Biloxi, Mississippi, has had a huge impact on Overflow, Port City Community Church’s college ministry. For the past three years, Overflow has taken a team down to stay with LeMoyne Blvd Baptist Church. Each year we stay a week and help this church rebuild homes for people who lost everything because of Hurricane Katrina. It’s a heartbreaking fact that people are still trying to get their lives rebuilt five years after the storm has gone. LeMoyne Blvd is committed to serving the people in their congregation and surrounding neighborhoods. Each year we have gone, watching how the body of Christ works has never ceased to amaze me. It’s an honor to partner with this church and be a part of what God is doing there. Below, a team member from our most recent mission, Alan Barnes, shares his experience.  —Lauren LeFoe, Overflow Host and Communications Coordinator

Alan Barnes’ story

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” –John 15: 12-13

I was privileged with an opportunity to serve and be served by Biloxi, Mississippi, during the week of spring break.  Our team consisted of 10 college students, two teachers, a construction leader and a team leader.  Just getting to know and spending time with these amazing people for a week would have changed my life, but I was even more blessed to serve our Creator with this group of people.  This was the first trip I have ever been on where it was just a random, open sign-up, but I realized that it wasn’t so “random” after all; only God could put a group together that clicked and worked so well with one another.  The one thing that brought us together was what God has done for each one of us, and that’s all that mattered!

We left when it was DARK and early on Sunday morning, and after 14 hours of travel, we arrived at our home away from home: Lemoyne Baptist Church.  Lemoyne doesn’t have to make any claims about being missions-minded; the fruit from this church speaks to how much they love and care for people in need.  Before Hurricane Katrina hit, there were 300 members at Lemoyne, and they had a $160,000 budget.  The storm caused one-third of their members to leave the area.  But they now have over 400 members, and have cycled over $3 million into the community through home-reconstruction and relief projects!

Now, five years after the storm, their funds have unfortunately run out, so we were the last team to go through Lemoyne.  Because it is unwise to start something you can’t finish, there were no new housing projects for us to work on when we got there.  We ended up partnering with a couple, Bev and Clive, who started a free medical clinic ministry immediately after Katrina hit.  Bev and Clive started this ministry in tents right outside a demolished grocery store and eventually moved into a small trailer.  Recently, they were informed that a casino is being built where the clinic is located, and the government has relocated them and bought them a bigger, nicer trailer.  Needless to say, the new trailer needed to be renovated, so that was our main project during the week.

We stripped out all of the carpet and prepared the floors for hardwood laminate flooring, cut and laid the flooring, primed and painted all of the walls, put the vinyl skirt on the trailer, touched up painting on the outside, built a porch/loading dock for the medical supplies to come in on, and transported furniture from the old location to the new.  God conveniently put a college student on our team that has experience with electrical work to be our electrician.  Most of us have had very little if any experience with this kind of work, and yet God still used us to accomplish so much!

Bev and Clive’s ministry was so refreshing and encouraging to be a part of.  Almost all of the hospitals that have been rebuilt in the area are private, so they are not required to see patients if the patients don’t have health insurance or enough money—so you can imagine the need among the sick.  Bev and Clive have seen this need and are doing everything in God’s power to meet it; this is now their life.  They don’t ask for any information concerning income or status, they simply love and accept every person that comes to them.  This truly reflected God’s unconditional love and character to me.  When I heard about this ministry, I began to look at my own life and how I love others and was instantly convicted.  With something as simple as when the homeless come to me in need, I instantly start thinking, What are their intentions?  What do they spend their money on?  Are they actually in need? All while Jesus tells us that whatever we do for the least of His, we are doing for Him.  God has shown each and everyone one of us unconditional love, so why should we pick and choose the people we want to love?

Some of our team members had the opportunity to do some touch-up work on the house of a man named Rocky.  I only had the privilege of meeting Rocky once when I was picking up a trailer from his house, and he is one of those guys whom you can just tell needs people to talk to.  It wasn’t until later that I found out his story and why he desires people to talk to so much.  Rocky’s wife left him for another man several years before the storm, and the man that ran off with his wife ended up leaving her.  Rocky did everything in his power to accept and go back to his wife, but she was too ashamed of herself and ended up committing suicide.  Shortly after, Katrina destroyed his house.  But he collected a fair amount of money from insurance, and he began to build his house himself.  About halfway through the completion of his house, he had a massive stroke and lost the use of his right arm and hand.  So between his medical bills and physical disability, he couldn’t finish his home.  That is where Lemoyne Baptist stepped in.  On top of all of this, Rocky’s youngest son was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes, which eventually blinded him.  Rocky’s story completely broke me and opened my eyes to suffering that is going on all around us.  I am guilty of being negative and complaining about my circumstances that don’t even compare to Rocky’s— and so many others in this world.  It was so humbling to see his attitude after hearing what he has been through.

