Aaron Johnson's October update from The Gathering church plant in Chalmette

Aaron Johnson with The Gathering Christian Church plant who we have worked with in Chalmette, Louisiana sends a monthly newsletter. For those who don't know, His family has moved down from Indiana to build the church there as have Matt Wooodward and several other ministry staff. Their church is growing and the previous bowling alley they are building into their community center and meeting place is finally coming along too.

Since this is an especially eventful newsletter (think growing family) I thought I'd post it for you. To view the PDF, click THIS LINK

Ida know...

Ida is expected to come into Pensacola Tuesday as a Cat2 hurricane. It could be stronger or weaker, but seems to be making a bee line for that section of the coast. Hurricane warnings are up from Biloxi Mississippi all they way around past Panama Beach Florida. That puts our friends in Bayou La Batre squarely in the effected zone.

A category 2 won't likely bring the kind of wind damage and storm surge that a major hurricane like Katrina and Ike did, but can still be dangerous.

Please offer up prayers for our friends and those involved in their mission there.

Lots of disasters in the last week...

Southern Baptist Disaster Relief sent an update out on all last night. This is a good, concise status on these areas.

Disaster Relief Update - Wednesday, September 30, 2009
“Therefore, God’s chosen ones, holy and loved, put on heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.” Colossians 3:12 (HCSV)
The Lord has given Southern Baptist Disaster Relief (SBDR) volunteers many opportunities to show His compassion and kindness towards others. From Georgia to American Samoa and on to the Philippines, hurting people need the touch of Christ.
Tsunami Devastates American Samoa

The North American Mission Board has been in contact with the Hawaii-Pacific Baptist Convention (HPBC). The tsunami that struck American Samoa Tuesday left in its wake wholesale destruction across the capitol city. The damage includes the Baptist Seafarer’s Center where nothing is left but the cement shell. Missionaries Joeli and Tupe Sovea, along with their children, lived at the Seafarer’s Center and saw all of their personal possessions washed away with the rest of the contents of the building. Thankfully the family is safe. The Happy Valley Baptist Church, located near the airport in Pago Pago was spared. Property destruction across the island chain is immense and lost of life is great. Pray for the faithful on the ground that they may truly be a light in the darkness.
Hawaii Baptists were spared and are now in the process of preparing to respond to American Samoa with their airlift kitchen and 15 volunteers. The logistics of getting to American Samoa with the ‘Fly Away’ Feeding unit, food and volunteers to staff the unit is the next hurdle. Pray for wisdom and patience as Hawaii Pacific Baptist Convention Disaster Relief leaders and NAMB Staff work with the American Red Cross and FEMA. The Disaster Operations Center at NAMB is working closely with HPBC leaders in an effort to support them in this monumental task. There is the possibility units from other state conventions will be requested. If the request comes DOC staff will forward HPBC’s request knowing that SBDR volunteers will respond as they are able. We do serve an awesome God!
Read more at Baptist Press.
Floods in the Philippines
The heavy rains that flooded the Philippines have created an opportunity for Southern Baptist Disaster Relief ministry through our working relationship with Baptist Global Response, the aid arm of the International Mission Board. BGR has requested assistance in accordance with our agreement and at this time four states (KY, SBTC, OK and TBM) are gearing up to send teams to assist in the Baptist response there.
Earthquake Shakes Indonesia
A large earthquake shook the nation of Indonesia late Tuesday. At the time of this update there has been no request from our international partner, BGR, for assistance. We do join our brothers and sisters of Indonesia in prayer. May the unbounded love and power of our Lord Jesus Christ be manifested through those already on the ground!
Georgia Cleanup Continues
We are in the midst of our second week of response to the floods that have destroyed whole neighborhoods in the Atlanta area as well as Toccoa and Trion. At the time of this update there are 7 states on site helping GA Baptists in the relief efforts. There are many other states that stand ready to assist as needed.
Support Southern Baptist Disaster Relief Efforts
Your prayers are your most important contribution to all of these relief efforts. Pray for victims, volunteers and leadership.
You can also support Southern Baptist Disaster Relief efforts with your financial gifts online or by contacting your State Baptist Convention Disaster Relief office

Georgia Flooding Update from Southern Baptists

Georgia Flood

The Georgia flood has been described as an “epic flood.” Seventeen counties have now been declared disaster areas by the Georgia Governor’s Office with 14 of those counties having been approved and designated as disasters by the President’s Office. Damage estimates from the State Insurance Office could exceed $500 million.

