week 11, post 1

Springtime Comes to the Bayous
Courtney, Terrence and I were on our way to Grand Isle, moving quickly down the road beside a bayou when Terrence announced, "I just saw an alligator!" I wheeled the truck around and we went back...Sure enough, there it was, in the water, still as a log but with nostrils, eyes and tail -- all five feet (or so)of it. My first LA gator. Later down the road, we saw four or five turtles sunning themselves on the bank. Springtime has come to the bayou.
Later, at Grand Isle, a client and I wrestled with demons and monsters from his past as formidable as the alligator. The session was intense. The man wants free from damaging memories as tenacious and destructive as any jaws of a bayou monster. Pray for us.
This evening, I will begin work with a young couple, referred by a pentecostal pastor down bayou Pointe aux Chenes.
The work is slowly growing.
Earlier this week, Courtney, her mother, her friend and I had visited the community of Dulac, down Bayou du Large. We met more saints -- insturments of Christ's peace who are pouring out their lives in service -- Alice and her husband Rock. They came here as volunteers from Texas several years ago, after hurricane Andrew (people mark time here by hurricanes). Then they came back and have never left. Alice is now the director of the Dulac Community Center, a United Methodist institution.
Sometimes Love is as tenacious and powerful as the jaws of a gator, too...
I've posted a pictures of Alice, with Courtney, mom and friend. I've also posted a picture of volunteers -- from Michigan and elsewhere, who are here to help. Thank God for all of them.
I hope to post again tomorrow or very soon -- about last night's storms.
Peace, Warren