Hi, I’m Andrew and I’m a sophomore at TR high school. The truth is, my initial intent by signing up for this missions trip was just for something to do. The where and why part didn’t really hit me until I began to see the damage caused by the hurricane. Who would have thought that three years after Katrina, the wealthiest country on the planed still hadn’t built back their city? But they hadn’t, and soon enough other catastrophes struck and began to lure America’s interests, namely the Brittney Spears head shaving incident and other disasters worthy of the people’s attention. I too had forgotten about the devastation at the coast until spring break.

Like Evan, the majority of my week was spent laying tile in Ms. Castle’s kitchen. After a week of spending time around her, I began to respect her optimistic attitude. I started to wonder if I would be able to keep the same attitude she did after everything I owned had been washed away, and I’m still not sure of the answer.

Unfortunately not everyone down there left the same impression. Walking into different stores in the area, you would get sort of negative vibes. A few of us really experienced this during one incident at Lowe’s in which we recieved “help” from 4 different employees. Every one of them seemed pretty annoyed.

But whatever happened during the day, we know we had the Lagniappe facility to return to in the evening. It’s amazing how with the right people present, a large warehouse type room with a concrete floor can turn into a great place to be. It was great to know that all though the majority of Americans don[’t care anymore, there are still Christians from all over the country who don’t only volunteer, but take joy in doing it. I often think of Christians in America as not serving anywhere close to their potential, and that it’s those Christians in Asia who have to worship in secret who really know what it’s like to serve. I know that’s probably not the case, and that the church in America is in a dire state, but it was still refreshing to see the work that the people at Lagniappe do. It really opened my eyes to what the church can be. Sunday worship did exist, but the obvious purpose of Lagniappe was restoring it’s surrounding community.

A lot has been accomplished, but there is still a long way to go. They need prayer that people will keep coming and that Katrina won’t have permanent affects on the stress levels and culture in Bay St. Louis, and also that people down there would learn that it’s the love of Christ that motivates Lagniappe to do what it does.

Hello, my name is Evan. I am 18 years old, a member of Redeemer and involved in our youth ministry. About a month ago I went down to Bay St. Louis, Mississippi to help victims still recovering from hurricane Katrina. It was an amazing experience.

At first, I was not thrilled with the idea of sacrificing my spring break to go work from sunrise to sunset everyday for the next week. I had just gone through one of the busiest weeks of the year. Between track meets and teachers cramming in the last bit of work before the end of the grading period, I was ready for a long relaxing break, but the mission trip didn’t look like it was going to do that. To top it off, I was going to miss Easter dinner with my family, and although a peanut butter and banana sandwich is good, it can’t compare with my Easter dinner.

However, once we got on the road and started the nine hour drive down, my mood improved. I think it’s impossible to stay sour when you’ve got 13 goofy guys with you in the car. That’s right, you heard me, 14 smelly guys all in one van for nine hours.

On the trip down, the chief concern for many of the guys was if there were going to be any girls. Fortunately, there were. In fact there were many groups there. There were groups from all over the country. They came from Massachusetts, California, Chicago, Chapin, SC. Am I missing any? The groups there were very diverse as well. Since Lagniappe Church also hosts the Habitat for Humanity volunteers, we had Lutherans, Presbyterians, Jews and atheists all under the same roof. It was so great to see God doing so much with so many different people. It’s sad, but sometimes it takes a big storm to get God’s people moving.

The first few days our group worked in a house owned by a woman named Ms. Cassells. The house had been flooded by 4 feet of water when the storm surge came in higher than predicted. She rode out the storm in a boat in front of her home. She, like almost everyone in Bay St. Louis, still lives in a trailer in the front of her house. In her house we laid down tile. The process took us all week, but we did finish it. I had fun working with the grout and learning how to lay tile. I have to admit that tile looked good, especially when you took into consideration that it was laid by teenagers and that we ran out of the original tile half way through the job.

I was really struck by how dedicated Lagniappe was to its purpose. The church was built and founded for restoring and rebuilding Bay St. Louis. The church had a huge garage full of donated tools. The main building was pretty much a warehouse with a kitchen and public bathrooms. Outside it had bunkhouses where we slept. The church was set up entirely to accommodate volunteers.

As for my concern about the food, it was unfounded. I have never tasted mass produced food that good in my entire life. I was stuffed every meal. Fortunately, I had time before supper to go run off the extra calories. The same was true for my much needed rest. I went to bed at 10 or 11 every night and my sleep wasn’t disturbed by the guys who wanted to stay up to all hours of the night talking to the girls. Except, of course, when someone would come into the bunkhouse and turn the heat up all the way and try to cook us alive. But I won’t mention your name, Seth.

