Mission to Beaumont is ‘God-sized’ work

 

By Catherine Albert
Youth Ministry Coordinator
St. John’s UMC, Corpus Christi
I will never forget the question Henry Blackaby asked in his study Experiencing God, “What are you doing that only God can do through you?” That is the litmus test for me when I am wondering how much I am living for him.
Well, a week before we left for our March 3 through 5 mission trip to Beaumont, I knew it was “a God-sized assignment.” I was having lunch with fellow church member and friend Sandy Peltier, and the phone rang. It was a United Methodist Committee on Relief representative.
“Catherine,” he said, “is there any way you guys could do a roof job? This family is desperate. No work can happen on the inside until they have a roof on. No other groups will do it. Would you please consider it? They have been living in a trailer for seven months now with two kids, three dogs and two cats. They are just at their wits’ end. Can your group do it?”
My heart is sinking as I am saying, “Yes.” I get off the phone and look at Sandy and start crying.
“What am I thinking? I can’t believe I said yes. No one is signing up to go. What am I going to do? Jim cannot do it all. He is awesome, but this is too big a burden even for him. I feel so defeated.”
Well I was, but God wasn’t. Sandy instantly took my hand and prayed a prayer of belief, prayed that I would trust God in his perfect plan to make it work, and prayed for me to let go and trust him.
We all must go through a “crisis of belief” so that we absolutely know that God is the one making something happen and not ourselves. By March 3, God had provided the most incredible team possible: Jim (truly a Godsend); Todd Weimerscurch, Rawley Martin, Wilson Calhoun, Keith Collins, David Pallotti, Jason Houlihan, Andrew Duggan, Martha Oman, Robyn Cobb, Sara Molina, Jessica Albert (25th birthday that day), Ashley Albert, Natalie, and Melanie and Sydney (awesome high school girls). It was just unbelievable! It was all him!
After a six-hour drive and sleeping on a church nursery floor, we get to the job site. Jim is very ill but doesn’t say anything. He just climbs up on the roof of the house and says, “Let’s do it.” This roof was extremely steep and slippery even for Jim. Thank God many people prayed for our safety!
Now as you are reading this, stop and stand up and bend over; slightly bend your ankles forward. Now think about how you would feel if you had to do that for nine hours. That’s what this group did.
The roof was horrible. The men stripped the roof, re-decked damaged areas, flashed it, felted it and shingled. The only way they could have accomplished that is with God-sized strength. The women hauled debris, cleaned, carried supplies and cleaned up debris some more.
In the middle of the work, Ashley had mentioned that the trailer the family was living in was pretty messy. The couple works constantly as bus drivers and had very little time. So off went the clean sweep crew to the trailer for two hours. When I looked in later, I was amazed.
At the end of the very long day, the UMCOR representative came by. He just stood there dumbfounded. He said, “I have been working for UMCOR for 13 years and have been on job sites all over the country, and I have never seen a team do such incredible work and in one day!”
Then he looked at me and asked, “When are you coming back?”
I just smiled.
Then, on the Tuesday morning after we returned, I got a call from Ward.
“Catherine,” he said, “the homeowner went into her trailer that night and just sobbed. She had been so depressed about their situation, no one coming to put on a roof and no hope of moving back into their home, that as a result she simply stopped taking care of things. She said she felt like she was in a black hole and just couldn’t get out, until God sent you guys!”
He went on to share the family’s thoughts that God had answered their prayers when he sent the team from St. John’s.
“Now we have a roof, so now we can have a home,” they said. “And because someone in your group didn’t judge the condition of our trailer and just helped me, I feel hope again, hope that God gave back to me through all of you!”
Wow, it can’t get any better than that. But that’s how God works. I would have never dreamed of all of these miracles if I hadn’t said yes. God is not going to reveal his awesome plan until we commit first. When we commit to follow and walk in his plan, then he will reveal his awesome work to us, and he will work in mighty ways. He certainly did for me when he sent me an awesome group of people who were willing to commit without knowing where God was going to take them!
So commit to your “God-sized assignment,” and see where he takes you!