The Same God....

Sunday night we watched a short video about the history and purpose of Lagniappe Presbyterian Church. I was impressed by two things. The first was that, in all the times that I had looked on their website and read their leaders' guides, I missed the fact that Bay St. Louis/Waveland was ground zero for Hurricane Katrina. Hearing that sent chills down my spine. Knowing that we were sitting in a place that was the epi-center for one of the worst disasters in our country's history made me realize that we are not playing down here. Our work here is serious business.

We've heard lots of stories of how barges were found sitting on highway 90 over a mile from the bay. We've seen the evidence of the waterline that was 40 feet above the ground at this woman Donna's house house where Tom and Fran have been working faithfully everyday. We've heard story after story of devasting losses and unthinkable tragedies that were caused when nature's fury arrived in the form of wind and rain.

The second thing I heard was what Lagniappe's mission is. It is late at night and it has been a stressful day (I'll get to that later...), so I will probably not do this justice, but here goes... Lagniappe exists to let people know that the God that could allow such a terrible tragedy to happen is also the same God that will bring about restoration. Pretty cool, huh?

Carey led us in a devotional on Tuesday and reflected with us about how God meets us in our times of crisis. About how He often uses that hardest times in our lives and our greatest times of need to reveal himself and to draw us into his presence. The very same God who allows us to struggle meets us right there in the midst of it. Given the context of where we are and what we are doing, it seemed at the time to be a very relevant thought to share with the group.

This morning we discovered just how relevant it was. Harold left here in an ambulance and was taken to Memorial Hospital in Gulfport. He spent the day there with Debbie, Amy and his son David. After hours of tests, phone calls and lots of praying (thank you all!!!!), he is resting more comfortably in a room there and we are glad to tell you that there is nothing seriously wrong. We are relieved tonight but, all day long, it was a different story as we waited for them to rule out all kinds of bad things.

I fielded lots of phone calls and was asked a few times how I was holding up (as if that sort of mattered, but thanks to those who asked). I could honestly say that I had that peace that surpasses all understanding. I kept thinking about Carey's words and about the mission of Lagniappe. I kept telling myself, " Kevin, it's the same God. " The same God who is allowing my dear brother Harold to suffer and his amazing and wonderful son to struggle is right there in the midst of this. He is there in the throws of this crisis revealing himself to them, being their source of strength, answering our prayer of intercession that Harold keep medicine down, comforting David and Harold with two angels of mercy and forcing us to give the whole situation over to him, to acknowledge our need for him and to rejoice that he is with us in all things. The same God... doing what He always does... And though I wouldn't wish Harold's troubles today on a monkey on a rock, I think we all recognized that God was right there and the day had it's own kind of sweetness.

The same is true of many of the stories I've heard here. They are terrible and tragic, for sure. But they are triumphant too, because many people can testify that God is alive and well and living right here in Bay St. Louis. They know that because, at their greatest time of need, when there seemed to be no reason to hold out hope, God arrived in the form of Lagniappe Church and the thousands of people that God has sent here to be his hands and feet. Katrina brought horror to many for sure, but there sure is a great deal of evidence that "same" God is using this for His glory.

Thank you all for sendong us out. It is an humbling privilege to be here.