The response has taken time to get underway. Stuart Lang, Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief Director, reported, “Some roads are still impassable.” GEMA reported that 4,636 FEMA Individual Assistance registrations have been received as of 7:00 p.m., Saturday, September 26th.

Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief has activated 21 DR teams including feeding, recovery, chaplain, assessment, mud-out, and command/communication units. Mud-out teams in the Trion/Summerville area have neared completion of the work in that area. Stuart says, “Local churches have been involved in ministering to their communities.” Georgia Baptist has facilitated this ministry.

The North American Mission Board is supporting Georgia Baptist with the deployment and placement of state convention partners. Alabama has three units deployed. Additional volunteers from Alabama, Kentucky, Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia, Texas Baptist Men, and Baptist General Association of Virginia have been activated and are traveling this week. Additional state partners are standing ready to respond as assessment continues and needs are clarified.

The NAMB command post, generator unit, and shower trailer have been deployed and are operational.
A staffed phone center with a toll-free number (1 800 460-6881) has been activated and is taking calls from homeowners who have been affected by the flood and need assistance. The phone center is open from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. daily at this time.

Please continue to pray for all involved.

National Disaster Relief Leadership
• Bruce Poss, Disaster Relief Unit Coordinator
• Terry Henderson, Disaster Relief Operations Consultant
• Karl Ragan, Disaster Relief Planning Consultant
To contact the Disaster Operation Center, call 1 888 462-8657 or e-mail dr_offsite@namb.net

Georgia Flooding

I received emails from 4 faith based relief groups yesterday. This is in Southern Baptist Disaster Relief's back yard. They expect outside help will be needed mucking and helping the large number of un-insured rebuild, but the work isn't ready for volunteers yet. An update today says that they are working to set up operations in Toccoa, Trion, Austell, Powder Springs and Douglasville, Georgia.

Luthern Disaster Services is the VOAD in Georgia and they say pretty much the same thing, but they usually spend 2 or 3 weeks getting dig in and spun up.

Churches of Christ DRT is setting up in the Churches of Christ in the Austell, Powder Springs, and Douglasville areas of Georgia.

You can see from this google map that these areas are all to the West of Atlanta, not far outside the loop.

View Larger Map
As I am leaving for a mission trip to Zimbabwe next Friday, October 2 for two weeks, I am unable to coordinate any trips down at this time. Please do not let this dissuade you from getting involved! If someone can take the lead on organizing a team or two during this time, please call me this week and I can help you get it started. There are a couple people I'll be calling on to lead this effort. As information becomes available it'll be posted here and sent via email.

Servants Unite Status Update

"No tropical cyclones at this time." Not quite, but nearly the story of the summer. While there have been a couple storms in the Atlantic and Pacific and some localized flooding events this summer, the major events we usually respond to have just not occurred. We've just passed the anniversary of Katrina/Rita (has it really been 4 years?) and Hurricanes Gustov and Ike from a year ago our last official response. Remember when our power was still out and front yards were still full of tree limbs this time last year?

Cleanup is still underway for all of these events, but it seems most people who have been involved with Servants Unite have focused more on financial crises and other events that hit closer to home. Personally, I've been consulting (I'm an IT consultant when not doing disaster relief) and been blessed with a lot of time to get in better shape with my wife and spend some serious quality time with my kids. I hope God has blessed all of you with the same. A time of peace and reassurance.

Now I believe this current lull is only that. We live in a fallen world that is subject to all kinds of disaster. In the last 9 years we've seen just about everything. It terrifies me to think what God may be preparing us for with this respite and more healthful lifestyle he's helped me and some other ministry friends into this summer. When the next big thing comes along, I will be contacting you. Servants Unite will be spinning back up. And with all that we've learned in the last 4 years we'll be ever more able to shine the light of Christ on disaster victims and engage our friends, family, and neighbors in mission work.

