When Christians serve, Jesus wins!! (by Gloria Hammonds)

The 'evil one' was working overtime in our group before we left on Saturday morning Oct 15, 2005. He was sending doubts into our hearts and minds about our usefulness or about problems and concerns in our homes and families. 20 people signed up to be on Team #1 and 12 of us who did not know each other, left that morning with Jimmy to follow a couple of days later. The 12 of us talked about this a couple of times. We all wanted to be on the 'first' team and all of us would have left earlier if we had been allowed. God put it on our hearts to serve and that was stronger than what the devil threw at us.

Some of us had marital problems
Some of us had challenges with our children
Some of us had concerns about our parents
Some of us had illness in the family
Some of us were diabetic
Some of us had special diets
Some of us were out of work
Some of us felt challenged by age
Some of us had challenges getting time off from work


We prayed for and with each other and put those things in God's hands and then we went to work. That was the key; just put the solutions in God's capable hands. When we were working together for Christ, we were a strong team and no one saw the problems and we accomplished much in the name of Jesus. Everyday we grew stronger both spiritually and physically and we all feel more blessed than we could have imagined before we left.

On our first night in Kiln, the people from Samaritan's Purse told us, "it is not about the house; it is about the people". Over the week to come we all came to understand what that meant and just how true that statement is. The people we helped invited us into their houses but it was our prayer that when we left, Jesus was in their hearts.

All of us are willing to go again in Jesus' name and the added bonus is that we now have 12 new very dear friends. Thank you, Jesus, for my new friends.

Gloria Hammonds