A much needed trip to devestation

here it is.. MISSISSIPPI
Ok friends, here it is. My Mississippi blog. Also, brought to you in a different location... on blogspot. Yep I gave in and got one. Many of my blogs from now on will most likely be on here since it is a little better way to make sure everyone can see it.

I am going to: Tell you our purpose for going down, tell you about my new cultural experiences, tell you what God spoke to me while down there, and whatever else comes to mind.
So first things first: My class, non profit management, went down to the gulf coast to rebuild a house destroyed by fire, owned my a master cabinet maker who spends lots of time repairing Katrina destroyed houses. Mr. and Mrs. Williams were the owners of the house. Mr. Williams we later found out was really Rev. Williams which was really cool. He made all the furniture in his church sanctuary. My class basically rebuild a house in three days. It was quite possibly the hardest, yet most rewarding work I have ever been a part of in my life. Had it been a normal situation, I would have been exhausted waking up at 6am and doing construction until 6pm then not going to bed until 12am, but God used my time awake as an incredible tool, and he refreshed me daily. Each morning I woke up at 6am to have my quiet time before everyone else got up. It was amazing how many times the scripture would corrilate iwth an event that took place that day. After that we headed to the work site. We stayed there and worked then came back and had dinner. When most people went ot bed though, my, bobby, rachael, and matt stayed up and had some of the most incredible, but very challenging conversations ever. One of hte conversations was about what girls are really looking for in guys and when we say we want a leader what that really means. After answering, we were challenged with another question being "Do you not think that giving that much control to the man is asking for wife abuse?" Which from a Christian perspective was hard to answer because there are many men out there who do take advantage of their wives and it is bad. Another conversation we had was more on scripture nad what exactly we believe. the coolest part ever was that the conversation never once became too personal, ugly, or offensive. It was a great time for my faith to be challenged and for me to stand up for what I believe. It made me appriciate my time in the word because I could tell I was learning things, and understanding them enough to explain myself with scripture. I felt like I was really understanding what it meant to grow away from being tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine (Ephesians 4:14) Awesome! One subject that was often discussed was how to act toward non christians when trying to explain our faith. A few people chose to yell, get heated, not quite angry, or just try to prove the other person wrong. A scripture i read this very morning talked about being imitators of Christ (Ephesians 5:1-21).While down in Mississippi, I had the great privilage to visit to african american southern gospel baptist churches. This was a very new experience for me, and I can now say that the movies do a great job imitating them! It was so awesome to just see their love and truely see people on fire for Christ. They were all so incredibly loving, generous, and accepting. They had great food too! Their biggest way to saying thank you was providing meals and boy did we eat wonderfully!!!Another favorite part of the trip was New Orleans. My heart was broken when I saw all the devistation still in the city, but I have never experience a city that was so alive with music, action, fun, and food. It broke me to think about all the sin in the city, but to go there and see how important the city is to its people was great. We saw awesome break dancers, ate amazing gumbo, drank tasty coffee, saw beautiful catherdrals, and really got to experience a new life. While I was down there, God just spoke to me more and more about where i need to work on in my life and what he has planned for me. My love for serving others grew even deeper, and i can't wait to explore what God has for me there as well. God taught me a lot about how i cannot love everyone but through me he can love anyone. My prayer this week has been that I would be filled with the spirit and that Christs love would shine thorugh me. Well I know this is insainly long, which is why i am going to end it now. I hope you aren't too bored, but some of you have been begging for this blog. I'm sure Ill think of more stories and will post them as i do!I would love you know what God is doing in your life right now to so call me and we will get coffee or just message me and let me know!

With all Christ's love,
Atlee