Going where God calls us
This year was the eighth time I have joined our mission trip team from my church, Savoy United Methodist Church. Over those years I have joined our group on trips to Mexico, New Orleans, Carbondale, IL and the Denver area. Each trip was rewarding. More important, each trip challenged my faith, opened my eyes to others struggling in their faith journeys, and allowed me to connect with both our youth and adults participating in the trip. I would not trade those weeks for anything. One of the things that makes our trip unique is that we travel with another church. Prior to this year we paired with the Wesley United Methodist Church in Macomb IL. A friendship started about 40 years ago between two of our adult leaders led us to serving jointly. This year we added a third church, Pekin United Methodist Church. One of these two men is a Pastor and he was reassigned to Pekin last year, thus opening the door for adding the third church.
Pictured above is truly the Body of Christ at work. Men from three different churches helping to protect a woman's land that was destroyed in a fire. In fact 14,000 acres burned in the Black Forest, displacing over 500 families. This property was owned by an older woman, Marie. Over the course of a few days we cleared the land of brunt trees, filled a dumpster with melted steel from the fire, fixed the stables where 5 horses once roamed, however two were killed due to the fire, and built a shed for some of her possessions not damaged in the fire.
Marie and her husband owned many acres in the beautiful foothills of the Rockies. They lived on a pine tree lined ranch just to the east of Colorado Springs. One night in June 2014 a fire started a few miles from her house. Probably started by campers who didn't wash out dinner coals, this fire spread over 14,000 acres, the worst fire in Colorado history. Marie and her husband didn't have time to gather mementos, or really anything of value except for loading their horses into their trailer. They drove several miles away from the fire and spent the night in their car, cold and concerned. Over the next few days they moved from shelter to shelter. Two of the horses died from the smoke.
Now nearly two years later, Marie was faced with an impossible obstacle. The insurance company still had not settled her claim for the damages. The county sent her a letter that if she did not clean up her land they would begin fining her and her husband. With little money to do the work, she reached out to a friend who was an organizer in the Black Forest Clean Up operation. Nancy was her name. Nancy reached out to UMCOR, the United Methodist Relief organization with an office based in Denver.
The next day UMCOR called me and asked if our group would be willing to "change assignments" and go to work in the Black Forest. I told them we would go wherever God called. This being only 2 days before we were scheduled to arrive in Denver. Said another way, a week before we arrived Nancy called UMCOR to see if there was a group of volunteers who could help and we were there to fill the need.
Our group of burly men went to rescue Marie. Walking on a walker, this frail woman commanded the strength of a lion. She mobilized us one way and another. In two days the land was remarkably better. But as in most mission trip work, it wasn't the work, but indeed the relationship built with Marie that was special.
Over lunch she told her story of the struggles she had faced in the past year. She openly discussed the faith challenges she had. losing everything, praying to God for help, realizing he responded on his time and then finally when the threat of losing it all was real, had her prayers answered. She touched each of our hearts, helping us all to understand that God had indeed sent us all to warm her heart and at least partially help to put a piece of her life back together.
We all walked away with this thought though. God has a plan for each of us. With patience we can understand his plan. And if we let u\him lead us, no matter where we are, he will reveal that plan.
Pictured above is truly the Body of Christ at work. Men from three different churches helping to protect a woman's land that was destroyed in a fire. In fact 14,000 acres burned in the Black Forest, displacing over 500 families. This property was owned by an older woman, Marie. Over the course of a few days we cleared the land of brunt trees, filled a dumpster with melted steel from the fire, fixed the stables where 5 horses once roamed, however two were killed due to the fire, and built a shed for some of her possessions not damaged in the fire.
Marie and her husband owned many acres in the beautiful foothills of the Rockies. They lived on a pine tree lined ranch just to the east of Colorado Springs. One night in June 2014 a fire started a few miles from her house. Probably started by campers who didn't wash out dinner coals, this fire spread over 14,000 acres, the worst fire in Colorado history. Marie and her husband didn't have time to gather mementos, or really anything of value except for loading their horses into their trailer. They drove several miles away from the fire and spent the night in their car, cold and concerned. Over the next few days they moved from shelter to shelter. Two of the horses died from the smoke.
Now nearly two years later, Marie was faced with an impossible obstacle. The insurance company still had not settled her claim for the damages. The county sent her a letter that if she did not clean up her land they would begin fining her and her husband. With little money to do the work, she reached out to a friend who was an organizer in the Black Forest Clean Up operation. Nancy was her name. Nancy reached out to UMCOR, the United Methodist Relief organization with an office based in Denver.
The next day UMCOR called me and asked if our group would be willing to "change assignments" and go to work in the Black Forest. I told them we would go wherever God called. This being only 2 days before we were scheduled to arrive in Denver. Said another way, a week before we arrived Nancy called UMCOR to see if there was a group of volunteers who could help and we were there to fill the need.
Our group of burly men went to rescue Marie. Walking on a walker, this frail woman commanded the strength of a lion. She mobilized us one way and another. In two days the land was remarkably better. But as in most mission trip work, it wasn't the work, but indeed the relationship built with Marie that was special.
Over lunch she told her story of the struggles she had faced in the past year. She openly discussed the faith challenges she had. losing everything, praying to God for help, realizing he responded on his time and then finally when the threat of losing it all was real, had her prayers answered. She touched each of our hearts, helping us all to understand that God had indeed sent us all to warm her heart and at least partially help to put a piece of her life back together.
We all walked away with this thought though. God has a plan for each of us. With patience we can understand his plan. And if we let u\him lead us, no matter where we are, he will reveal that plan.
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