Last weekend I began a brief series on my scout trip to the Gulf Coast.  You may want to read these previous posts to get caught up before you read todays.

Ahh, 12 hours of sleep did a world of good for my body.  Tuesday had been such a blessing and we were in store for a long, but productive day on Wednesday.  We began the day by driving north of Vinton to a small town, Starks.  Here we toured the town, but the pastor was not at the church.  Pastor Rob, from Vinton, had suggested we check out Starks as a possible fourth town in case we had the need.  I’m glad we did, because we now do need more towns to serve in, so at least I am familiar with the look/feel of Starks.

months after the hurricanes

After Starks we drove to Hackberry, LA.  You can see some of the pictures from Hackberry here.  It is a town that was devastated by the storm surge of the Hurricanes.  The water had no place to go so it settled about 3-4 feet deep in Hackberry.  The church was essentially totaled.  Though the outside walls remain, the entire inside has been gutted and is nearing completion.  The Pastor of the church in Hackberry is bi-vocational, so we knew we would not see him at the church, but we had arranged a noon lunch appointment with him in Lake Charles, LA. 

Pastor Jason, is also Officer Jason,  A county Sheriff (do you call them deputy instead of     Officer?).  After touring Hackberry we headed east on I-10 for our lunch appointment with Jason.  We met him at the courthouse (which was more of an office building).  As we waited we were approached two or three times by people asking if we were there for workman’s comp?  I was VERY tempted to say, “yes” just to see what would happen next.  I avoided the temptation in the fear of being arrested later by the very same Pastor/Cop we were trying to serve with.

Jason arrived and we headed for our first of three straight Mexican restaurant meals.  Jason was very fun to meet with and within minutes he was jumping on the Hackberry/Youthmark train.  

When we were done in Lake Charles were were quickly on our way back west to Texas.  Pastor Rob from Vinton joined us and led the way to Bridge City, TX where we were meeting with Brandon, the Youth Pastor in Bridge City.  

Bridge City is a city with a population base of 6000.  This is much larger than towns I would normally partner with.  However, because we are teaming with Samaritan’s Purse in the recovery efforts in small towns, it seems to be a perfect fit.  I believe I heard this statistic a couple times, we heard that only 16 homes total were spared from the flooding caused by the hurricanes this last summer.  Brandon was a great guy.  He was at the gutted out church doing some finish work to prepare for their first gathering in this building in months.  He was trying to get it ready for a Superbowl party taking place on Sunday.  The building looks nowhere near ready to host anything.  Cement and drywall… that is it.  But, the spirit of the people is incredible in Bridge City.  The church is going to be a great one to partner with.

After our Bridge City encounter it was now time to go further west back toward Houston where I was to meet another Pastor Rob, the Youth Pastor at a church in Spring, Texas.  We had dinner with Rob and one of his interns.  It is our hope that Spring may serve as “Hub Host” for our Gulf Coast mission (the first night to launch all of the teams, and the last night for celebration and debriefing).  As it turns out, not only did we get to connect and talk about being hub host, but Rob has since called and signed up for a Montana Mission trip with us!

Grace,

Brian

If you haven’t read the first two posts about my Gulf Coast scout trip, you will want to go back and read these first.

Approaching David's house

We were fifteen minutes into our ride when we saw him.  David, one of the men Rob had told us about, was about to get into his car.  David is the neighborhood evangelist, uncle, coach and all-around great guy.  Saved from a life of drugs many years ago, David has now devoted his life to reaching the folk in and around Vinton.  We immediately stopped and within seconds Rob and David were embracing.  Almost everyone we had seen in Vinton’s “down town” (read: main area) was African American, it was refreshing to see Rob and David embracing and obviously answering the question Nathan and I had about racial relations in Vinton. 

