Thursday, July 19, 2012

Serving the Shore

Last spring, we traded a boat on Craigslist. A canoe-kayak hybrid that DH wasn't crazy about for the kayak he could fish from. That's how we met Pastor Joe.

Pastor Joe lives on Virginia's Eastern Shore, an area Virginia usually forgets about. So much so that Maryland evacuates them, not Virginia. We actually cut off the only access residents have to the rest of the state.

What I noticed during our drive up the peninsula: the Eastern Shore is full of tomatoes and potatoes. And derelict farm houses. It feels forgotten.

Pastor Joe mentioned that he wanted to host mission teams that would minister to the farm workers and their families - a mostly ignored people group in a mostly ignored area.

God designs all sorts of interesting coincidences. Pastor Joe needed to swap a boat with the right youth pastor. And the way was cleared for DH and the team to 'serve on the Shore' this week.

Beyond the God-directed happenstance, the team was impacting the Shore before they crossed the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel.

DH set up a dinner out for the group. When the un-churched manager learned about the group and what they were doing, he said that even though he wasn't religious at all, he felt God stirring him to buy dinner for the group, out of his own salary. God uses his church before we even start working. He's just that big.

Please pray for the group tomorrow, their last work day. What they thought was a simple deck repair is actually damage extending into the foundation. They need grace to know how much to fix and grace to finish on time. Everything with excellence.
Group stops for dinner

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