Name: Laura Beall Age: 22 Hometown: West Fork, AR

           

 

 

 

 

           Skipping school for a whole semester? Moving down to New Orleans? Working with people who need a lot of help and even more hope? Sounds like a crazy idea! And that’s why I liked it.  People tell you to take advantage of your youth while you’ve got it, so I decided to do just that.  That’s why I’m here in New Orleans serving in an internship with Operation Nehemiah.  And it’s been one of the biggest blessings I have ever experienced, and that’s saying a lot because in my life I’ve encountered plenty of God’s abundance.
            So what’s it all about?  Well, New Orleans has thousands of hurting people.  They have barely begun the recovery process from a hurricane that blew their lives apart over a year ago.  As I said, they are in desperate need of help, and more importantly, hope.  At Operation Nehemiah, we work to provide them with both.  It’s our mission to “rebuild the walls of people’s lives” in every way possible: physically, emotionally, and spiritually.  Jesus was the master of the concept of providing for people’s physical needs in order to serve them and to open doors to their aching souls.  We try in our work here to follow his example.
            Operation Nehemiah could certainly use more help, and that means we could use you!  There’s plenty of work to do – everything from office work, organization for groups and projects, gutting homes, outreach ministry in the city, working with the church, and just about anything you can imagine!  Whatever talents and passions you have, you’ll find ways to use them here in New Orleans.
            Dream big. God can accomplish immeasurably more than you can ever ask or imagine. And he has in my life. I never thought I’d be here in New Orleans doing the work that I’m doing now.  I never really planned to take time off of school to follow a dream like this, and even when I did decide to do so, it raised some questions and concerns from people around me.  But God worked through all that to bring me here to help minister to some people who are in great need of his loving kindness. And God can use you in similar, perhaps even bigger and better ways if you’ll only give him the chance!