The stories were countless in Biloxi; everybody had a story to tell, and they were all stoked to tell it.  Many of them broke our hearts, and others made us jump for joy: hearing how God has been glorified, countless lives have been saved, and the church (the people) has been unified through this storm.  It was also incredible to hear the stories of our team members, how their lives have been changed by the gospel, and the way that God uses other people’s stories and “storms” to encourage and further my faith. God promises us that there will be “storms” in life, but Jesus Christ is the only place that comfort and peace can be found.

I have made some AMAZING friends and have been blessed in so many ways through this mission, and I pray that I will incorporate these memories into the life that God has before me and never forget what God has taught me.  I have heard so many times how awesome it is that I took my spring break and spent it serving God and others, but what I find amazing is the fact that God made a way through Christ for sinful and broken people like me to be able to serve such a powerful and amazing God.  There are so many situations in life in which no joy can be found… UNTIL Christ is in the picture.  And God paints the picture with us in it—we are the hands and feet.  We weren’t saved to sit on our butts and go through the motions; we were saved to go!  So let’s go make Him known!

“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.”  -Romans 5:1-5

—Submitted by Alan Barnes

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When Port City Community Church first partnered with Pastor Jackson Mwangi and the Victorious Gospel Community Church in Nakuru, Kenya, we had no idea the magnitude and the breadth of that which God had in store for us all. What we did know was that the need was great, an opportunity was presented—and we serve an almighty God.

One of the many unmistakable examples of God’s movement at work among the body of PC3 has been made evident in the form of this partnership through our HOPE 127 program. “HOPE” stands for “Helping Other People Everywhere.” The “127” refers to James 1:27, which says, “Pure and lasting religion in the sight of God our Father means that we must care for orphans and widows in their troubles, and refuse to let the world corrupt us.” This initiative was created to connect our local church body to people around the world. Its first project is the Kenya Project.

The HOPE 127-Kenya Project (hope127.org) is just three years old, yet it has produced great fruit both here and in Africa. From Pastor Jackson’s eager, unexpected arrival at our doorsteps to the 80 children now living at Mama Hellen’s Rehabilitation Center in Nakuru, one act of faith spurred countless others and has led to the currently unfolding reality of vital care for orphans and destitute children in Kenya. These are children who were once living on the streets due to violence, disease and poverty. Now, they have a secure place to live, basic physical and emotional needs met, and, most of all, a new-found identity in Christ. They are children like 10-year-old Gilbert, who had dropped out of school and was living with his aunt at the city dump before being rescued and taken to the center; he now plans to become a doctor when he grows up. Or James, one of the first boys to be taken in off the streets—where he lived for three years due to poverty and abuse—whose second chance at life has now taken him from Mama Hellen’s to his current enrollment in PEMA Academy. (PEMA, which means “a good place,” is the secondary school now being operated on site at Mama Hellen’s.) Some of the children’s parents have died of AIDS. Some lived on the streets for five years, others just a few weeks. But no matter their circumstances or conditions, they are each a sheep in His fold.

PC3 feels unspeakably honored to have partnered with Pastor Jackson, his wife, Peninah (”Mama Hellen”), and Victorious Gospel in their collective vision to rescue, rehabilitate and care for Nakuru’s children in need. Since Mama Hellen’s Rehabilitation Center was built and first opened its doors in the fall of 2005, God has worked through this project to show the children His love for them and to transform them as His own. In faithful obedience and love, Pastor Jackson and Peninah have guided the children morally and spiritually, reintegrated them into the Kenyan school system, and have kept them well fed—with nutritious meals as well as the nourishing Word of God.

Through our HOPE 127 sponsorship program, committed sponsors have the incredible opportunity to pray for these children and provide for their needs, as well as to participate in encouraging correspondence through periodic letter-writing. The idea is for each child to have three sponsors who will aid in the continual process of their renewal and care. Now that the children have a home at Mama Hellen’s, they are each joyous pictures of God’s redemption. We feel enormously privileged to be used by God to help welcome these new brothers and sisters into the body of Christ and to help continually disciple them through missions to Kenya. The call for us to reach God’s world in need has been affirmed unrelentingly with each relationship formed.

