Hey everybody! If you didn’t know, my squad had the opportunity to serve in Louisiana for the past week! We partnered with Samaritans Purse, a Christian organization that works in disaster relief. Louisiana had been hit with two hurricanes within a couple weeks. It was such a blessing to be able to leave campus and share God’s love with all those that we met. We got to love others in the community through physical labor and talking with homeowners. We also learned so much from the volunteers that work with Samaritans Purse. God’s power and love is just as evident within the borders of our country! Here are the houses we served at.
House 1 (Monday) – We met a sweet man named Joe who was living by himself. We were able to clean up some trees and roofing in his backyard and then tarped his roof to protect it from rain.
House 2 (Monday/Tuesday) – We met Wayne and Berline. A sweet couple that had been married for over 40 years with a beautiful family. We cleared out the inside of their house to its skeleton frame because of the mold and damage.
House 3 (Wednesday) – My teammate Ben and I went with two guys as tree crew for the day. We met Mitchell. Mitchell was a sweet old man who lived with his mom, taking care of her at the age of 93. He was such a wonderful storyteller and we became good friends. He was a veteran and told me that I reminded him of his grandson.
House 3.5 (Wednesday) – We accidently dropped a tree on the shed of Mitchell’s neighbor, so we spent the other half of the day tarping the neighbors roof. We got to minister to the man next door as well and Ben connected with him in a cool way when talking about faith.
House 4 (Thursday) – Ben and I stayed on tree crew the next day. In the morning we went to Alicia’s house. We never got to meet her because she was gone, but we took out a huge tree that was laying across her entire backyard. I did a lot of chainsaw work.
House 5 (Thursday) – We met Veronica who was recently engaged. Her mom lived across the street from her and she had an enormous tree that we cleaned up until the end of the day. We got to pray over Veronica and her family and she teared up as we were leaving.
House 6 (Friday) – Ben and I worked in the backyard of a house where the rest of our group was working inside. We got a fallen tree out of the backyard and then we were able to join our group for the rest of the day. There was two kids living at the house and a neighbor boy that I got to spend a lot of time with. God blessed me with an opportunity to show God’s love to these young boys!
We left saturday morning. We get to go back after this next week to serve again and I am so excited! God is good and he is working through Samaritans Purse in big ways!
I love the break down of how your week looked like! Good job valuing both the manual labor at hand and the conversations and love we’re asked to show as well!
How much did it cost you guys for that accidental tree drop on House 3.5? Your neighbor to the west of your home did the same thing to your Dad, but not accidental.
Feels good to help others. Right!!!!
Wow, Samson sounds like an incredible week helping others. Your going to be an expert in tree trimming when you return home.
What an amazing way to walk in Jesus’ steps showing love, kindness and general interest and lives of those you encountered. To pray over Veronica was awesome too. Obviously, she was filing the Holy Spirit in her with tears from your prayers with her. Your memories just keep growing and growing. Showering all these people you had the opportunity to serve and meet was totally God ordained.
Will keep praying for You and your team and all the great opportunities you are having spreading the love an kindness of our Lord. Continue to be safe and God’s love is flowing from you.
Hi Sammy – What a week for you – hard work and the joy of making new friends. These people will always remember you and your team for your kindness and connection. How beautiful it is to share the love of God by giving of yourself. You are in my prayers, Gramma J.
Thanks for the updates Samson! God is using you in exactly the way He had planned it! Keep it up!
“God’s power and love is just as evident within the borders of our country!” yes and amen. We love to see it. Proud of you for seeing missions in the states with an open mind and a beautiful perspective!!! Thanks God.
What a joy to read about your joyous work helping each of these families! I would be willing to bet they will remember your words and your caring spirits as much if not more than any physical work you did! Such an outpouring of being Jesus’ hands and feet! Can you picture Him with a chain saw?
Oh Samson, what fun to read about your exciting week with all the details of what you did and the people you met. Grandpa and I had a good laugh as we pictured you and Ben dropping a tree on a neighbor’s shed, And what male would not like to spend a day with a chain saw in his hands! Rrrrrrr! Rrrrrrr! The amazing outcome of being a blessing to others is that we in turn are blessed. In Genesis God tells us that he will bless us so that we can be a blessing to others. You and your team exemplified that teaching in Louisiana. I am so glad you get to return and I will be praying for the safety of you and your squad. Love, Grams