Glimpses of Fruit

June 19^th, 2006 was my first day on staff at Keystone. Today, or I guess yesterday by the time this gets posted, is/was my two-year anniversary. In two years, God has worked in remarkable ways in me. The spiritual depth I find myself in a far cry from the shores from which I first began. If nothing else, my own faith has increased as a result of being a part of this youth ministry. What is more difficult to gauge is whether this youth ministry is making an impact on students within. The fruit of youth ministry isn’t often picked after two years. Today I read a journal entry from one of our students that blessed my heart. It was a wonderful confirmation that God is working in incredible ways and fruit is growing through this ministry. I praise God for the glimpse of his work in our youth! Here it is:

Brooke Esh writes…

Wow there is so much to say about how God’s fingerprints are being shown on our mission’s trip so far. We have only been in Louisiana for a couple of days but God has already showed me so many new things. Monday morning was our first day on the job. We had to get up at 6 o’clock and get ready for breakfast. Thoughts were flying through my head because I had no idea what in the world I would be doing. I heard about my group and was excited about that, but I also heard that we needed to paint a house. That was a pretty scary thing to be told. I never painted really anything and I really did not want to mess a house up. It made me feel so much better knowing the group I was in. We were pretty much the reject group because we had no skill when it came to building or dry walling. My group turned out to be Amber Whittington, Leanne Lefever, Kyle Glick, Jordan Sheaffer, Allison Horst, Abigail Horst, and of course me. Our leaders turned out to be Brandon Fisher and Missy Sindall.

After a delightful breakfast and devotions we packed our lunches for the afternoon. When all things were set, we hopped in the van and got on our way. The car ride was a funny one. We were all excited to paint and be able to walk around the community to talk to people. We already heard so many good stories about others witnessing in the city of New Orleans, and it made us get excited about hearing other’s stories and talking to them.

When we arrived at the house we got everything unloaded. It turns out that the house we were painting is Pastor John’s. He is the Pastor at Castle Rock Community Church. We got everything unloaded and began scraping the house. We were scraping the paint off the wood and making it smooth to prime. It actually turned out to be a quite easy job. We had a lunch break a few hours later. We took a few breaks in between the morning to re-hydrate ourselves. The sun was beating down pretty strong and the humidity was high. It was still not as hot as everyone said it would be, which was definitely a blessing.

After lunch we decided to take a walk around the community to see if we would be able to talk to anyone. Just we girls went because the men had to stay back and work. (Ha.) This is when the footprints of God really shined through our day. We could not figure out which way to go. The girls turned left to walk down the road but for some reason Alison and I walked the opposite way. Now I know the reason why. We were not far down the road until we spotted a man sitting on a porch step. We said hello and he said the same response back. Miss looked at us and said “Should we go talk to him?”

We all decided that maybe a quick hello would be suitable. To me he looked a little frightening, but I figured that there was no harm in stopping to talk to this man. When we walked up to the front porch I noticed that he had a beer in his right hand. This for some reason really made me feel weird about the whole situation. After a little conservation I came to the realization that maybe this man was not so bad after all. He seemed like a fairly nice guy. We found out that his name was Samuel Summers. He asked us what we were doing in Louisiana. We explained to him that we were helping with clean-up and walking around the town to talk to people about Katrina. He then told us about all of his needs in his house. The whole time he was talking I was just sitting there wondering how long this was going to take. Thoughts were crossing my mind about how scary the neighborhood was and how this man was drinking a beer. I was very fast to judge him because of what he was doing.

After a few more minutes, he wanted to take us on a walk to his house. Of course being the wimp that I am had many doubts about going to his house. I saw many strange men lingering around his house and it just gave me the creeps. As we walked more towards the house I made sure to pray about my safety and the safety of the other girls with me. The house looked extremely run down and pretty messed up. The screen doors were off and were leaned against the side of the house. The paint on the walls outside was peeling and the garden was all torn apart. I was just so sad about how the house looked. This was finally something that made me realize how much people’s lives were affected by the storm.

When we arrived on the front porch I was comforted by two young girls sitting on the front porch. It made me feel safer that way. They were dressed in very dirty clothes and I could tell they did not have the best relationship with Samuel. He offered us a seat but we decided to just stand and talk. He was talking to us about how he really needed his house fixed up. He had a lot of problems that really needed taking care of. It broke my heart to hear him talking about all of this, but I realized at the same time that maybe this could open up his eyes to what he needed most. He really did not need all of this stuff fixed like he thought he did. In fact, he only needed God in his life. That would satisfy all of his needs.

