Lucas and Davis endorse a bold game plan: Encourage a local pastor to return to New Orleans from the Katrina diaspora. Local leaders help that pastor find a short-term job to pay the rent and also help him bring back other ready-to-work church members.
Just 10 tithing church members plugged into good wages can jumpstart a congregation that's been non-operational since Katrina. That pastor in time could quit his "day job" and return to full-time ministry. "The idea is to help get people jobs so their pastor can do the work of the ministry," Davis said.
Christianity Today article on efforts to bring working folks back to the KatrinaZone.
Friday, April 28, 2006
Friday, April 21, 2006
Trinity Stats
The church we work with mostly in the KatrinaZone is Trinity Church. It's an Evangelical Free Church and most of the work we - and many, many others - have done there has been in conjunction with EV Free's Compassion Ministries. This AM they released the latest stats on the amount of work done in and around Covington, LA where Trinity is located:
Trinity Church
- Total work requests: 1,588
- Completed work requests: 1,174
- Volunteers: 2,676
- Volunteer hours: 109,995
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Please talk to God About...
...our two teams that are in the Gulf this week!
The Biloxi group is a work group led by Randy & Nicole Ambuel. They're helping Bay Vista Baptist Church in the continuing cleanup.
Thanks!!
Meet Mark Lewis!
My name is Diane Schoolfield. I attend Greenridge Baptist Church in Germantown, MD. Our church has gone on two mission trips to Trinity and will send a third during spring break. We have really been affected by what God is doing through Trinity and the Katrina disater.
I am hosting a "meet the missionary" for Mark Lewis on Tuesday evening, April 18th, 7:00PM at Greenridge Baptist. Anyone from your churches are welcome to attend.
As you know, Mark went to Trinity, felt called to change his job, move his family, and go full time with Compassion Ministries. He has not had the chance to raise support for this life changing call. The dessert will be a time for him to update us on what is happening at Trinity, get to know him, and offer financial support for him and for his family.
Feel free to contact me with any questions and for directions to our church(it is right off of I270).
I am excited to see how God will provide for Mark that evening.
In Him,
Diane
I am hosting a "meet the missionary" for Mark Lewis on Tuesday evening, April 18th, 7:00PM at Greenridge Baptist. Anyone from your churches are welcome to attend.
As you know, Mark went to Trinity, felt called to change his job, move his family, and go full time with Compassion Ministries. He has not had the chance to raise support for this life changing call. The dessert will be a time for him to update us on what is happening at Trinity, get to know him, and offer financial support for him and for his family.
Feel free to contact me with any questions and for directions to our church(it is right off of I270).
I am excited to see how God will provide for Mark that evening.
In Him,
Diane
Wednesday, April 05, 2006
On Mark Lewis
We've worked a lot with Mark Lewis down in Covington. Michael Sprague of Trinity recently posted this:
I have never been a fundraiser and perhaps never will be. I don't know that I ever want to be a fundraiser. I am simply a pastor of a local church, in the middle of the finest movement of the Spirit of God that I have ever seen. One of my dear friends, and now colleagues in ministry, is raising support to provide for his family to continue to help lead the work of outreach here in the Gulf Region. I am referring to Mark Lewis, our Crisis Response Director for EFCA-Compassion. If you have been to Trinity, you know Mark as our Field General, Mastermind of the operation and the man who loves Christ and teams.
Mark and his wife, Denise, were faithfully serving Jesus in Pennsylvania when Katrina hit. Mark was an engineer, and Denise a stay-at-home mom with their 3 wonderful kids. Mark called Jim Snyder of Compassion Ministry and was told, "I need someone in Louisiana tomorrow." Mark's one-week trip to Louisiana turned into a long-term, life-changing opportunity! Mark and Denise's passion to help people impacted by disasters had been growing for some time. Since 1993, this couple has participated in crisis response ministry following floods in the Midwest, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, an earthquake in Turkey, a devastating tornado in Campbelltown, Pennsylvania, Hurricane Ivan and now Hurricane Katrina. For an equally long time they prayed for the EFCA to start a crisis response ministry. In fact, Denise wrote an undergraduate thesis on this very topic in 2000!
