Clyde Baker, "A Reflection"

This is a reflection by Clyde Baker. He asked that I post it for him.

Following is a reply to my ex-wife, to an e-mail to me about Josiah's situation. I started writing, and the first three paragraphs are "what happened." I am planning on being in VA the third week in May, for a week. It is our break before the very busy summer season begins. Starting the first week in June, we will have 300+ volunteers per week thru the end of July, and there won't hardly be any time to even think. Then it tapers off until Sept 1. We will close for a week then to recuperate. I started the first new home of the 2007 a few weeks ago, with a goal if 15 - 20 this year, and that doesn't include the folks whose homes were heavily damaged, but salvagable who we are helping with restoration. We had 49 volunteer groups in March, mostly campus fellowship groups, with three weeks of 200+. I have never done anything in my life so meaningful and rewarding. Most of the folks we help are at the bottom of the food chain, and unable to get anywhere at all without our help of materials and labor. You should see the expressions of joy and gratitude when we finish one up and have a dedication ceremony for their new or "new" home. We have the most remarkable people on staff here. With pastoral, admin, social workers and construction management (four of us,) we have 15 working here, with two or three part time local volunteer staff as well. In staff meetings we laugh and cry and pray together. It is the most incredibel group of folks I have ever been around, and each one left a "normal" life to come here and do whatever they could to help. The Lord put the team together and showed His sovereign wisdom in bringing just the right people for the work of running perhaps the largest volunteer facility on the Gulf Coast. Jean Larroux, our pastor, was raised here in Bay St. Louis, went to the Catholic high school, came to Christ in college, then to Reformed Seminary. He lost an aunt and uncle in the storm, and while here helping his family recover their remains, etc., the Lord called him to "return to the land of his fathers (four generations) with the message of grace. He gets it. A year ago, this place wasn't in anyone's imagination but the Lord's. Now it is a 2 1/2 acre facility with the ability to house, feed, and direct up to 350 volunteers at a time in the reconstruction efforts, "No, we aren't recovered yet." Our thoughts are that it will take about five more years to meet the rebuilding needs here, and to have a viable church planted and organized when done. We also hope to take the lessons learned here and apply them in other situations in other places. This would be to get churches to have this kind of ministry in their own localities, I know of two that have, and response to other disasters whenever and wherever they occur. I didn't intend to write the above, but the longer I am here, the more deeply committed I am to the work and the concept - extending a practical hand of mercy and grace in the Lord's service, thereby earning a hearing for the message of grace that He Himself brought. Jesus Himself earned a hearing by His healing and feeding, etc, and told the Jews, "If you can't believe my words, then believe me because of my works."