True Joy in the Midst of Loss

I spent this past week in Rosharon, Texas doing Hurricane Harvey relief work. Rosharon is a town that was terribly destroyed by Hurricane Harvey and was often referred to as “Little Cambodia”. Rosharon is predominately a Buddhist community, and a temple was built there years ago in the neighborhood that we worked solely in. Even though the locals were typically unbelievers, they would come out of their houses every day to do Front Porch Prayer with us. This just meant that at 11 o’clock every day, everyone stopped what they were doing to gather around together for prayer. This was pretty amazing because most of the time the locals would stay cooped up inside of their houses. A man whose home and business was destroyed by Hurricane Harvey, is now leading a team for relief work in the area and more importantly is pursuing a relationship with Jesus! This all started from him coming outside for Front Porch Prayer. It is so amazing to see the impact that the Lord is making in the hearts of those here in Rosharon, TX!

DAY ONE: We drove down to a neighborhood in Rosharon which was about 30 minutes away from our camp site. All of the volunteers gathered together to pray in the day - as this was the way that we started every day. Our main task that day was to clean up the streets of debris and trash. We also cleaned up the yards of things that had flooded in. This was a heartbreaking experience because these people had lost so much. They lost their homes, their crops, their livestock, and so much more. They lost the place where so many memories had been made. It was astonishing, however, that these people who had lost so much still had so much joy and a heart so willing to give. They generously offered us water and food, opened their doors for us to escape the rain, and allowed us to use their bathrooms. These things may seem so very simple, but one thing that I learned this week is that the small things matter. The small things allow for big things to happen. 

DAY TWO: We drove back to the neighborhood that we had begun working in. After we prayed in the day, everyone walked about 2 miles down to a house that had been destroyed by the hurricane. I honesty don’t know how it was still standing because most of the walls were rotted and the house was sitting in water. We demolished the house with the help of several volunteers and in just a few short hours. This was a pretty emotional experience. It was sad to think about this family loosing their home, but my hope was that we could build a new home for them and that they could create new and memorable experiences in their soon to be new home. We spent the remaining hours of the day by taking the remnants of the house to the street. Towards the end of the day, I was getting very tired because I had been carrying load after load of wood to the street. I pushed through the rest of the day, but in order to do that I had to remember that serving others is what brings true joy. It’s easy to think that treating yourself will bring you true joy, but one thing that I learned this week is that humility is crucial to having true joy.

DAY THREE: It took us a while to get started this day. We had arrived on the demo site that we were supposed to be working on for the day and realized that the flooring in the house was not safe to walk on. This house was also sitting in water and the floor was falling through left and right. Out of the safety for the volunteers, the leaders decided that it was best if they had professionals demo that site with other equipment. So, you might be wondering what we did for the rest of day... One of the locals had contacted our leader and asked him if we could demolish his garage building in his back yard if we had the time. Since we now had the time, we were sent to demo that building. I started out by working with some of the other volunteers carrying out piece by piece of the building. While the building was being knocked down, I went over to see some of the horses that the owner had. They seemed to be hungry, so I asked the owner if I could feed them. He said that I could, and then he began telling me about each of them. He mentioned that he found one of his horses on the side of the road after the hurricane and brought it back to their home to take care of it. He then began telling me about his experience when Hurricane Harvey came. I had the opportunity to hear about how it affected him and his family as well as the opportunity to hear about his faith. I got to share my faith and my story with him and he was very eager to know more. This was very heartwarming because I didn’t feel like I was being eloquent or saying the right things necessarily. I knew that God was working through me, and somehow what I was saying resonated with him. Later at the end of the day once we had finished working, he asked if we could stay in touch somehow. So, I gave him a way to contact me, and he messaged me later that night saying, “Thank you for everything.” This melted my heart, and it was very encouraging. Throughout the day, I had felt like I wasn’t being as productive as I could’ve been because I had been talking to him rather than of working on the building. Now I realize that what I was doing was totally and completely productive because that is where God had placed me. The only possible explanation for what happened that day was that God was working through me and that he was and is in complete control of every moment.

DAY FOUR:

This was our last day of working in “Little Cambodia”, and on this day I joined the concrete team. We went over to our work site for the day where posts had already been put up. Our job was to put concrete in the holes and backfill the rest with dirt so that a house could be built on top of the posts. However, we had a dilemma because it had rained the night before. The holes were filled with water, and we had to drain them out before we could add any concrete. Once we got the concrete in, we just waited for it to dry and then backfilled the holes with dirt. We wrote scriptures on the posts and prayed around them. It’s pretty amazing to think that what we were building was going to be someone’s house one day. After a long day of working, we got to come back to the local church, La Vida Rosharon, where the locals made everyone dinner as a celebration for all of the work that we had done throughout the week. Before we ate, they thanked us for everything that we had done and sang us a few songs in Cambodian. This was sort of a bittersweet moment. After dinner, we drove back to camp and NC State hosted a shag dancing night. We got to share something that is sort of a tradition every month for us with those that have never heard of it. This was a way of continuing our celebration of the work we had done.

DAY FIVE: This was our rest day. I ended up going to the beach with a few people from our group. Later in the day, we got to explore downtown Houston some more and had some authentic Texas BBQ. It was a great day, and to end off the week, we had a praise and worship night. We also talked about what we had learned throughout the week and about what God had been teaching us. The biggest thing I learned this week was how important humility is. Like I mentioned earlier, true joy really does come from serving others. I am so thankful that I got to experience this true joy while I was in Texas this week.