Our group of 15 prayed out on Saturday morning as the sun rose at 8:00 a.m. – heading south and east. A sun filled drive with the beauty of God’s fall color a riot of entertainment along the way.

The always trusty and eerily accurate Google map arrival time estimate failed us – but only by three hours. But again, its algorithms probably don’t consider caravaning four vehicles of Christian missionaries through 465 construction, multiple highway merges, lunch, frequent potty stops – and a somewhat terrifying last 70 miles through the curvy roads of the Appliacian mountains in the dark. We arrived in Mountain City, Tennessee, and set up sleeping quarters, met our partners at World Compassion Network to set up the next day’s plans and crashed about 11:30. WCN is partnering with CrossRoads Missions who set up their mission hub on the border of North Carolina and Tennessee, allowing their relief ministry (and ours this week) to cross into both states.

Sunday morning we attended our host church First Christian Church’s 8:30 service. It is a small but mighty congregation who has opened their buildings to host mission groups. Over the past year their partnership and incoming groups have built/rebuilt 55 houses and counting. It seems it’s the small congregations who are often the most open to opening their facilities to hosting disaster teams.

After worship, the team came together to prepare a quick breakfast, helped prepare the meeting space for an evening praise gathering and then “rested” as us leader types worked to plan, adjust and then re-plan again, logistics for sleeping arrangements, the week’s meals and work projects for the day as rain moved in to change the pre-arranged projects.

By midday we jumped into several projects around the church. It is the humble part of mission work doing things that aren’t flashy but impactful to help the church serve others moving forward. Two sheds and the church basement were transformed from nearly inaccessible to highly functional and organized. God planned but unseen mission work.

The rain cleared and we headed over to a severely flood impacted home for yard clean up before the next storm rolled in over the mountains. Clint and his wife have lived in the badly damaged single wide since the floods deposited six inches of water and mud inside. Today the creek looked serine and harmless.

A year ago, after some rain, in the 30 minutes from when Carl first looked at the creek’s high but not worrisome water level, went inside to get some coffee and dress for work, he came out to find his front yard under water and a police officer on the road telling him to evacuate immediately. Blocked at his own drive, they waded through the neighbor’s yard and escaped to town to wait out the rain – returning to utter devastation. His wife’s daily medical needs, life’s demands and a general overwhelming list of repairs have conspired against recovery. We prayed for and with Carl who was visibly moved and perhaps for the first time in many months felt seen.

An old-fashioned pitch in praise night at the church welcomed us to a smorgasbord of crock pots, fried chicken and a dessert table that required repentance. It was an all too brief and awesome respite from the hectic daily pace we find ourselves in – an evening of Sabbath praising Jesus with some southern gospel. A joy and perhaps a glimpse of the Christian family as it is meant to be and will be in heaven.

We de-briefed and shared our best parts and frustrations of the day. I’m thankful for the team that God has knit perfectly together – as always- with just the right talents and life experiences. We all can’t wait to see what’s “planned” the rest of the week.  2 Corinthians 4:18 (NIV) reminds us  “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. Jesus sees Carl and his wife Trisha – and the First Christian Church - even if they feel unseen. We were able to bring a little of that sight to them today.