son-in-law. He commented it was good to see godly men there to help her. He was a contractor and complimented us on our workmanship and how what we did would make it easier for him to put the house back together.
THURSDAY, the blue hat and I assessed a house of a lady who was a young widow with three teenaged daughters. She was originally from Boston and had met her husband while he was in the service. He had passed away at the age of 53 from a pulmonary embolism and she had built this house only a year ago. She laughingly told us that water flowed from the retention ptond behind her house into the back door and out the front door with fish swimming through her house. She was a strong Christian and seemed to be taking things in good stride. She had worked to clean her house by herself and had already cut the drywall and taken out the carpet. She also planned to rehang the drywall herself. Much like many of the people we ministered to and helped, these people jumped in and did as much as they possibly could themselves.
During our trip, we had several opportunities to minister to lost people but with no professions of faith. However, we were certainly afforded numerous opportunities to minister to believers and give them words of encouragement and pray with them. We seemed to be in an area where most of the people we dealt with had trusted the Lord Jesus as Saviour and God allowed us to encourage them, pray with them, and listen to their stories of the flood and how they were rescued as well as the trials they were going through. I will say this was one of the most rewarding DR trips I have been on.