It is so interesting to see a bunch of individuals coming together from all different areas and unifying for a common goal. These youth have really bonded and grown together both within the group and with other groups. The boundaries have been broken down and lives have been changed. One particular story is we meet a man named Malcom. Malcom lost everything he had and more in the hurricane. During that time Malcom's wife had a kidney stone and needed surgery, however the day they went in they put her on meds. They had to evacuate immediately to Baton Rouge to ride out the storm. When Malcom came back, his house was standing, it had survived the wind, but because of the 27 foot storm surge, everything inside their house was completely destroyed. Malcom hired a construction crew to help him rebuild his house but they stole $3,800 from him. He was about to prosecute them but he heard Jesus talking to him in his head. Jesus told him "if they want your shirt, give them your coat." Malcom decided that he didn't care if they took his money. He put his name on every church list for rebuilding houses. After 11 months and 5 days a truckload of volunteers showed up at his house. The next day they brought sheet rock that would have taken Malcom 4 weeks to acquire. When Malcom asked a volunteer how many slabs of sheet rock they used, they sent him to another volunteer. After being sent to many different people, hew realized that none of the volunteers were going to tell him. Malcom went to the church secretary and asked how many they used. Malcom wanted to pay for the sheet rock so that the church could use the donated money and materials for other victims who needed it more than he did. After researching prices for sheet rock, Malcom made a donation to the church for the exact dollar amount for the sheet rock.
When Malcom's house was near finished (the basic house was finished and furnished but there was still lots of detail work) he realized that people were coming at night and stealing all of the water damaged items in his garage. Malcom set up a motion sensor in his driveway with the intent of catching whoever was stealing his stuff. Between 9:30 and 10:30, the sensor had gone off 5 times. Every time it went off, Malcom would climb down the ladder but the robbers heard the squeaking and escaped. The 5th time it went off, as he was climbing down the ladder with a shotgun in one hand and a spotlight in the other. Malcom had the intent of killing the guy when he heard Jesus in his head again. Jesus told him that he would be able to explain to Peter why he had done it. Malcom decided that he would let the robbers take what they wanted because he would be throwing it away anyways.
-Kaitlin Moorhead, Alex and the youth
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