Right now the HOPE 127-Kenya Project is at a very exciting yet pivotal threshold along its journey. Recently, 30 new children have been accepted into the center, and as the project continues to grow, so does its need for support. Here are just a few ways you can get involved with HOPE 127:

• Currently, we have a need for over 100 new sponsors for these boys and girls, as well as general donations to the HOPE 127 fund. If you are interested in becoming a sponsor, please email us (hope127 (at) portcitychurch.org) or stop by the Missions center on Sunday.
• If going to Kenya on a mission is something God has laid on your heart, the application deadline for the August Kenya mission has been extended to March 21st.
• There is also a group that meets to pray for Kenya in the PC3 café at 6:30 p.m. on the third Monday of every month, open to anyone.

We encourage you to prayerfully consider your place in God’s powerful story of the Kenya Project.

“The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’” —Matthew 25:40

Biloxi, Mississippi, has had a huge impact on Overflow, Port City Community Church’s college ministry. For the past three years, Overflow has taken a team down to stay with LeMoyne Blvd Baptist Church. Each year we stay a week and help this church rebuild homes for people who lost everything because of Hurricane Katrina. It’s a heartbreaking fact that people are still trying to get their lives rebuilt five years after the storm has gone. LeMoyne Blvd is committed to serving the people in their congregation and surrounding neighborhoods. Each year we have gone, watching how the body of Christ works has never ceased to amaze me. It’s an honor to partner with this church and be a part of what God is doing there. Below, Alan Barnes, a team member from our most recent mission, shares his experience. —Lauren LeFoe, Overflow Host and Communications Coordinator

Alan Barnes’ story

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”

– John 15:12-13

I was privileged with an opportunity to serve and be served by Biloxi, Mississippi, during the week of spring break. Our team consisted of ten college students, two teachers, a construction leader and a team leader. Just getting to know and spend time with these amazing people for a week would have changed my life, but I was even more blessed to serve our Creator with this group of people. This was the first trip I have ever been on where it was just a random, open sign-up, but I realized that it wasn’t so “random” after all; only God could put a group together that clicked and worked so well with one another. The one thing that brought us together was what God has done for each one of us, and that’s all that mattered!

We left when it was DARK and early on Sunday morning, and after fourteen hours of travel, we arrived at our home away from home: LeMoyne Blvd Baptist Church. LeMoyne doesn’t have to make any claims about being missions-minded; the fruit from this church speaks to how much they love and care for people in need. Before Hurricane Katrina hit, there were 300 members at LeMoyne, and they had a $160,000 budget. The storm caused one-third of their members to leave the area. But they now have more than 400 members and have cycled more than $3 million into the community through home-reconstruction and relief projects!

Now, five years after the storm, their funds have unfortunately run out, so we were the last team to go through LeMoyne. Because it is unwise to start something you can’t finish, there were no new housing projects for us to work on when we got there. We ended up partnering with a couple, Bev and Clive, who started a free medical clinic ministry immediately after Katrina hit. Bev and Clive started this ministry in tents right outside a demolished grocery store and eventually moved into a small trailer. Recently, they were informed that a casino is being built where the clinic is located, and the government has relocated them and bought them a bigger, nicer trailer. The new trailer needed to be renovated, so that was our main project during the week.

We stripped out all of the carpet and prepared the floors for laminate flooring, cut and laid the flooring, primed and painted all of the walls, put the vinyl skirt on the trailer, touched up painting on the outside, built a porch/loading dock for the medical supplies to come in on and transported furniture from the old location to the new. God conveniently put a college student on our team who has experience with electrical work. Most of us have had very little if any experience with this kind of work, and yet God still used us to accomplish so much!

Bev and Clive’s ministry was so refreshing and encouraging to be a part of. Almost all of the hospitals that have been rebuilt in the area are private, so they are not required to see patients if the patients don’t have health insurance or enough money—so you can imagine the need among the sick. Bev and Clive have seen this need and are doing everything in God’s power to meet it; this is now their life. They don’t ask for any information concerning income or status–they simply love and accept every person who comes to them. This truly reflected God’s unconditional love and character to me. When I heard about this ministry, I began to look at my own life and how I love others and was instantly convicted. With something as simple as when the homeless come to me in need, I instantly start thinking, What are their intentions? What do they spend their money on? Are they actually in need? All while Jesus tells us that whatever we do for the least of His, we are doing for Him. God has shown each and every one of us unconditional love, so why should we pick and choose the people we want to love?

