It Begins

Sunday morning in Alabama, we headed out to the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. In case you were thinking, yes, our group was the only white people in the congregation. It was a really good service. The choir sang four songs, at different times, and like any good southern church for the song "I can't stop praising my Jesus" it went on and on and on. I thought it was great because it reminded me of what heaven will be like and how we will never stop praising our Jesus! "Can I get a witness?" Amen! Rev. Arthur Price, Jr. asked that question a few times. Rev. Arthur was a very good southern preacher, lots of volume and knew his scripture well.

The sermon topic was "Change at the Core" using Romans 12:1&2 as the scripture. In Romans were are asked to present ourselves to Christ, then to separate ourselves from the world, and then to transform ourselves into becoming more like Christ. All of this change needs to come from the inside out by the renewing of our minds. Rev. Price used the analogy of a thermometer an a thermostat. The thermometer simply reads the temperature, it conforms to whatever is around it while the thermostat changes the temperature around it. I believe that God wants me to change my temperature to be like His and through my change maybe others will be changed around me.

This church, the Sixteen Street Baptist Church, has history in the whole civil rights movement here in Birmingham Alabama. In 1963 four teenaged girls, who were getting ready for Sunday School, were killed when the church was bombed. There is a lot of history here and we only know a small part of it. I am so thankful that things changed and I pray that today people of all colours and races will know and believe that ALL of us our created by our Heavenly Father and we are ALL deserving of love.

We felt very welcome in this church as many people came to greet us after the service. If you are ever in Birmingham I would suggest you visit them on a Sunday morning.

For lunch the whole group went out to eat at a Chinese Buffet. There was lots and lots of choices and I am sure that none of us went away hungry. Back to the "camp" we went, for naps and socializing while we waited for the groups that were coming in for the week. They arrived shortly after supper, filled in the paperwork, and we all had a short meeting before retiring for the night.

Monday morning we were up bright and early packing our lunches before 6:45 am and having breakfast at 7. After eating we participated in a short devotional before heading out to pack up the trucks for the supplies needed for each job. Today we had four jobs going, and our job had a few things that needed yet to be done to complete a home for a lady. Her home is situated in the middle of the bush, yet she is only five minutes away from Walmart and Home Depot. A very beautiful location with lots of trees, it felt very secluded. We, that is our group, installed some lights, almost finished installing some laminate flooring, hung some mirrors, put up crown moulding and trim. Thankfully, in our group, we had two electricians and a floor installer, which made doing this job much easier.

Came back to camp, unloaded our supplies and enjoyed our supper. Had another group meeting and retired for the evening only to repeat the whole thing again tomorrow.

Thank you Lord for people who are willing to serve in your name.