Distracted

Distracted

                        By Laura-Jean Watson

The day had now come, and my work had begun.

The company would arrive before I was done.

I chopped, I shredded, I stirred, and I tasted

Completely unaware of the time that I’d wasted.

 

Devotional time today was ignored,

As through the kitchen with cookbooks in hand I roared.

I worked and prepared for them hours on end

And never thought once of all the souls I could tend.

 

Tense for perfection, my patience dissolved,

And I turned on mistakes made by others involved.

My love was muddled, my joy and peace gone,

But when my guests arrived, I tried a smile to don.

 

Dinner was great, but their souls went untouched.

I was left dismayed at the values I had clutched.

Then God brought Martha and Mary to mind

As He taught me then the truth I needed to find.

 

Jesus told Martha she was distracted

By extra preparations to which she was attracted.

I had left out the necessary part

By not planning the day with Jesus at the start.

I Just Can't Die Like This

A wall of water five feet high cascaded around the corner as Alexis tried to escape her waterfront home in her pickup truck.  The water struck the truck launching it off the ground, and it began to actually float toward the lagoon.  Alexis felt helpless and cried, “I’m done!  Oh, please, please, God, please not today.”  It all happened so quickly.  Alexis pled, “Dear God, I don’t want to end like this!”  And then she heard a “boom” as the truck struck something underneath the swiftly rushing water.  Alexis was not sure if she hit a piling or debris, but she floored the gas pedal and something caught.   She had traction.   The truck propelled forward back towards safety, but the danger was not over.

Alexis recalled her morning leading up to this moment.  Alexis and Jim had been packing up some things to leave, but they had no idea of the serious, imminent danger they were in.  “It came up so fast,” recalled Alexis.  “I looked out the back door, and the water was coming up to the back door.  I ran to the front, and I saw the water coming around the corner to the front door.  I said, ‘We got to get out now!’   I was so upset.  I was screaming, barking orders like a maniac.   Jim said, ‘Will you cool?’  I replied, ‘No, we gotta leave now.  We’ve got seconds.’  I just had this fear.” 

Alexis knew they should have left sooner.  She had not been able to motivate anyone to move fast enough until now.  She called her daughter Angela who lived only blocks away insisting, “Angie, now, get out now.”  “She listened to me.  She never listens to me.  She heard the horror in my voice.”  Alexis ordered, “Meet me on the corner.”  Now there was no time to even grab anything, not even papers. “I just grabbed the cats,” recalled Alexis.  “I had two cats.  I threw them in the truck.  It was pouring rain, and the cats were screaming.  It didn’t matter.  I didn’t have time to grab anything.  I had no clothing, no shoes, nothing.  All the bags that I did pack the night before, I couldn’t get them.  If I had waited, I think, one more minute, I don’t think I’d be sitting here.  I had to go.  Why I chose to go right then, I don’t know, but I had to go.  It was a nightmare.  I can still see the wall of water.”

Jim had left first trying to find the road in his pickup.  Angela had just driven around the corner through flooded streets with her one year old daughter Alexandra and her two cats, as she witnessed her mother Alexis approaching in her pickup truck to meet them and flee the storm.   Angela watched in fear as she became part of the nightmare.  Alexis used her cell phone to instruct Angela to pull her small car behind her mother’s truck sticking close to the bumper so that the “V” of water formed by the truck would forge a path through the water for Angela.  Alexis did not take her foot off the gas.  “I rammed it, and she’s right behind me the whole way.  It’s like I’m pushing the water with my vehicle so she could get out.  When we looked behind us, it all closed in.  Angela was horrified, the look on her face, she was scared to death.”

“You couldn’t see the road, so you didn’t know where the heck you were going.  I was just going by dead reckoning.  That was so bad,” expressed Alexis.  “You know what it looked like?  You couldn’t see the road, and you’re sitting there in the vehicle.  All you could see were halves of houses.  It looked, as far as your eye could see, like I was sitting in the middle of the ocean. …I looked around as I’m driving through this thinking and praying the whole time.”

“He heard me that day.  I was screaming, ‘God, please, I can’t die like this.  I just can’t die like this.’  And I thought of my daughter and granddaughter.  If I had to save one, I can only save one.  Which one do I choose?  This is what is going through my head.”

“It was so fast, so quick.  You didn’t have time to think, respond, save yourself.  It’s over,” Alexis related through her tears. … “Just praying the whole time. … Make the best of it.  So scary.”

