An amazing calling

A little over a year ago, I transferred into the Missouri Presbytery. At the same presbytery meeting (they meet once per quarter), the Clerk of Presbytery gave a brief report on the recent decisions a couple in his church made. It seems that this couple, having raised their children to adulthood, were compelled by God and by a love for people to sell everything-- house, cars, furniture, etc.-- and buy an R.V., a generator, and some other necessary gear. They had also quit their jobs and had begun to raise support. They weren't retiring to tour the country; they were going to serve the PCA's Mission to North America (MNA) full-time as disaster relief coordinators.

At the time, I thought this was a neat idea; after witnessing the horror and shock of the past week, I think it is possibly one of the most amazing decisions that they could have made.

Ron and Judy Haynes have already served the denomination, and the nation, in great and amazing ways. Now they will be coordinating for the PCA what will, I'm sure, become the largest disaster relief project that our denomination ever undertakes. Please pray for this couple and their labors, especially as they begin to plan for the immense task before them.

If you want to learn more about what MNA and the Haynes's are doing visit this link to the MNA Disaster Relief page. There is information there about how to sign up to volunteer for relief operations-- something I would encourage you to pray about doing. You can also donate to MNA through that page or through the link on the right of this blog, or donate to the Red Cross through the link on the right if you prefer.

On a related note...
If you are interested in news specific to the PCA about damage from Hurricane Katrina, ByFaith magazine has a website that is updated daily on this; you can also sign up to receive e-mail headlines of the same information. Also, Wayne Sparkman from the PCA Historical Center is keeping a record of reports of congregations affected by Katrina.