Brad Winsted

Barry Plath

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. Acknowledge Him in all your ways, and He will direct your paths." (Proverbs 3:5-6)

This passage took on new meaning for me as a result of the two mission relief trips we took to the New Orleans area. Each weekend we had a tentative plan for how we were going to serve in Jesus name, but we asked God to direct us to the people and places where our resources would accomplish His purposes. God was faithful to do that.

The first weekend we ended up in Kenner on a mission to deliver supplies in Jesus name. We spent our time in a low-income neighborhood that was suffering from the wind/water damage and loss of power. We found many people in need of hope, and we received many encouraging words from people who appreciated our concern for more than their physical needs. We did not distribute as much food/water as the government organizations, but we did distribute water that will last forever (John 4:13-14). Hopefully some of the seeds we sowed will bear fruit as those people rebuild their lives.

The second weekend in Slidell was much different. Slidell had suffered much more destruction including a surge of water that brought several feet of water/mud to homes, churches, and businesses. In God’s providence our base of operations was a church whose membership included the only family I knew in Louisiana! It was a blessing to be able to bring some relief to the members of this church who were working hard to restore their church so that it could be used to minister to their community. I worked on Team 1 as we helped remove destroyed furniture and carpeting from the church. The pastor asked us to help a neighboring family remove some heavy items from the home, and Alan, Cleveland, and Wesley were able to do more in a couple of hours than the family could have done in days. The nasty smells, foul water, and growing mildew painted a bleak picture for the people trying to sort through what remained of their homes and possessions. We took a brief tour of some of the surrounding neighborhoods and saw incredible devastation - entire streets lined with stacks of furniture/clothes/possessions being thrown out, mud layers, fallen trees almost entirely covering houses, yachts and boats sitting on hills and fences and on top of each other (unfortunately our team didn’t have a camera to capture some of these images).

Our final assignment was a highlight of the trip. Pastor Starns asked us to help an elderly couple remove some carpet and other items from their home. We found Mr. Love (84 years old) working away at the task of moving heavy furniture and removing wet, heavy carpet. The mildew was already three feet up the walls. As the men began to take over this task and the boys (Andrew, Nicholas, and Albert) began to remove carpet tacks, we found Mr. and Mrs. Love embracing in the hall and Mrs. Love in tears. She then told us that we were God’s answer to her prayers and that they would never forget what we were doing for them.

After we returned to the church and were waiting on Team 2 to return, we played some music in the sanctuary (even with the smells, damp, and no lights). As one of the other tired volunteers listened to Wesley play the grand piano, he said it was the most restful time he had experienced in days. He gathered other volunteers and allowed us to minister to them with music.

During a time when so many people have lost the "things" that they valued most, the field is ripe for sowing the hope found only in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We were blessed to be part of this team ministering in Jesus’ name, and we are grateful to our family and friends who supported us in this effort.

I was privileged to be part of team #2 helping distribute the supplies in the rural parts of Louisiana. It was amazing to me to see how eager people were for the Word of God. Hardly anyone turned down a Bible and many people, when they saw others receive one, would come up and ask for one as well. I saw one woman who received a Bible keep it clutched gratefully in her arms as if she was afraid it would go away. If you look at the pictures of the trip, she is the woman in the orange shirt sitting on her front porch. You can see the Bible clutched under her arm and the supplies we had also given her laying unheeded at her feet. Mr. Bret wanted to make sure that the people receiving the Bibles had someone to contact if they wanted to. So he had some of us young men hand sign each Bible with the message:

Repent of your sins
and be saved.
God loves you and
we do too!
Bret Smith
(phone number)

I do not know if he has received any phone calls yet but I pray that some of the people will respond to the power of the Word.

As we drove down some of the rural roads, the damage by trees was AWEful. In some places you could see forests where over half of the trees were blown down. Many of the pine trees had just snapped in half and all that was left were trunks with splintered tops. Most structural damage was not directly from the wind, but indirectly by the way of trees. Houses and trailers were literally crushed under fallen timber. It was encouraging, though, to see Christians still holding on to their faith even in the midst of this destruction. Several homes we passed, although covered with fallen trees, had signs tacked up reading: JESUS IS LORD! What an example these people, who had lost almost everything, are to us who have so much to be thankful for! I pray that these Christians would be able to lead others to Christ as they stand out in this time of trial.

I am grateful for the men who sacrificed the time and money to enable us to make this trip. We were able to give these people some of the physical help they needed, which I believe allowed us the opportunity to tell them about the only spiritual help, which is Jesus Christ. I thank the Lord for the opportunity to be able to participate in such an effort.