5 of the New Lifers and myself headed out to help on a spur of the moment mission trip to help with the Nashville Flood Relief. While we were there we helped 2 families and a church clean up some of the devastation that the flood waters left behind. From cleaning out filthy garages to picking up debris to gutting out the walls of a church building that was constructed in the civil war, these young ladies lent a hand and swung some hammers and pried with some crow bars for several days. For more photos, check out our Facebook group at the moment (other photos will be on this site in a few days).

The next question is... can we get to the Gulf this summer to also help with clean-up there?

Sorry I missed yesterday... We have been helping out at El Shaddai Church in Nolensville. This 300 member congregation is an international church with 18 different countries represented there. The pastor, German Castro, gave us a few minutes of his time to share with us his church's situation, not to mention his own rescue from the building. This church, a building built in the Civil War, was completely flooded and everything needed to be ripped out and replaced. The Ladies have really impressed all the men on the job site with their ability to demo sheet rock and get a job done. Check out his video below, along with our friend Patrick Bonner from Life Community Church who was also on scene helping out yesterday.

Also, I feel that it is important for me to share the story of the Lighthouse Christian Daycare whose building floating down the highway made national news. We delivered school supplies to them this morning and they took us around and introduced us to all the children. For those wondering where God might be in all this, let me just break down for you how an Exponential God showed up and showed off:
The daycare now is using First Baptist of Antioch Children's Department Facilities across the street. First Baptist had a member who passed away sometime ago leaving a large sum of money to revamp and improve the children's department there even though they only had like 3 or 4 children. The remodel was completed the Thursday before the flood on Saturday making room for 100 children, which is round about what the daycare enrollment is. The director there then described for us how God had been looking out for them considering that the flood happened on a Saturday, "If it had happened on Friday, the children would have been in the middle of nap time. The building flooded and floated away in 15 minutes. All of these children would have died. There is no way we would have been able to wake them up and evacuate them all in that short period of time."         Until tomorrow... God is great and greatly to be praised.

"There is no crying in Flood Relief!" Starting off our trip to Nashville, I sort of felt like Tom Hanks in A League of their Own. But let me tell you, these young ladies are a blessing to be around. Today was really nothing much more than traveling and eating. But in short along with the 13 hours of driving, and the ladies sleeping much of the day away there were a few things worth mentioning. The girls can pipe up and add to this if they like at the bottom, but there was Merv (or Toothless) our mascot making several appearances. One of the things that stuck out was watching another van loose a tire all together on the highway. The lug nuts came right off and the driver was able to get it to the side of the road without causing an accident or running into the guard rail. The tire itself rolled passed the car about a 1/4 mile.


Along the way, I was treated to hearing the gals giving their best attempt at using their little girl voice to get me to stop at an amusement park. This theme would continue on and off throughout the night.



After getting here and seeing some standing water where it shouldn't be, we had Carrabbas for dinner. Carla, Timmy, and I would eat there all the time and the managers know us by name. It was great to see them recognize me and treat us VERY well. We all had appetizers, soda, meal, and dessert for less than $10 a piece before tip. The manager then loaded us down with 5 servings of lasagna and 2 or 3 servings of pasta to take back to our hotel rooms.


We were going to go catch the sights of Nashville, but we all realized how tired we were so we came back to the hotel. I found out that Wild Horse (where you learn line dancing and maybe get on CMT) is closed until further notice along with the Hard Rock Cafe. Both are right on the water. It will be interesting to find out what else is shut down.


Until tomorrow night... God Bless.

As many people know, there has been much devastation in the Nashville, TN area over the past few weeks due to flooding. A few of us from New Life are leaving from Lock Haven tomorrow (May 11th) at 6 am to help with relief efforts and bless our brothers and sisters in the area. Please be praying for us; we have seen God's work in so many ways even before we have left. We pray that He will continue to bless us during our travels down and back and during our stay in Tennessee. Be sure to be praying for those we will be helping as well!

God Bless and Wish us luck.