After Rob introduced us and gave a little background as to what was going to happen this summer David was ecstatic.  Though he needed to get a young man (9 year old) to a basketball practice, David first took the time to pray for us.  Now, I’ve been prayed for (in person) many times, but this was a very blessed prayer.  As David was praying I could literally feel the Lords affirmation that THIS was a holy moment and a divine appointment.  The Holy Spirit was moving in each of us as we all prayed for His work this summer in Vinton.

After the David blessing, we loaded back into the SUV to finish our tour, set up plans to meet the next day and finalize our contacts Rob had given us for the next day.  It was a great day.  Literally, three hours earlier we had zero contacts in TX/LA.  Now we had one town nailed down and two meetings set up for our two other needed ministry places.  God was blessing/providing, yet this was just the beginning… (the pre-cursor to let you know there will be more to this story).

We eventually found our lodging for the night, I did the math in my head, In the last 76 hours, I had slept a grand total of about 4 hours. I was absolutely exhausted and by 9:00 PM I was falling asleep.  For the next 12 hours I was continued to receive the Lord’s blessing in the form of a DEEP DEEP sleep! 

More to come!

Grace,
Brian

This post is a continuation of my Gulf Coast Report, two posts back.  Check that out first…

After talking to Michelle, the youth leader in Vinton, LA, we continued for the last 45 minutes of our trek through east Texas on I-10.  Nathan used his Blackberry to get us the quick directions off I-10 to the church in Vinton.

We arrived to the site of two cars parked in the church lot, this gave us hope that in fact, someone was around who would be able to help.  Sure enough, as our car doors opened and that ever-important first stretch out of the car was complete, we witnessed the church doors open.  “Y’all made it” 

We chatted with Michelle in the church foyer for three or four minutes.  At this point we were all thinking she was simply going to give us information about the region and perhaps some contacts we could reach who would be interested in what Youthmark had to offer.

She began to tour us around the church, first stop, the sanctuary.  We were introduced to a man, Rob, who was working on some wiring.  Rob, besides being the resident electrician, is the Senior Pastor and he quickly became our friend.

We spent the next 90 minutes or so talking about Vinton, the hurricanes, Youthmark and  bits of our own testimonies.  It became very clear to all four of us that Youthmark and Vinton would be partnering this summer.  

We eventually finished the tour of the church and Michelle eventually got to her daughters basketball game.  Nathan and I jumped into Rob’s SUV and we were treated to a driving tour of Vinton.  

I have provided several shots of Vinton here.  The town is very diverse in terms of housing.  We saw everything from 300 sq. foot square homes to a large three story 4000+ sq. foot home being constructed.  Every sort of trailer you could imagine serves as home for many while some low-income apartments exist in one of the areas near the town center.  It became even more evident Vinton and Youthmark were going to be a match as we drove the streets and saw scores of teens just hanging out.  Nathan, Rob and I all imagined what it will look like this summer to see our trained teens hanging out with these searching souls.

Begin to pray for that work now!  God’s blessing is pouring out and was about to poured out even more while we continued the drive…

I’m diggin’ this continuing story!

Grace,
Brian

Nathan and I met at the airport at approximately 10:00 PM after I had spoken at Young Life and he had worked through many of his wedding details with his fiancee, Megan.  We were able to get a last minute, late night, bite-to-eat before our flight took off at 11:50 PM.  The all night flight took us to our 2 hour layover in Dallas.  

As I had mentioned in a prior post, I had been sick over the weekend (food poisoning) and my sleep patterns were off.  For some reason I had only gotten about 90 minutes sleep on Sunday night, and here I was up all night on the plane to Dallas.  As we arrived in Dallas I thought I’d find a nice soft floor to sleep on… hmmm, couldn’t find one of those, but I did try to catch some zzz’s.  Nope!

While in Hawaii I sent approximately 15 emails to churches in eastern TX along the Gulf Coast.  NOT ONE had emailed back, so we literally were an hour flight, and three hour drive (from San Antonio to the Gulf) away from scouting and had ZERO contacts.  Fun times.  However, while in Dallas, and not sleeping, I googled (yes, it is a verb now) TX/LA maps and found a small town, Vinton, Louisiana which fit my rural town profile (under 3k in population).  I was not able to do much more than google, “Vinton, LA churches” and it was time to board our flight.

