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As many of you know, for the better part of the last three years I’ve been working with the Partnership Missions Team of the Portsmouth Baptist Association to bring World Changers to Portsmouth.  Almost a year of that time was spent aligning time lines–the city’s budget timeline, the HUD grant application timeline, the project’s application time line, etc.  In late 2006 those started to align for 2008. (Yes, you read that right.)

Tomorrow, over 200 volunteers will make their way to Portsmouth. More specifically, they’ll make their way to the middle school just up the street from our church, and work on 11 homes in our neighborhood. And when the first van pulls in, I will, without a doubt be a basket case.

Over the last three years we have watched as events have unfolded that looked more like a story out of a Henry Blackaby book than something happening in our neighborhood.  From the funding to freezer pops,  God has been all over this thing. In fact, my prayer most days is “Lord, don’t let me mess this thing up!” The reason I know that this is what God has called us to do is that this is a God-sized task that only God can accomplish.

If there is one thing that I am more convinced of than ever before, it is the faithfulness of God.  When we needed funding, God provided it through a partnership with the City’s Redevelopment & Housing Authority. When we needed lodging,  God opened a door that we thought fast shut.  When we needed lunches, God raised up churches to provide them. When we needed shower curtains, God provided over 100 of them at the hands of the Women’s Missionary Union. God has been for us what we have needed at every point along the way, even up through this evening.

One of the exciting things that’s happening is that three of the churches in the community–Cradock Presbyterian, Cradock United Methodist and Cradock Baptist–are combining their morning worship services Sunday at 11:00 a.m. as a demonstration of the visible, functional unity of the Body of Christ.  (And we’re having a HUGE pot-luck dinner afterward, too, so that our congregations can have fellowship with one another around the dinner table!)

Each evening World Changers will hold their worship service at 7:30 p.m. at Cradock Middle School Cafetorium, and everyone is invited to attend.

Since I’m going to be living at Cradock Middle School beginning tomorrow, I wanted to get this post up tonight. Hopefully I’ll be able to post highlights each day.  In any event, be sure to check out the World Changers Portsmouth Project website every day to see updates on the week.  And every time you think about us this week, pray for us, won’t you?