Alexis is an excellent swimmer, but her daughter cannot swim and Alexandra is only one year’s old and could not possibly save herself.  With the strong, flowing current, it is doubtful that Alexis would even have a chance to save herself if the truck could not break free to safety.  The cats were in a roofed carrier in the back of the truck.  Alexis could hear them screaming.  She knew they would not have a chance either if anything happened to her.

There was nobody on the road, and the roads were closed.  They had to drive around barricades to escape.  There is only one road in and there was a long way to go to reach safety.   They did escape. 

The house was battered from boats ramming into it as vessels were carried along by the current.  Windows were broken, and the yard was strewn with debris. All the furniture on the first floor was destroyed by salt water that had flooded their home. The drywall, insulation, and flooring had to be torn out.  The second floor on Jim’s and Alexis’ house survived, but the house was then robbed the following Saturday.  Someone put a ladder up to the house and entered through an upstairs window.  They tore everything apart upstairs, emptying drawers, destroying property, and throwing things around.  The robber found and stole the money that had been in the house to pay for replacing drywall.  “It puts the topping on the cake,” assessed Alexis.

Alexis shared that some people who stayed had died.  Some were electrocuted, others drowned, and one had a heart attack.   Down the street from her, two homes burned to the ground.  Vehicles that remained were destroyed.  One of Angela’s neighbors had her house pushed off its foundation.  When the woman’s 25 year old daughter came to help her mother the following day, the daughter died of a heart attack.  Alexis regretfully shared, “What a sweet lady the mother and daughter were.  The mother is beside herself.  What can I do?  I can’t do anything.  I can’t even help myself.”

Jim and Alexis were so pleased with the TouchGlobal team who came to help them.  They were amazed at all that was accomplished.  Her street was filled with volunteers from Indiana, Illinois, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Louisiana who went house to house and tore out drywall and soggy insulation, pulled up floors, and carried furniture and belongings to the street.  They shared hope, prayer, and concern with the homeowners and their families.  There is much to be done yet.  Alexis summed things up, “We live in America.  We’re not at war.  Things are so great, and then we are faced with a catastrophe.  You’re not used to stuff like this.  You’re running for your life.  It’s just overwhelming and so terrifying that words cannot describe it. …  It looks like we were bombed. … I lived through this whole darn thing.  That’s all I can say.”

There are many homeowners in need of help from the devastation of Hurricane Sandy.  For information on how you can respond to these needs, go to www.efca.org/hurricane-Sandy .

 

 by Laura-Jean Watson

Working Together in Brigantine

Pastor Bill Davis at Brigantine Bible Church prays with volunteers from PA, MD, MN, and LA as they begin a day of gutting homes, insulating the church, laying new flooring boards, cleaning out crawl spaces, and tearing out paneling.  They are serving the community together with members from the Brigantine Bible Church.  The streets are cluttered with insulation, drywall, flooring, furniture, and belongings from home after home across this town.  Many do not have flood insurance and even those who do may not have coverage on contents or have high deductibles they cannot pay.  There are quite a few retired couples in the community who are living on reduced incomes and are not in good enough health to do the work themselves.

Reflection

Riding home from Brigantine, New Jersey tonight, my daughter commented on how beautiful the moon looks.  She said, "And think, it is just a reflection."  She went on to ask if we look that beautiful when we reflect Christ.  This was after a day where she pulled dripping insulation from above her head in a smelly crawl space under a flooded home.  The ground was wet, so her clothes were decorated with splotches of wet mud.  She was glad for the darkness under the house which did not allow her to see more than she wanted to see.  Yes, we are beautiful when we reflect Christ.

Hershey Free Curch Last Weekend

“As soon as we pulled up, people from the congregation all came together.  We were serving like one church, not two separate churches.  They were so kind and appreciative and some of the nicest people.  They were eager to help.  There was a bond and connection with them as we were working to serve and share the Gospel together during tough times in the city,“ remarked Erica Hunter.  Erica was serving with a team of 24 who arrived Saturday morning from the Evangelical Free Church of Hershey, PA in response to the needs of the Hoboken Evangelical Free Church in New Jersey and the surrounding community. 

First, they unpacked Hershey’s trailer stuffed full of donated blankets, coats, and children’s clothing.  Due to flooding in the church basement, drywall, cabinets, appliances, and flooring needed to be removed and carried out to the street.  The fellowship hall was in the basement with a kitchen and bathrooms. Hershey EFC donated $4,000 to the church to help with the costs of reconstruction. 

Part of the group grilled hot dogs and set up hot chocolate and beverages for the block party along with donated baked goods, sent with love, from people in the Hershey area.  Hershey and HEFC teamed up to bring boxes of hot dogs and beverages house to house to those working hauling drywall and belongings to the street.  They were able to make connections, discover needs, and pray with people.

