Beyond the Storm - Day 1

Mission Gulf Coast: Beyond the Storm
Day 1 – April 1st, 2006

This morning, Concordia Lutheran Church in Fort Wayne, IN sent out ten called people to be of service to those that were devastated by hurricane Katrina at a tent camp at Lamb of God Lutheran Church in Slidell, LA. Pastor Karl is leading our team which includes Barb Bleke, Laura Bowser, Dave Ensley, Cherri Glessner, Ellen Mann, Ken Marcum, Duane Thieme, and Tim Witte.

Our team’s goals, besides clean-up and rebuilding work, are to show the face of Jesus to those who don’t know His saving grace and are in desperate need of His hope and comfort and to support the efforts of those Christians who are dealing day to day with those in need. As Duane Thieme stated: “We are going down there to rebuild structure with our physical hands and, through the grace of God, rebuild faith and hope with our words and actions.”

This afternoon our team met up with 10 wonderful and caring people from New Hope Lutheran Church in Hudsonville, MI doubling the size of our team. The first 15 minutes together were spent with the traditional hand shaking, name sharing and working hard to try to remember those names as we lunched on a savory salad bar in Effingham, IL.

Over the last few weeks, Pastor Karl has reminded us to expect changes in our plans, typical of all mission trips. He did remark to the team that it reminded him of the one Beatitude that was not covered in our Lenten mid-week services as it was never recorded: BLESSED ARE THE FLEXIBLE, FOR THEY WILL NOT GET BENT OUT OF SHAPE.

Our team needed to remember this as we showed up tired and ready for a good night’s rest at our motel in Horn Lake, MS to find that some of the rooms had been given away. We graciously left the Hudsonville team there to rest, jumped in the cars and drove 45 minutes to find other accommodations at a “Batesville” Comfort Inn in Batesville, MS.

We are anxious to get to Slidell tomorrow where we will be joined by five more team mates from Chesapeake Community Church in Chesapeake, VA. Our team is ready to do His will and be a blessing to the people of Slidell.


There are individual and very personal reasons why the Concordia team members felt called by God to participate in this mission. The following are just a few of the testimonials by the team members.

Strands of Hope (Ecc. 4: 9-12): What the Gulf Coast Mission Trip means to me by Laura Bowser
The utter devastation – although so different than September 11th – it was so similar in the sense to see someone’s life and or their things destroyed. It is not so much the “things” but those items of memory – your child’s first toys, pictures of your child in kindergarten or graduating from high school, pictures of your grandchildren, the quilt that your grandmother made for you, the floral arrangement that you sister made – things that those you love put time into for you – GONE. It is a reminder that these possessions are only ours temporarily and that our real home, in heaven, is adorned with even so much more. While we are here, on earth, we need the stability of a home, of a bed of our own at night, a refrigerator that has food in it to feed our family, a place to gather our family to pray and play. This mission trip is so important to me to help rebuild that quality of life for the people who have lost so much to help them, while we are here, on earth, to know that other people care about them today and want to show God’s love for them that there is a bright future on earth and in heaven.

Restoring Grace by Dave Braun
You also asked why I feel called to make this trip. I wanted to help just after the storm hit, but did not know how to respond. I prayed about it, but it seemed that the Lord was telling me "no" since there were several obstacles in my way. However, I think his real answer was "wait". Without going into all of the details, He led my wife (Ev) and I to Concordia at the first of 2006 through Fred and Ernie Weiss. Ev noted early in the year that this trip was planned and pointed it out to me. Again, I prayed about it and this time there were no obstacles or other 'things' holding me back. I believe He is now saying "yes" to my initial prayer.
Why do I want to go? I asked myself, "If I were in their shoes, how would I want people to respond?" I would want help, or at least know that my neighbors cared enough to show support with the offer to help-and I believe that I would accept it. Simply put, I care about my neighbors.
The invitation came through Pastor Kevin, and the rest just seemed to be right. I know that we have not officially transferred our membership to Concordia, but I am grateful for this opportunity that Pastors Kevin and Karl have offered. I am led by the Lord and now committed to this work. With his grace as my guide, I will go to Slidell to serve as He has planned.

Trip to the Gulf: Why am I going again? by Dave Ensley
I felt like I was called to go to the Gulf as soon as I saw the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina. I had to question myself, why am I going halfway around the world to Thailand when there is work to be done right here in the USA? I realized that we had already spent the money on non-refundable plane tickets, and we would not be good stewards of those funds if we were not to go. I’m thankful that I have been blessed with opportunities to go and serve on both trips. It is amazing the way God’s plans for us seem to work out and how rewarded we are when we serve Him. I want to thank everyone for their continued support and prayers for both missions and the ones to come. We need to continue our mission in life and all become fishers of men.