Hurricanes

I came to know Jesus in the midst of destruction left behind by a hurricane.

Serving alongside 30 people I barely knew, on a trip that none of my friends (at the time) went on.

Little did I know, those people I served with would be made into my family.

And still are today.

We would proceed to go on two more trips after Katrina together.

And plant Hope Church together.

On that first trip, at a stupid sixteen years old, Jesus called me out of my sin, showing me so clearly that this world is not about me, and my life is not my own.

I became a believer in Jesus Christ on a Thursday night in a water-damaged church on the coast of Mississippi, surrounded by people I barely knew, but that I would later call my Pastor, my wise counsel, and my best friends. 

From that night onward, I knew that the rest of my years would be spent in service of He who knit me together.

Absolutely everything changed.

It began a period of burning away what once was, and replacing my old ways with ones that glorified the Father.

He made me brand new. 

In less than three weeks, we're headed to a hurricane disaster zone.

I cannot lie; I am nervous.

And I just know, He is going to be tearing us apart and stripping us of what does not matter.

Pray for New Jersey.

Pray for groups that are headed there.

That God would be magnified through a region losing everything they held dear.

That people would come to know that the Lord is the only one who never fails, and the only thing we should be found clinging to in a storm.

And that He would make new what has been destroyed.