In the summer of 2006, a year after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, I was part of a group of volunteers from my church who traveled down to Biloxi, Mississippi to help with home rebuilding as part of ongoing disaster recovery efforts. We got assigned to do some drywall work at the home of a family of four who had been living for nearly a year in a cramped FEMA trailer. For five days we worked hard to do drywall and painting throughout the small home and managed to get bedrooms finished so the family could at least sleep in the house, rather than the trailer. On our last day, the mother told us we were an answer to prayer, because before we arrived that week, she was ready to walk out on her family because she couldn’t take the stress anymore of living in the tiny FEMA trailer, with no space and no privacy. She credited us with saving her marriage and her family, but we knew that God had put us at her home at just the right time for His purposes. I have never forgotten that trip and the realization that despite any hesitation I have about my abilities or whether I can make a difference, God can and does use me to make a difference in the lives of those around me, in His timing and for His purposes.