Games and face painting were set up across the street as a treat for the children in the neighborhood.  Jen Gautier of the Hoboken EFC thanked the team noting, “We are so grateful to your team.  They really lifted spirits in the community.  Families from the school where I work who came by Saturday said their kids loved the games and the face painting.  They were so touched that people cared enough to give up their Saturday and drive so far to minister to them.  Please let them know that people are seeing the light of Christ in what they do.”

Pastor Paul of Hoboken EFC expressed that he was on an emotional roller coaster.  First his heart was broken seeing the big piles of things by the side of the church.  Then he looked at the ministry happening as people talked and prayed together, and he felt like singing.

Another team of seven from Hershey EFC went to Montgomery Free Church in Belle Mead, New Jersey where they were joined by Cornerstone EFC of Easton, PA to cut up trees that had fallen.

A team of ten from Hershey Free went to Totenville EFC, a small church in Staten Island, NY and handed out flyers inviting neighbors to a sharing time at the church.  Families responded telling the church of their needs.  The church will have the opportunity to be the hands and feet of Jesus reaching out to those hurting around them.

Another team of five from Hershey EFC handed out hot dogs and then spent the better part of the day gutting houses in Little Egg Harbor, NJ.  One homeowner, Ellie, conveyed, “I feel like I’m helping other people.  I don’t feel like this is mine. ... It’s overwhelming.  I have to start all over again.”  Her one daughter and grandchildren joined in the task of pulling out drywall, cabinets, bathroom fixtures, furniture, and flooring from her home that had been flooded.  She has lived here since 1963, and this is the home where she raised her children.  Chrissy Spears from Hershey worked with Ellie’s daughter who shared stories from each room they worked in.  Chrissy remarked that Ellie’s emotions went in waves.  She would struggle with thoughts, be okay, and then wonder if something could be saved.   It was about more than physical loss.  Each item was connected to a memory.  Chrissy was struck by how total the destruction was in this area.  The news had not done it justice.  Chrissy explained, “It could have just as easily been us.”  She added, “You can’t change the path of the storm, but you can change how it looks in their lives by coming alongside them and encouraging them.”  Chrissy has seen the difference in her own life that people have made by coming alongside of her. 

Much help will be needed in the months ahead.  Pile after pile of belongings, drywall, and insulation line the streets.  Some people are devastated.  Others are thankful just to be alive.  Gratitude is shared by all to those who offer help.  This is an opportunity for the church to be the church.

Why Do We Do Block Parties?

Is it hard sometimes to invite someone to church?  Do you have any problems inviting people to a party?  Which is more inviting to someone in the community not connected to a church?  Both have their place, but a block party is a way into a life that might not be available through other means.

TouchGlobal block parties serve multiple purposes.  It is a way to have team members and church members engage with the community and make new connections.   People may walk on to a church property that they have never been to before.  Block parties are also held outside homes where teams are working.  Forms are available to help folks who need help after a crisis and hot food is served.  Some parties, such as the one just held in Hoboken, offer games and face painting combined with needed help and supplies.  Others are more involved with offering food, assistance, and supplies.  The goal is to make connections that will open the door to spiritual conversations.

A good question to ask people after a crisis is, “How are you holding up?”  This can open the door to sharing feelings and needs that they would not normally share.  You then have the opportunity to pray with them and see if you can assist in meeting any of their needs.  You may be able to help guide them to resources or ways they can get started on rebuilding their lives.  It is important to have a handout that tells them about the local church and how they can connect. 

Listen well to hear what they need and what you can help them with, and be believing that God can work in greater ways than we could ever imagine.  The primary goal is to bring people to Jesus.  We can help make this life more comfortable for people, but the real change needed is a spiritual change.  Block parties can be something informal, relaxing, interesting, and relevant to their needs.  Praying with people is an important part.  Sometimes, we need to take the food to them as they work on their projects.

Prayer is needed before, during, and after a block party.  God is the one who provides opportunities, changes hearts, and meets needs.  We need people supporting each block party in prayer.  Is that something you can commit to even if you cannot go?  The results will be much more amazing when we have approached God to move in miraculous ways and go before us.  Prayer walking is also an important part of outreach, and neighbors are engaged who we meet along the way.  Results in lives may be instant or take considerable time.  Continue to pray for people involved after the event.  Pray God will open hearts and draw people to Himself.  Pray  walls of opposition will be torn down and that people will find the answers they need and new life in Christ.