After a little bit of talking, another man by the name of Josh walked up to the porch. He looked rather friendly and turned out to be the same. He was very kind and began asking us what we were doing down here. After explaining everything, we started talking about everything that happened during the big storm. I was so thrilled that they were so open to talk about it. They explained how it was so wrong that it happened. That everything just went down hill. I could tell that they needed some guidance in their life. They seemed empty and alone inside. I knew by what they were saying that they were good people. They were saddened of all the deaths and that everything was ruined. I just wanted to reach out and hug them.

It was getting near the time that us girls really needed to go back and work on scraping. I was started to feel bad for leaving the guys working alone. I knew that when we were going to leave we would have to pray with them. That really scared me. I could tell that they were the kind of people who did not pray on a regular basis. I was afraid that maybe they would take it the wrong way and get offended by it. I started to get butterflies in the stomach. Miss said the words that we had to leave. I thought to myself, “Oh no! Here it comes!”

“Would you like to pray with us?” Miss said. She was so confident and seemed so fine with everything.

“Oh-no. Here is comes. They are going to be so upset that we asked this question.” I thought to myself as I stood there. Then I got a reaction that I was definitely not expecting.

“Sure, we would love that!” Samuel belted out. I was so excited to hear that. My heart started pounding harder but I knew that it was just because I was happy. We circled up and all grabbed hands. I was kind of nervous to pray in front of them just because I did not want to mess up. But I knew that we were here to witness to these people and be a light in their lives. We all said a little prayer. When it got to me I thought I was going to burst out into tears. But I held it together. We all said our goodbyes. They both hugged each of us girls and when Samuel got to me he whispered in my ear “keep praying for me.” This made me so excited. God just worked so much in us girls in just one hour on that porch. I knew that there was a reason for going there that day. He wanted us to pray with them, and let them know that someone is still praying.

The walk back to our jobsite was a good one. We were all feeling kind of sad but happy at the same time. I was so glad that we got to meet them and actually pray a prayer with them. It gave me such a good attitude toward the trip. I never really thought that we could make a difference, but I was wrong. When we got back to the jobsite, we shared our story with the boys. Brandon gave us papers that we could take down to him so that we could get a work team to work on his house. I was still a little afraid and doubted if it was a good idea to go back. We already did our part of sharing and I was still terrified by the neighborhood.

We all said a prayer on the street before we went down again. This time we took Jordan with us so we had a guy along. When we got back down there Samuel seemed happy to see us again. We gave him the papers to fill out and started talking to him again. This time when he talked, he seemed so much different then before. It seemed like he had realized things. I really do not know how to explain it, but I could see a difference. The one thing that he said was something that will stick in my head forever. He said “Drugs will never solve anything. No matter how many problems you have, do not ever resort to taking drugs. You might think that they remove the problems, but when you sober up the problems are still there.”

That one phrase made me realize that there was hope for this man and that I wanted to help him. He deserved to know Christ and that Christ loves him. When we left this time I was so much more pumped. We went back and worked. The whole time we were working, I was thinking about that had happened. I take so many things for granted. I do not take my relationship with the Lord as seriously as I should. I have so many options and ways to worship the Lord, but Samuel has none. It made me really think about how I wanted to be closer to the Lord. I live in a fantastic place and have so many opportunities. People in the New Orleans would kill to have the life that I have.

The rest of the day was pretty much the same. I thought the whole day and still did not know what I thought about walking around the streets. I was not ready to get out of my comfort zone because I was nervous about all of our safety. Then that night at dinner I saw one of God’s fingerprints. There was a sign hanging up on the bulletin that said something that changed my thinking on things. Speaking about Peter when we walked on water, it read, “Peter knew that his boat was only an illusion of safety while beting where Jesus was in the storm was the safest and greatest place he could ever be. Being where Jesus calls us to be no matter how danger or risky it feels is the only true and secure place we could ever be.”

God wants you to be there talking to people about him then you will be safe. This made me realize that I am doing this work for God. Whatever he wants happening to me will happen. I am in his hands. I need to step out of my comfort zone and be a light to whoever I can. I decided that I would pray before we go and whatever happens after that is in God’s hands. This trip would definitely change my thoughts on everything. It would change how I live my life and I want to live my relationship with God to the best of my ability.