I can tell you the call of God is upon their lives. They are choice players in the Kingdom and are bearing incredible fruit. In Luke 16:1-10 Jesus tells a story about how the children of light should practice shrewdness with money in accomplishing Kingdom exploits:
"Now He was also saying to the disciples, "There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and this steward was reported to him as squandering his possessions. "And he called him and said to him, 'What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward.' "And the steward said to himself, 'What shall I do, since my master is taking the stewardship away from me? I am not strong enough to dig; I am ashamed to beg. 'I know what I shall do, so that when I am removed from the stewardship, they will receive me into their homes.' "And he summoned each one of his master's debtors, and he began saying to the first, 'How much do you owe my master?' "And he said, 'A hundred measures of oil.' And he said to him, 'Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.' "Then he said to another, 'And how much do you owe?' And he said, 'A hundred measures of wheat.' He said to him, 'Take your bill, and write eighty.' "And his master praised the unrighteous steward because he had acted shrewdly; for the sons of this age are more shrewd in relation to their own kind than the sons of light. "And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of the mammon of unrighteousness; that when it fails, they may receive you into the eternal dwellings. "He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much." (Luke 16:1-10)
I cannot think of an investment that has greater Kingdom potential than strategically investing in helping Mark and Denise Lewis get up to full missionary support. They are currently at 25% support. Would you pray about this opportunity? If you are associated with a church with a missions committee, would you ask them about the possibility of the church adopting the Lewis family? Mark can be reached at: The Lewis Family, 1183 Springwater Drive, Mandeville, LA 70471; phone: 717-439-3138; e-mail: mlewis@efca.org.
I have never been a fundraiser and perhaps never will be. I don't know that I ever want to be a fundraiser. I am simply a pastor of a local church, in the middle of the finest movement of the Spirit of God that I have ever seen. One of my dear friends, and now colleagues in ministry, is raising support to provide for his family to continue to help lead the work of outreach here in the Gulf Region. I am referring to Mark Lewis, our Crisis Response Director for EFCA-Compassion. If you have been to Trinity, you know Mark as our Field General, Mastermind of the operation and the man who loves Christ and teams.
Mark and his wife, Denise, were faithfully serving Jesus in Pennsylvania when Katrina hit. Mark was an engineer, and Denise a stay-at-home mom with their 3 wonderful kids. Mark called Jim Snyder of Compassion Ministry and was told, "I need someone in Louisiana tomorrow." Mark's one-week trip to Louisiana turned into a long-term, life-changing opportunity! Mark and Denise's passion to help people impacted by disasters had been growing for some time. Since 1993, this couple has participated in crisis response ministry following floods in the Midwest, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, an earthquake in Turkey, a devastating tornado in Campbelltown, Pennsylvania, Hurricane Ivan and now Hurricane Katrina. For an equally long time they prayed for the EFCA to start a crisis response ministry. In fact, Denise wrote an undergraduate thesis on this very topic in 2000!
I can tell you the call of God is upon their lives. They are choice players in the Kingdom and are bearing incredible fruit. In Luke 16:1-10 Jesus tells a story about how the children of light should practice shrewdness with money in accomplishing Kingdom exploits:
"Now He was also saying to the disciples, "There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and this steward was reported to him as squandering his possessions. "And he called him and said to him, 'What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward.' "And the steward said to himself, 'What shall I do, since my master is taking the stewardship away from me? I am not strong enough to dig; I am ashamed to beg. 'I know what I shall do, so that when I am removed from the stewardship, they will receive me into their homes.' "And he summoned each one of his master's debtors, and he began saying to the first, 'How much do you owe my master?' "And he said, 'A hundred measures of oil.' And he said to him, 'Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.' "Then he said to another, 'And how much do you owe?' And he said, 'A hundred measures of wheat.' He said to him, 'Take your bill, and write eighty.' "And his master praised the unrighteous steward because he had acted shrewdly; for the sons of this age are more shrewd in relation to their own kind than the sons of light. "And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of the mammon of unrighteousness; that when it fails, they may receive you into the eternal dwellings. "He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much." (Luke 16:1-10)
I cannot think of an investment that has greater Kingdom potential than strategically investing in helping Mark and Denise Lewis get up to full missionary support. They are currently at 25% support. Would you pray about this opportunity? If you are associated with a church with a missions committee, would you ask them about the possibility of the church adopting the Lewis family? Mark can be reached at: The Lewis Family, 1183 Springwater Drive, Mandeville, LA 70471; phone: 717-439-3138; e-mail: mlewis@efca.org.
Sunday, April 02, 2006
Sleeping Arrangements While @ Trinity Church
Some folks have been asking about sleeping arrangements while at Trinity Church in Covington, LA. Here's a description from the Evangelical Free Compassion Ministries Katrina Site (Trinity is EVFree):
Teams are housed at Trinity Church in Covington, LA. All facilities are modern with electricity, AC & heat. Trinity Church hosts volunteers on the floor in both the sanctuary and youth room (men and women are separated). Shower facilities are available for men and women with changing areas in both. Subject to space availability, RVs may park in a field adjacent to Trinity Church. Limited electric hook-ups are available.
If you have any other questions about this, please shoot an email to beth.shields@gmail.comimage courtesy of stock.xchng
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