Schlaud slept.

I didn’t.

We got the rental (a sporty Toyota Yaris) and off across I-10 we trekked. 

When were were driving through Beaumont TX I decided it was time to look at the webpage I had left open on my mac.  Nathan opened it up and we called the first church listed, Crossroads Baptist Church of Vinton.  Here’s the conversation:

Lady: Crossroads Baptist!

Me: Hi, my name is Brian, I was wondering if you have a youth ministry leader available?

Lady: Yes, we do, her name is Michelle, I’ll connect you with her

Michelle: This is Michelle

Me: Hi Michelle, my name is Brian… do you have a minute?

Michelle: (and with the most classic pause, ever)… ummm…. yeah? 

Me: (quickly) No worries, this isn’t a sales call, I promise…

With that I explained 30 seconds or so who I was, what Youthmark does and wondered if she might be able to meet in an hour.  Somewhat reluctantly she decided to let us know “someone would be at the church who might be able to help us with some contacts.”  

On that note, we decided to go for, nothing else to lose (and with me dreaming of a good night sleep, just around the corner)… so we drove to Vinton…

The Gulf Part Two coming later…

Grace,
Brian

The last three weeks have been crazy.  I am amazed by the grace of God and his provision.  Over the next couple posts I will explain little chapters of His provision and faithfulness.  To start, I’ll clue you in on the calendar of events.

January 16-18: Speak for Rose Hill Pres Winter Retreat

January 19-23: Scout trip for Hawaii including an overnight flight Jan 22/23.

January 23: meetings all morning after getting off the plane, nap in the afternoon then great dinner out with the family (I missed them so much).

January 24: 4:00 AM food poisoning wake-up call.  Sick all day.

January 25: Speak at Parent/Student meeting at Faith Baptist Church

January 26: Speak at Kentridge Young Life then catch a flight to San Antonio via Dallas via Seattle.

January 27: Scouting Gulf Coast; San Antonio to Vinton, LA

January 28: Scouting Gulf Coast; Vinton, Hackberry, Starks, Lake Charles and Bridge City TX.  Then off to Spring, TX, north of Houston to speak at  a Youth Group (NW Bible); after YG we drive back to San Antonio

January 29: Scouting Gulf Coast; two meetings with Youth Pastors in SA to talk about YMV’s.  Schlaud and I then go to my aunt and uncles for a great night of hot tub, steak dinner, hot tub, and sleep.

January 30: Schlaud flies to Seattle, I fly to Denver.  Drive to Colorado Springs for consulting.  Coffee with a former student, Patrick, and later a hang out with some college friends too.

January 31: Consulting, training and parent meeting at Pulpit Rock Church

February 1: Teaching at Middle School and then at High School.  Afternoon consulting appointments and then the Super Bowl.  Late night coffee with another college friend.

February 2: Breakfast with two youth pastors talking about YMV’s.  Flight home.  Speak at Kentridge Young Life.

February 3: West Seattle Network, CATCH UP and then Kentridge basketball game (contact work for YL).

February 4: Burien Network, CATCH UP and Speaking at Calvary Chapel South.

Now that you know the craziness, and the violins have been played (I know, hard to feel sorry for a guy who HAD to go to Hawaii), I will write about the great details of these trips!  God has been at work!

Grace,
Brian

Finished my scouting trip to the Gulf Coast on Friday; what an amazing trip it was.  I will give it the “Kauai” treatment and share all the amazing things the Lord did/provided for us (Nathan Schlaud and I did the trip).  However, I am about to speak at Sunday School for PRC (a church doing a Youthmark Mission Venture).

Lot’s to share over the next few days, look forward to taking the time to write the posts!

Grace,
Brian

P.S. Here are a couple shots down in the Gulf…