Some of our team members had the opportunity to do some touch-up work on the house of a man named Rocky. I only had the privilege of meeting Rocky once when I was picking up a trailer from his house, and he is one of those guys who you can just tell needs people to talk to. It wasn’t until later that I found out his story and why he desires people to talk to so much. Rocky’s wife left him for another man several years before the storm, and the man who ran off with his wife ended up leaving her. Rocky did everything in his power to accept and go back to his wife, but she was too ashamed of herself and ended up committing suicide. Shortly after, Katrina destroyed his house. He collected a fair amount of money from insurance, and he began to build his house himself. About halfway through the completion of his house, he had a massive stroke and lost the use of his right arm and hand. So between his medical bills and physical disability, he couldn’t finish his home. That is where LeMoyne Baptist stepped in. On top of all of this, Rocky’s youngest son was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes, which eventually blinded him. Rocky’s story completely broke me and opened my eyes to the suffering that is going on all around us. I am guilty of being negative and complaining about my circumstances that don’t even compare to Rocky’s—and so many others in this world. It was so humbling to see his attitude after hearing what he has been through.

The stories were countless in Biloxi; everybody had a story to tell, and they were all stoked to tell it. Many of them broke our hearts, and others made us jump for joy: hearing how God has been glorified, countless lives have been saved and the church (the people) has been unified through this storm. It was also incredible to hear the stories of our team members, how their lives have been changed by the gospel, and the way that God uses other people’s stories and “storms” to encourage and further my faith. God promises us that there will be “storms” in life, but Jesus Christ is the only place that comfort and peace can be found.

I have made some AMAZING friends and have been blessed in so many ways through this mission, and I pray that I will incorporate these memories into the life that God has before me and never forget what God has taught me. I have heard so many times how awesome it is that I took my spring break and spent it serving God and others, but what I find amazing is the fact that God made a way through Christ for sinful and broken people like me to be able to serve such a powerful and amazing God. There are so many situations in life in which no joy can be found…UNTIL Christ is in the picture. And God paints the picture with us in it—we are the hands and feet. We weren’t saved to sit on our butts and go through the motions; we were saved to go! So let’s go make Him known!

“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” - Romans 5:1-5

—Submitted by Alan Barnes

The first involvement I had with the Weekend Meals on Wheels (MOW) program was during Thanksgiving in 2006. I was trying to find a volunteer opportunity that I could participate in with my family. After filtering through a number of organizations, I settled upon the Weekend MOW program. It would be very fair to say that decision has changed my perspective and left me grateful that the opportunity was available. Four years later I can’t imagine not being involved with both the recipients of the meals as well as the other volunteers. It has truly enriched my life as well as my family’s. It has led to the development of relationships between my now 7- and 11-year-old girls and some of the most wonderful people. They look forward to our regular route, and getting to see the same faces and having the opportunity to share special holidays with them. It is extremely rewarding to see the smiles on my family’s faces time and time again. On many occasions I am left wondering exactly who is helping whom? My family has been truly blessed to be a part of delivering meals to these individuals. There is one woman in particular whom my daughters absolutely love. She is the kindest, most adoring woman who anticipates our arrival as much if not more than my daughters. She always speaks of God and how much she is blessed. She is quick to pray for us and speak to my daughters about God’s love. Through these encounters my daughters have learned what it looks like for a Christian to help others.

The Weekend MOW was started in 1990 as an independent, stand-alone nonprofit to “supplement” the weekday program in the serving of meals to elderly shut-ins. The major difference between the organizations is that the weekDAY program receives federal and state funding, while the weekEND program receives none. To continue operating, the weekend program relies 100 percent on fund-raising and donations—both with individuals’ time and/or resources. The major responsibility of the Weekend MOW program is to “pick up where the weekday program leaves off”… which is holidays and weekends. Thus our motto: “Hunger doesn’t take the weekends off.” How true!

A goal the weekend MOW program has is to involve more individuals at PC3 with our mission, whether through volunteering with a designated route or just being available to fill in. Also, we are looking to fill a void that was created on the fourth Sunday of each month with preparing and delivering meals on a regular basis. We thought that it would be a great opportunity for a couple of small groups to band together to help serve the local community a few hours a month. It’s a wonderful opportunity to actually see the difference that can be made right here in Wilmington. There is nothing better than helping others in whatever capacity available.

— Submitted by Chris Nesselroade, Chairman and delivery driver of Weekend Meals on Wheels