Servants Unite in 2006 and beyond

As Brad mentioned in his last email, there are two more trips planned being sponsored by Spring Road, Church of Christ, December 26-January 1 or 2 and January 14-22. With the help of some professionals in our volunteer ranks, we are working to set up an independent non-profit organization to carry the Christian disaster relief banner after that time. There are both long range and short-range goals for this organization:

• Continue to support relief and recovery efforts from hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
• Plan and prepare for the next disaster where we are needed.

The primary scope of the short-term goal remains the same. Send volunteers and needed supplies through Tammany Oaks relief effort in Louisiana. These will continue to be scheduled the first of each month with special trips for spring break or as needed. Additional functions for those who can’t travel may include sponsoring hurricane victims who have relocated to our area and working with Habitat for Humanity to build houses for those families here and components for assembly down there.

The long-term goal will also be important. I believe that by coordinating a large number of church congregations from our area, we can build a fast, comprehensive, and efficient response to future disasters. A coalition of church families organized through Servants Unite communications channels would be a fully loaded broadside waiting for the order to fire. By further combining our organization with other startup and long-standing Christian disaster relief organizations around the country, we can build a much more efficient, but yet loosely organized and independent mutual aid network.

We’ve begun building additional communications tools to keep all in touch. I added you all to a new mailing list which is a more efficient way to send broadcast emails. These email newsletters will come out every week or so with summary information from blog postings. The blog, servantsunite.blogspot.com, will be updated in real time as things happen or need to be posted. The web site, www.servantsunite.org, will contain standard and comprehensive information most useful to those new to the organization including signup sheets, trip information, etc.

I thank God for the opportunity to work with all of you on this project and hope you will all continue to support Servants Unite. To make this work, we have two needs. More volunteers to spend a week at a time working in disaster areas and more volunteers in leadership roles to grow and support the administrative functions of the organization at home. I will be scheduling a meeting the week between Christmas and New Years to discuss ideas from interested people and will send details when a time and location has been determined. If you are interested in serving further in Servants Unite, please email me at john@servantsunite.org.

Till the next email, please be praying for the staff and long-term volunteers at Tammany Oaks and all those who are working to rebuild their lives and others from this disaster. Please also pray for our group and others like it that seek God’s wisdom and blessing to continue doing this work.

John McGuire