God acomplished a tremendous amount of work this past week through the sweat of all the teams with us here in Lakeshore. Folks from Georgia, New Jersey, Wisconsin, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Mississippi, Texas, and Florida joined us as we continued ministering to our storm ravaged community.. Tonight a fresh group from Kentucky roll in. As I’ve often noted on my blog, Its sometimes difficult to keep all the teams straight, much less thank them personally as they rightly deserve.
I beg forgiveness, once again, to point out one team among many., but I felt especially blessed to spend time with the Grace Baptist Church contingent. Their pastor, Tom Ascol stands tall as one of my heroes of the faith. I mentioned last Sunday that if I had to list a handful of the most influential pastors/ preachers/ theologians in my life over the past several years, Tom Ascol would rank right up there with Charles Spurgeon, John MacArthur, John Piper, and R. C. Sproul. His leadership through the Founders Ministry serves to mold my understanding of God and His church in Lakeshore. Last year I preached through Galatians and part of my weekly routine involved listening to Tom’s Galatians series, so I felt almost as if I had attended church right across the pew from the Cape Coral crowd.
Through the busyness I stole away a few moments to spend time with a few of these wonderful people. I can’t express the encouragement God granted me through sending them our way. One of my only regrets of the week is that I never captured a snapshot of the Ascol kids square dancing. 🙂
In addition to digging ditches for electrical conduit, removing storm debris, and a host of other labor intensive tasks, the folks from Grace Baptist led our successful Vacation Bible School this week. The gospel driven, Bible saturated Genesis 1 Space Probe blasted off each morning with a growing number of kids enjoying God’s exciting word. The Friday night commencement drew many parents, who had never been to our church property before, in to see what their kids had been doing throughout the week. They heard the gospel clearly presented by Ken Puls and I pray that God will use the activities of the week as he effectually calls many to Himself for His glory.
4 Comments
We had a GREAT time with y’all this week!!! Maybe next time we come … we’ll square dance for you (especially if you play that amazing square dance music!)
~Sarah
Don:
My 4 oldest kids just walked in the door an hour or so ago, still basking in the glow of their time with you and the family of Lakeshore. I am so grateful for the opportunity afforded to them and the others from Grace. They all have spoken warmly about your ministry of the Word on Sunday and Wednesday. Thank you for preaching Christ to my children and fellow church members. I really regret that I could not be with them.
Your kind words are very humbling to me. I also regret that you didn’t get a picture of those Ascol kids square dancing. It would have provided good grounds for an old-fashioned churchin’! 🙂
Pr. Elbourne: Let me echo Sarah’s words and say that we did have an incredibly amazing time working with yall this week. I’m not sure that I will make any square dancing commitments… but I can’t wait to get back up there again and work with yall more. 🙂
~Becca
Hey Pr. Elbourne!
haha sorry we didn’t get to square dance for ya… hmmmm…. we’ll have to do that next time 😉 I had an amazing week up there w/ yall! Getting to work with all of those great kids and helping out at various people’s homes was a wonderful experience for me!! I wish I could’ve stayed longer than only one week!! It was great to finally meet you and the rest of the people at Lakeshore Baptist Church. Even though our group from GBC came to minister to, help out, and serve all of you up there in the Waveland/Lakeshore area, I came home feeling as though I had been the one who had been ministered to! I really appreciated hearing you preach from God’s Word both on Sunday and Wednesday night! Thank you so much for sharing with all of us a little bit of what it was like for you during and immediately after Hurricane Katrina. I am so encouraged and amazed at all that yall up at Lakeshore Baptist Church are doing throughout your community and I’m so glad I could be a small part of it this past week! I’m definitely hoping to be able to come back up w/ our church and help out some more sometime in the near future!! (we Ascol kids will try to remember to bring some of our good ‘ol “sqaure dancing music next time we come!) 🙂
-Rachel