The Sunday of the 23rd was the day of traveling as the Littlestown Chapels missions team set out for Staten Island. We had all prepared ahead of time with strategic fundraising and paperwork. Our main goal going into the trip was to not only repair the damage done by Hurricane Sandy but to also bring those affected by it to Christ. So after the couple hour drive we were finally there. But were we? We showed up at a warehouse when we were told that we were to be staying at a church. Well that was definitely a huge surprise. The living conditions right off the bat took all of our attention. The guys had to stay downstairs in the place we jokingly called the "dungeon", while the girls stayed all the way up in the attic in basically what felt like an oven. It got to a certain point that day that we could joke about what had happened because the church we were suppose to stay in was being renovated which pushed us and about 60 other people into this warehouse. Oh yeah, altogether there was about 75 people from several different states staying in this one warehouse. We all at first looked at each other like, "who are you people?" But after a day or so everyone started to loosen up some more.
Every group came to minister and serve through work just like us. So we had all been given a project through Staten Island. Each project was a house that needed some type of work that was affected by the hurricane. Once we all jumped in our vans as a missions team we headed to our job site, we figured that we would see a lot of devastation. And I think that we all were preparing our minds for what we were to see. But we saw just the opposite. As you all know Hurricane Sandy happened back in October of 2012 and it is now 9 months later. We were mainly driving through the neighborhood part of the island and we honestly didn't see any destruction at all. We kind of silently look at each other thinking where is all the devastation and hurt of this island? Little did we even think about...the whole New York area is an extremely fast pace society. And I think that once the hurricane hit the whole area was shocked at how much devastation there was and they probably had no idea what to do. I can only imagine how hard it would be to walk away from everything you know so a hurricane can rip right through it all.
Once we arrived at our work site we all looked at each other with confusion because there virtually was no destruction just like the rest of the surroundings. The other truck we had was being driven by my dad and a couple of the guys...so they all get out while we start to unload as well. They started to talk to the lady that was coming out of the home we were working for. She was very adamant about us leaving because she had already had a missions group come to her house to fix her deck which was destroyed by Sandy. Now you all might be thinking, well why fix a deck? I know that doesn't sound like an important thing to really fix which was already fixed but done incorrectly. You will find out why this has importance in a bit. So my dad finally convinced her to let us just look at the job. And the next thing you know, we are all unloading the tools and tearing apart her poorly done deck. It was not that she didn't appreciate the group the fixed her deck before that...she just couldn't keep the deck because it was done so incorrectly that it was a hazard to her family. Well as we worked it was so amazing to see how much she got comfortable with us. She went from yelling at us to leave to bring us out a cooler of water, watermelon, and even ice pops! This is where God was slowly working his glory into this job.
As I said, the job to be done was to tear down her ruined deck and just build another one which would of taken us maybe a day and a half. Then we were going to move onto another job at another house that was ruined by the hurricane. But each second we were out there the work doubled. We went from doing her deck to picking up all her poorly put down pavers to the pouring her a concrete deck to fixing her lights to hanging new doors! Talk about more than you expected! Next thing you know, we were all staying there work wise for the whole week. There was one day that we got done at her house to go work at another house which had a totally gutted basement. But we only stayed there for maybe an hour. It didn't feel right working there because we all felt drawn to this other lady's house we labored at all week.
God had drawn a connection between us and this lady. Her sister, son, nephew, and daughter had all been at the house and were all shown the glory of God through us. There was one day that the lady was out front telling us her story and how her son was almost done for it when he got in a deadly accident which just broke her down into a horrible state. Her whole family was in ruins and her faith was sinking because of all the horrible things that had happened to her after the hurricane. She started to break down because we were that hope that uplifted her and her sister plus her sons life from the dark! We had been that hope which brought her back to the Lord!
Going back to the importance of fixing just her deck....she had helped everyone around her and pushed herself to the side. Fixing her deck and then basically her home gave us a mission but most importantly it gave her a hope. This showed her that God does love her and that he is there looking after her. This trip was unlike any other. It showed us that the devastation might not be visible but it might be deep down where it is hard to cure. At times for me during this trip God was silent. Compared to any other trip, Staten Island was a very relational trip that confused me. While I have part of the trips meaning in my mind I think that God has the rest in his hand to later reveal to me down the road. God also showed me that its a darn good thing when he is silent! He is love and passion! He is a good God!
Thank you all for the prayers to make this trip possible!
Word of the Day: "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us."
~Romans 8:18
*QUICK NOTE...going on this trip I brought a cross necklace with a pair of earrings which a woman of strong faith had given me. I brought it in hopes of giving it to someone that needed a reminder of God's love. And long story short...I thought it was too easy to give it to the lady we had worked with all week, I just wasn't drawn to give it to her. So you know what that means?.......God is going to bring someone that is going to be transformed by my words into my life! Let's just say.... I can't wait! So this is me asking for you to pray for wisdom!*
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