By the end of the week I was physically, and spiritually refreshed. It was a real eye-opener to how tangible the work of God can be. And I learned that working for God’s kingdom can be really fun. I had a blast. It was definitely the best spring break I ever had and I wouldn’t have had it any other way. Thank you.

We’re here in Bay St. Louis Mississippi.  Our orientation was tonight and the groups will be given their work assignments tomorrow.  I’ll be updating the youth website periodically this week - so check back for updates.

Click on the picture below to see our updated photo album from the mission trip.

Lagniappe

This week we’re working on two projects.  The first project is for a lady whose house survived Hurricane Katrina - but not without four feet of water crashing through her house.  Everything on the inside was ruined.  The sheetrock has all been replaced and we’re working on installing tile flooring in the kitchen and bathroom.  It’s been tedious work, but our guys have really done a great job.  We ran out of tile yesterday and discovered that that tile has been discontinued and is no longer in any stores.  So - thankfully, Rusty was with us - with an eye for style - and we picked an accent color to finish out the floor.  You’ll have to check out the pictures to see what I mean when I say that it looks like we actually meant to do that!

The other family we’re working for was not so fortunate.  Their entire four-bedroom house washed away when the 13 foot water surge crashed into it.  The house is completely gone now.  We’re working on finishing touches such as putting in light fixtures, electrical outlets, hanging doors, and possibly building a set of steps to the back door.

The damage that remains here is breath-taking.  There are large plots of land that used to be homes.  Skeleton buildings that used to be thriving bay-front businesses.  But there’s a strange combination of destruction and construction.  The people we have encountered here are for the most part very hopeful.  I am so impressed with the vision and action of this church.  They are an example of what the church should be doing - ‘preaching the gospel and using words if necessary.’

“Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.”
Proverbs 31:30

1. What does it say?

How would you define poetry?

How is poetry different than story? What do you like about poetry? Don’t like?

Poetry paints word pictures that make an experience or emotion more concrete.

Read Psalm 95 (use the ESV).

How is this Psalm like other poetry that you’re familiar with? Give examples.

It is full of emotion and imagery. It uses metaphors and expressive language.

2. What does it mean?

What are some of the images in Psalm 95? What do these images make you think of?

Rock, king, hands, sheep

Why are word-images so powerful?

They are tied to experiences you’ve had in the past. Images allow your imagination and memory to go wild.

Why don’t Psalms rhymes?

Hebrew poetry (the Psalms) uses parallelism to convey emotion instead of rhyme. These parallels can be synonymous or antithetical. Synonymous means comparing two things and antithetical means contrasting two things.

Do you see a parallel in verse 1? Is it synonymous or antithetical?

“Lord” and “Rock” are a synonymous parallel.

Look for other examples of parallelism in Psalm 95.

Verse 2 – “Thanksgiving” and “Songs of praise” (synonymous)

Verse 3 – “Great God” and “Great King” (synonymous)

Verse 4 – “The depths” and “The heights” (antithetical)

Verse 5 – “The sea” and “The dry land” (antithetical)

Verse 5 – “his hands formed the dry land” and Verse 7 – “the sheep of his hand.”

The hand of the Creator is the same hand of the Shepherd and Savior.

What is the significance of Meribah and Massah in verse 8?

Read Exodus 17:1-7. The “rock of salvation” (verse 1) brought to mind the time when the Israelites were complaining against God – and he mercifully gave them water from a rock. Notice that God was standing on the rock when Moses struck the rock (Ex 17:6). God symbolically took the beating that the Israelites deserved in order to provide their salvation.

3. What does it mean for me?

How would this Psalm have helped the Israelites worship?

It reminded them of the greatness of God and warned them against the unbelief that plagued their forefathers.

How does this Psalm point to Christ?

He is the ultimate fulfillment of the Rock of our Salvation – he was punished for our sins on the cross – and we get to worship God our Shepherd – who cares for us, his sheep.

How was this Psalm applied by the NT Church? How should we respond to this Psalm today?

Read Hebrews 3:7-14. Take care. Exhort one another to be full of faith. Pray that you will not be hardened by sin. Believe that God is good and that he is truly our salvation – he will not forsake us… even though we are tempted to think he has. We share in Christ – we get the credit for what he has done.