Oklahoma 2015
Missions Trip Update #4 - FINAL                    

Pictured here with Bill & Carrie, homeowners whose roof was destroyed. Our team tarped it, and with mission funds from the team, we were able to leave money to buy them a new roof! Tears flowed and God is good.

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Praying with Bill & Carrie.

This pic is from Allison, who we met while helping out at a school today. It's of the storm coming in Wednesday night.

Had some bus trouble...team prayer happened and it was fixed right after! Pray first!

A school that has a lot of damage has to move into this church until the end of the year. Half our team worked here today, moving the teacher's classrooms in.

One of the teachers moving into her crowded new space.

Team members praying with families whose homes have been destroyed.

We moved this chair out to go to storage. Then back in, because the teacher had to have it!

Devastation of the tornado this week.

Rebuild Oklahoma Mission Trip 

March 27, 2015

Friday update

By: Keith Crain  

 

 

If there was a common thread to our last workday in Oklahoma, it comes down to one word: prayer. Friday was a full day of prayer for our team.

 

Our prayers actually began Thursday afternoon. As we were returning from Moore we experienced a mechanical issue with the Vineyard bus. Our awesome bus drivers explained that it was a "hung up" brake on one of the rear tires. We were able to make it back to campus, but the diagnosis was this needed to be repaired before we could take off Friday morning. After making numerous phone calls we finally reached Sev and he agreed to travel to our campus and make the repairs. He worked late into the night and was at the part store Friday morning when they opened. He arrived Friday morning with the expectation of installing the new part in short order and we would be on our way. That is not how it worked out. As our expected departure time came and went, Sev was struggling to complete the repair. 45 minutes later, he was still struggling. While Sev and Ivan were under the bus battling the part, many of us began to circle the bus in prayer. A few minutes later the entire team was laying hands on the bus and praying. Shortly after, the battle to install the part was won and we were on our way.

 

Though our assignment was delayed, the team was excited to finish strong. We headed to Serve Moore - a coordinated disaster response center for our instructions. Half the team would continue to tarp roofs and the other half would head to Emmaus Baptist Church.

 

During the 2013 Moore Oklahoma tornado, Emmaus Baptist Church became the temporary home of a destroyed elementary school. After Tuesday night's tornado, they once again volunteered to help a school. This time it was the heavily damaged Southgate Elementary School. Half our team helped convert church classrooms into public school rooms. After getting organized, they rocked! They helped unload trucks coming from Southgate and helped teachers setup their new classrooms. Many of the team members were struck by how deeply these teachers care for their students. One particular teacher was working alone and was incredibly anxious about a task that normally takes months having to be done in 3 short days - schools reopen on Monday. Our team was able to transform the room in a few short hours and tearfully prayed with her. Our wonderful team even has a cameo appearance on the nightly newscast. Click here to view the story. 

 

The thought of a church acting as host for a public school is incredibly encouraging to me! What a wonderful opportunity to witness for Christ.

 

The roofing team's day went much different than expected. The team was split into 3 groups of 5. Each team was given a handful of jobs to complete. As the teams went from house to house they found many of the repairs were already completed. After working incredibly hard the past 3 days, this team found themselves with very little work on Friday. This was God's plan. After spending so much time working on the "what" - working on roof repairs, this team spent time focusing on the "who" - praying with people that were affected by the storm.

 

Our final act of service on this trip was to bless William and Carrie Rusche. Most of the team met William and Carrie while we were patching roofs and cleaning up the Southgate neighborhood on Thursday afternoon. Their roof was heavily damaged and they are without insurance. With no way to pay for a new roof, they prayed. The team had extra funds for this trip and we decided to answer their prayer. The entire team was together when we stopped by their house to let them know a new roof is in their future. Kathy had barely gotten the words out before the tears flowed. As a group, we were able to pray for them.

 

Early in the week, we talked about this trip being a trip of Divine detours and Divine appointments. During the week there were plenty of detours - constantly changing plans, tornados, and a broken bus. These detours led us to the appointments God had for us all along in the Oklahoma City area - new roofs, new bathrooms, new paint early in the week; and tornado relief later in the week. God had a plan for us this week and, as always, his plan was better than ours.



Blessings,
Keith Crain

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