Next month, October 2-13, I'll be on a mission trip with Westerville Christian Church to Zimbabwe. We'll be spreading the gospel to people who have never heard it. Apparently a bunch of white Americans can really draw a crowd there. We're also taking seeds, clothes, basketballs and soccer balls. We'll be building a home for the preacher of the church we've been supporting there as he is getting married during our visit. We're also setting up some basketball goals we shipped in a container last year. Should be a busy 8 days in country and a long haul out and back traveling.

Will you please pray for this trip and for me personally to be all God intends?

If you'd like a taste, you can take a tour of an African village with "Step Into Africa", a World Vision exhibit at Westerville Christian September 25-29. For more information on that, go to www.westerville-christian.org.

If you're rested and aching for some mission work. We do need to organize a fall and winter trip to Chalmette to build out the community center for The Gathering Christian Church plant. They have their building permit and are ready to build a house for God's people to work in a previously flooded out bowling alley. If you can help with this by taking a week off this fall for missions, especially if you have some handyman type skills, please let me know when you are available and we'll start planning a trip. You can email or call using the contact information at the top of the blog.

Servants Unite!

You can follow Servants Unite on Twitter. You can also friend john@servantsunite.org on Facebook and join the Servants Unite group there.

Visit Warm and Cheerful Chalmette This Fall!

The Gathering Christian Church plant that we've worked with in Chalmette the last two years has the go ahead to build out the bowling alley for their community center. They need us back to help get that done. Plans are not yet made. If you have availability for a week or two, please email me with special skills you have and times you could go. I'll publish that back out to the list to see if we can nail down a trip or two to help them out.

If you haven't been back since soon after the storm, you'll appreciate the difference. People live there again. Baseball happens. School happens. Going out for dinner or ice-cream happens. It'll do your heart good to see some of the fruits of your previous labors and help the continued recovery at the same time.

Here's the information I have from them right now:

"The Gathering Place"

We are moving forward with our building and from now on will refer to it as The Gathering Place- our future community center and meeting place for the church! We got our final building permit at the end of July and hope to close on the purchase of it in September. To the right is the floor plan of the first phase, with two more areas for future phases. This area will hold counseling offices, a multi-purpose room, meeting spaces, and restrooms.

We are extremely excited to watch as God builds this place of ministry. We are prayerfully planning as we move forward with what He has already provided. This August we will be working on tying re-bar, installing under-slab plumbing, and pouring concrete. Please lift us up in these endeavors!

2009 Hurricane Season So Far

Just so people don't think I'm watching.... There is a major hurricane, "Bill" out in the Atlantic, but it is not expected to make landfall. There's a chance for storm development in the Gulf of Mexico, but this storm season has been unexpectedly light. Even in the midwest where we generally have a few flooding and severe storm events a year, there has been little of the mahem we've come to expect the last few years.

Due to a general lack of interest over the past 12 months, we're kind of in a holding pattern as an organization. When the next big thing happens though details on how you can help will be here as will I and other's who have been team leaders in Servants Unite over the last 4 years since Katrina came onshore.

I pray that you've had the opportunity to spend more time with your families and other ministries recently. We will be called on again and your help will continue to be needed.

Local work opportunity

President Obama recently announced a Summer of Service initiative called United We Serve. This 81 day initiative will culminate with a new National Day of Service and Remembrance on September 11, 2009.

Rebuilding Together Central Ohio is ready to answer President Obama's call! In the spirit of United We Serve and the new National Day of Service, RTCO is looking to mobilize 100 volunteers in the greater Columbus region. In volunteering, Americans will be reaching out to impact our neighborhoods in the areas of energy efficiency, sustainability, and beautification.

Volunteer activities will include:
Energy Efficiency Outreach Project
o Assembling and distributing 500 Energy
Efficiency Outreach bags to local residents
Community Garden Maintenance
o Clean up local community gardens, turning soil and
preparing them for the Fall and Winter months
Street Clean Up
o Canvassing local streets for trash, separating
recyclables from non-recyclables

The dates of service are August 28th and 29th. Volunteers will meet at Rebuilding Together Central Ohio's Office and go out into the community from there. The first 100 volunteers will receive a United We Serve - Rebuilding Together T-Shirt and water bottle.

Interested?
Contact:
Aaron Murphy at aaron@rtcolumbus.org or

Jonathan Duffy at jonathan@rtcolumbus.org