Recently we had a group from Minnesota helping to fix a home for church members from Lake Charles Bible Church. The volunteers took a prayer walk through the community in the afternoon, something we encourage volunteers to do each day, and they met Henry and his aunt. Our volunteers recognized pretty quickly that Henry was fixated on the damage to his mailbox, still sitting there crooked and broken more than six months after the storm. It was leaning there as a daily reminder of all the damage and chaos caused by the hurricanes, visible any time he left or returned to his house.

Our volunteers had a project they were working on that week, helping a family with damage to their house. But in listening to Henry they realized how much it would mean to him to have the mailbox fixed, so they agreed to come back the next day and work on it. Henry’s aunt went out to pick up the supplies, and the volunteers came back and rebuilt the mailbox. And then they got to meet another of the neighbors, and fix their mailbox too. Finally they got to meet Miss Jill and hear about the damage to her home. Our staff went to assess Miss Jill’s home, and future volunteers will be working there.

It would have been easy for our volunteers to say that a mailbox isn’t a big deal, and to continue working on the project that they were assigned to for the week. But that mailbox was a big deal to Henry, and fixing it opened up doors in the community for that group of volunteers, for our staff, and even for the neighbors to meet and connect with each other. In fact, Henry started coming to work with the volunteers and learning how to use some tools and do some construction. We are praising God for the connections that He opened up for us, all because our volunteers took the time to value people over projects.

Pray: Please Pray God would continue to open doors in the Lake Charles communities so that we can connect with people and share the love of Christ and the hope of the Gospel.

Give: Support the ministry efforts in Lake Charles.

Serve: Email respond@efca.org for more information on Lake Charles or to set up a trip to any of our sites.