Martindale, Texas - Flooding 2015 - Week 3 Begins

Martindale, Texas - Flooding 2015

October 7,  2017

This blog was written by Catherine Botts, a World Renew - Disaster Response Service (DRS) Volunteer - Serving in Martindale, Texas with a team of volunteers assisting with the reconstruction from two floods in 2015.

Good Morning! Family & Friends,

What an amazing week we were given during week 2.  God is so good!  

Before I share about the projects that we worked on I want to share the devotional that was shared last evening from Oswald Chambers.  We were reminded of our reason for being here in Martindale, TX.  Chambers bible reference was from Mark 6: 45   "Immediately after this (the feeding of the 5,000), Jesus insisted that his disciples get back into the boat and head across the lake to Bethsaida, while he sent the people home."

If you remember this experience, it is when the wind rises up, the disciples are rowing, struggling to control the boat and then Jesus walks on the water to go be with the disciples.  He reassures them, "Do not be afraid" and he calms the waters.

Oswald Chambers several times in his devotional reminds us that we often tend to be goal oriented but that is not what God wants for us.  "What we call the process, God calls the end."  "It is the process, not the end, which is glorifying to God."

Being goal oriented is something that I struggle with.  Always checking a job, a task off my list that I forget the process.  So with this in mind this week I have tried to change my focus to the people that we are serving, to listen to their story, to hear their pain, and to do the same for others in our team while growing my relationship with God.

Keeping the process in mind, we are here to help the families we serve, to bring back their homes to a place before the storms of 2015.  Our first home is almost complete.  The team working there has done amazing work and the On Site Managers are preparing to do what DRS calls a last nail ceremony.  What happens is we have a time of prayer, bless the house and give a wicker wall hanging that has a cross the symbol of the Trinity in it.  The last nail is the one which is put in to hang the wall hanging.  This house will be completed!!!!

Team members were moved around a little bit this week where there were needs for skills and more people and a fourth house was begun. This home needed a deck and a room needed drywall and painting.  Good progress was made as the primer has been painted.

The team I am working with had a great week!   With the help of two of our team members for a couple of days we were able to complete the insulation, hang drywall in the bedroom and bathroom.  Also in the bathroom part of the drywall is mud and taped; the outside was enclosed with new T111 and it has been primed; the tub has been set and the walls are around it; and most of the plumbing is completed for the tub and sink.

Most importantly relationships have grown, new skills have been learned and only a few minor accidents have happened.  Thank you Lord!

In Oswald Chambers closing of the devotional he shares:  "God's end is to enable me to see that He can walk on the chaos of my life just now.  If we have a further end in view, we do not pay sufficient attentention to the immediate present: if we realize that obedience is the end, them each moment as it comes is precious." 

My prayer for each of you as you read this blog is that whatever chaos you are going through right now that you will allow God to walk all over it and to let him calm it for you as he calmed the wind and the waves for the disciples.  Enjoy the process.

Love, your sister in Christ,

Catherine