By Paul and Gerri McDaniel
The McDaniels, members of Lynn Haven Baptist Church, Vinton, recently spent two weeks in Gulfport, Mississippi, working with one of Virginia Baptists’ partner churches, Crosspoint.
Crosspoint Church, a church only a year and a half old, is ministering to victims of Hurricane Katrina and the volunteers who come to help. God has greatly blessed the relief efforts of Crosspoint and First Baptist Church Gulfport.
Since Hurricane Katrina the relief effort has hosted volunteer teams from more than 130 different organizations, representing 29 states and performing over 70,000 volunteer hours of service. I had never been on a mission experience with so many Christian volunteers. During the 10 days we were in Gulfport, there were also relief workers from Montana, Maine, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Kentucky
A church in Montana had rented a RV to sit at Crosspoint for use by the staff and their teams. A person from a church in Ohio brought their RV and left it for volunteers and their members to stay in when they came. A church in Colorado set up two large tents that can sleep 14 to 16 people on cots. A shower unit from New York provided showers.
An Alabama group brought their feeding trailer and tents so meals could be cooked. Many other groups provided tents, tools and financial support as well as hands-on volunteers. What a blessing it was to work alongside these teams, eat together and share around a campfire at night the days’ events and Christ.
To realize how God has worked with this church to bring so many of his people together to minister to the victims of Katrina and to hear how each volunteer is blessed by the victims as they minister is overwhelming. Things only God could make happen.
An example of this is a roofing team from Troy, Michigan, who left after work on Thursday and drove all night to arrive at Crosspoint around 8:00 a.m. to work all day. They slept Friday night in a tent, worked all day Saturday and drove all night to be home for church on Sunday.
Just before the team arrived on Friday Paul was looking for a plumber to hire to repair one of the Virginia Baptist shower trailers. In the roofing team was a plumber who didn’t know why God had sent him with a roofing team. Paul knew–and more importantly God knew. This man spent most of his short time there fixing the shower trailer.
Would you consider a Gulf Coast missions trip? Remember it is Mississippi and warm. A good cot, air mattress and sleeping bag are all you need. There are tents. The rest will be provided if you don’t have it. If you don’t, you may miss a unique mission experience with Christians from all over the U.S. coming to this new church start ministering and worshiping in Christ’s name.