Chickamauga Baptist Church Chickamauga, GA

This wonderful group of volunteers from Georgia are not new to P.O.P. or the Gulf Coast of MS. They have been coming since Katrina helping many, many families rebuild their homes and lives.

What an extraordinary time of learning flexibility and patience while finding out exactly what God's plan was for the work week! All of our best laid plans were not what He had in mind. So after doors were shut tight in two different places with two different ministry goals, the servants proceeded with what they were led by God to do.

This mission team also divided up into three major groups. One of the groups performed construction skills working to complete sheetrock work on a home whose owner recently lost his job of oyster harvesting due to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf. They also painted his home on the exterior. Both jobs were beautiful and the homeowner is thrilled to have this work done.

The evangelism team went to Dunbar Village, an assisted living facility where they had an amazing time of fun and fellowship with the very appreciative elderly people at the home. They played games and sang songs with the residents who had a wonderful time with them and especially the young people. They also had a very blessed time of visiting the shut-ins in their rooms. After the fourth day, the center was so grateful for all of the attention given the residents that they returned the blessing by fixing the group desert and refreshments. Awesome!

This team also mowed and cleaned a yard for one of our elderly neighbors. She really was thankful for this help.

Another interesting thing that this team did was divide their youth into three groups at Wal-Mart to purchase groceries for the Lakeshore Baptist Distribution Center. They made a contest out of it giving each group money and ideas for food. They had fun while serving in this much needed ministry. They delivered all of the food, plus more food they had collected from their church members before they came. They also helped the center organize it on the empty shelves. Then they helped sort winter and summer clothes. The center feeds over 250 families weekly and the number is growing due to the economy and the oil spill.

The third ministry was, of course, the food. Feeding the church groups three meals a day is not an easy task and two of the ladies on the mission team were happy to perform this necessity. They also had a Wednesday night dinner for the people whose homes they worked on this time and in the past. It was an awesome time of great food, fun and fellowship where we shared our experiences of Katrina.

Northbrook Baptist Church Boiling Springs, SC

This versatile group from South Carolina had a very busy week in the Bay/Waveland area.

The mission team was divided into three groups. One of the groups was the construction group who sub-divided into two groups and worked on several homes in the area. They worked on electrical, plumbing and sheetrock mostly, but also performed various other tasks for other families. As a group they were able to help one particular family who is still living in a shed to get further along in the process of rebuilding and provide for their needs by purchasing many household fixtures. Everyone was grateful for their week of labor, care, love and service they provided.

Another group was the evangelism team. They were also divided into sub-groups to be able to perform many tasks. They held a VBS type kids camp in the morning where they had at least 30-35 kids attend. Many of the children were provided transportation and picked up on either a church bus or a church van. The children were so excited to be able to attend the camp that taught them about JESUS.

In the afternoon, the youth in the group held a sports camp for the older children where over 30 teens attended daily. There were many sports including water sports offered and so appreciated by the youth as it was one of our hottest June weeks. They also were provided opportunities to learn about JESUS.

And then in the evenings, their pastor held a revival on the same property giving everyone in the community the opportunity to hear more about JESUS. All in all anyone living in this community, kids and adults alike, had many chances to learn of the saving grace of our Lord and approximately 12 people came to know Him!

The other group was the cooking team. Wonderful ladies who served up luscious meals everyday for the 43 people in the group. Everyone working together well organized helped to make this a great mission week with many people being shown the love of JESUS.

Also, this group brought a truck load of food items for our local food pantry that helps to feed 250 families weekly.