Mitch and I can see a good opportunity when it comes our way and we knew that this was one we could not pass up.  We met a lady who makes and sells block ice to sno ball stands.  She wanted to sell one of her machines and she was willing to give it to us for a very good price with only $200.00 down and simple interest.  It was obvious to us that this would be a perfect chance to give our kids a hands on course in economics, instill in them the value of hard work and put away some cash to maybe send them to college.  Good plan right?  Not only that but we also had the potential to sell every block of ice we could make to another lady who offers "snow" parties to the people of Baton Rouge.  It was a win-win, no risk opportunity. So we took the plunge!

Well, things don't always turn out the way you think they will.  We struggled through our first sno ball season hardly selling any ice at all.  One thing about Louisiana; people are loyal to their people.  Mr. Turner has been selling ice here for years and no matter what kind of rock bottom prices we offered people were not going to budge.  It's one of the things I like best about Baton Rouge unless of course, you're on the wrong end of the "red stick".  Almost everyday I would talk to the Lord about this.  I would remind Him what a great plan it was.  I would remind Him that He too wanted to my kids to learn how to manage money, run a business, and go to college.  I would remind Him that this would all be working wonderfully if we could only sell the ice.   Surely He could help us!

Then Gustav hit and our subdivison was out of power for 5 days.  Ice was a high commodity.  Neighbors waited in FEMA lines for hours and hours only to find out they were out of ice when they arrived at the front of the lines.  Automatically Mitch started giving out ice to everyone on our street (he's always a jump ahead of me).  Suddenly we were meeting people we had not meet in over 3 years.  Bridges with neighbors needing repair were being mended.  Neighbors were telling other neighbors, "just go see Mitch".  Palmer, Abbey and I were giving ice to and elderly lady when all of a sudden the Lord said to me, "This is why you have an ice business!"  Of cours it is.  I guess I'm a blockhead after all.

Since then we've been able to sell some larger quantities of ice to Mr. Turner himself.  Turns out that he has so much business that he has a hard time keeping up.   We still aren't where we want to be.  There are still times that we have to shut down the machine because our freezers are full and we have no sales pending.  But for the most part I don't worry about how many blocks we sell or don't sell.  I do sometimes still remind the Lord that we don't have a college fund (only 5 more years until Palmer graduates).  I shouldn't remind Him because I know He'll take care of that when the time comes.

All in all we still have big plans for our ice business and I'm sure the Lord still has many lessons to teach us all but as I write, Mitch is out there pulling ice by himself.  Gotta run!

Melissa

Pastor Mitch sensed that the Lord was leading us away from Oakcrest Baptist Church where we had been meeting since hurricane Katrina.  We knew that we needed to base our ministry over on this side of town where our entire congregation lives. The drive across town to OBC was becoming tedious and maintaining that large space was becoming tiresome.  It was then that Pastor Mitch announced that we would be moving the church BACK to our living room.  What?  Was he crazy?  If I could just find that Calvary Chapel Church Planting Manual, I was certain that it would definately say not to move your church BACK to the living room.  Everyone knows that you are suppose to move forwards not BACKwards.  BACK to the living room was definately BACKwards in my book.  It's certainly not that I don't want people in my house.  We were born to have people in our house, but the church in my house was not my idea of success.

In the midst of my freaking out I had to leave for a trip to PA.  One of the highlights of the trip was that I would have the chance to visit Calvary Chapel Philadelphia where Joe Focht is the Senior Pastor.  Pastor Joe Focht is one of my favorites and Mitch and I both listen to him almost every week.  I even called the church from the airport to make sure that Pastor Joe would be teaching the Sunday evening that I would be in town.  They guaranteed me that he would be there.  And sure enough he was.  After worship he got up and much to my dismay he announced that Pastor Don McClure was the guest speaker that evening.  My heart just sank as I realized I missed my chance to hear from Joe Focht. The Lord had something to say to me through His word that night regardless of who was speaking and I intended to hear it.

The teaching was a familiar passage from the book of 2Kings Chapter 5.  Naaman suffers from leprosy and a young servant girl suggests he sees the prophet in Samaria for healing.  Naaman does go to see Elisha in hopes of being healed.   When Naaman arrives Elisha doesn't even come to the door but sends his servant instead and Naaman is quite put out by this. The servant tells Naaman to go and wash himself 7 times in the Jordan River. Naaman is angry and says that the rivers where he lives are better than all the rivers of Israel put together and he could just wash in his own rivers.  Turns out that Naaman does what Elisha says to do and is in fact healed.  Pastor Don pointed out that many of us are asking God for a miracle but we don't like how He sets out to accomplish it.  I left the church that night wishing the Lord would have spoken to me directly.

A few days later I am back in Baton Rouge happy to be walking my dogs and spending some time in prayer.  After thinking back over the trip and all I had experienced, I aksed the Lord to do a miracle in our church.  I went on and on asking Him and asking Him.  Suddenly  He was telling me that He would like to do a miracle but that I didn't like the way He was doing it.  YIKES!  I went home and told Mitch that I would never complain again about the church moving back to the living room.

Since we've moved back we've had 3 new families start coming to the church.  After church we stay and have lunch together.  The weather is so nice here in Baton Rouge that we were still eating outside in Nov.  IT has been an encouraging and restful time for us.  Now I'm telling Mitch that I don't want to move to another building but I'll just be quiet and wait and see what the Lord says.  Come visit our living room sometime.  I'll bet you'll enjoy it.