Saturday, December 03, 2005

Help for Katrina Victims in the Columbus Area

I've been in contact with a local agency who is matching displaced gulf coast residents in central Ohio with groups interested in sponsoring a start to their new lives here. Firstlink.org is an established social services agency in Columbus. They are working with other intake agencies to match recipients when they locate a donating group. Recipients have ranged from individuals and couples to families of 7. Seventy Five matches have been made in our area and Kim at Firstlink tells me there is always a recipient available when she has a donor group. I've also spoken with the disaster relief mission coordinator at Indian Run Methodist Church who has sponsored 9 families through this program with great success.

This becomes a more urgent need December 15. FEMA will stop paying for evacuees to stay in hotels in this area 10 days before Christmas. Agencies have been finding apartments for them, but they are in need of furniture and all household items as they have lost everything of this nature in Louisiana or Mississippi.

This is an excellent opportunity for those of you who have wanted to do something from here because you couldn't travel to Louisiana. Firstlink estimates it costs around $3,000 to set up housekeeping for singles or couples. Obviously this would be more for larger families. Firstlink has a list of items here on their Katrina relief site. Donor groups should collect the household items and install them in the new living quarters before the recipients move in.

Listen, I know donor fatigue is a very real thing. Many of us have contributed as much or more than we can comfortably handle this year. As this illustrates, though, the need is enormous and not going to moderate significantly in the near term.

If you organize a group of donors for this effort, please let me know, even if you wish to remain anonymous. If you would like to join a donor group, send an email and we'll help connect you with others.

To sponsor a family, email Kim Kallmeyer at Firstlink or call her at 221-6766 x117

Team 5 is off and Running!

Our December 3rd team is in Birmingham, their overnight stop for tonight. After a few last minute cancellations, this team is made up of Gail and Carolyn Canini from Westerville Christian. They are staying with Homewood Church of Christ tonight and heading on to Mandeville in the morning.

Please say a prayer for their successful and safe journey.

It is a slow week for volunteers at Tammany Oaks. Gail and Carolyn will be working with the staff and 7 long term volunteers who are there. I spoke with an Ag Science student at Ohio State yesterday though who is leading a team of 30+ down there next Saturday.

Brett White sent a newsletter to all volunteers that have left email addresses while at Tammany Oaks. There were 701 unique email addresses on that list out of 989 volunteers who were registered. That's a lot of volunteers! If you didn't get Brett's email, send a message to whereisawjesus@gmail.com with your name, address, and whether you volunteered at Tammany Oaks. I'll make sure we get you on the list for future updates.

Check back on this blog during the week. I'll post Gail and Carolyn's activities while in the field. They don't have a digital camera, but maybe I can get some new material from our friend Alicia.

John McGuire

Friday, December 02, 2005

Storm Victims Praise Churches

This article is on the Washington Times site today at http://www.washtimes.com/national/20051201-114736-6989r.htm

Noteables:
Louisiana residents gave churches higher marks than government agencies in responding to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

On a scale of one (not effective) to 10 (very effective), residents gave churches the highest mark of 8.1, and New Orleans city agencies and state agencies received the lowest rating of 4.6.

Hundreds of churches and synagogues stepped up to help when municipal, state and federal governments faltered in their early responses to the devastation wrought by the hurricanes. They fed, clothed and sheltered survivors and raised more than $100 million to do so.

The survey said 39 percent of Louisianans had a friend or family member stay in their homes, and 14 percent provided shelter to someone they did not know previously.

Wednesday, November 30, 2005

December 3 Trip

Well team once again we are sending off workers to assist in the hurricane devastated LA. This week three more have volunteered their time to go and labor in love as we have all been called to do.

I have been excited to learn that many who have attended our trips have gone back down on their own, organized trips of their own and gone, or encouraged others to go. I don’t know why I am always amazed at how the Lord works to get His jobs done but I am. Guess it’s a weakness in faith. If you have gone write and share your stories so we can share them with everyone.

God loves you and so do we. We thank you for all you have done to support His efforts. On 12\26 we will be sending an additional 20 or so down to LA to work and then we have a group of 10 or so plus a group gathering in Dayton to leave on 1\14\06. We, the Spring Road Church of Christ, want to let you know that the Jan. trip will be our final sponsored trip for now. We will continue to monitor the situation, our resources, and ways we can help and keep in touch with you. An independent organization, Servants Unite, is going to take up the mantel and continue to work and coordinate efforts to the region. I will be passing on email lists and information for those working in the effort to use to communicate with all of you. I will be assisting Servants Unite in any way I can and in many areas so don’t breath a sigh of relief, you are not rid of me yet!!!!!!!

Praise God for all He does and provides. Thank you for letting God work on your heart and being involved in this effort to help so many. I want to encourage you to keep the disaster relief staff at Tammany Oaks in your prayers. They are taxed, tested, and pushed every day. They would counter with they are blessed everyday, but seriously, they need our prayers and encouragement. Lift them up, lift those who have lost so much up, and just pray for the continued efforts. You can see more of their day-to-day efforts at http://whereisawjesus.blogspot.com

Please let me know if I can be of any assistance to any of you. You are in my prayers and in our hearts and we thank you. Just as an FYI tomorrow we are loading up a trailer that will make its way down to Tammany on Dec 20th. We are loading up 750 book bags filled with supplies, a couch, loveseat, and chair, a washer and dryer, and other items for victims of the hurricane. Thank you to all who contributed. We also plan on boxing and loading items that were not picked up from the church that were used in the efforts. If you need me to set something aside for you to pick up please email me or it will go down there and be put to good use. Again thanks so much for all you gave and have done.

Because He lives,

Brad

Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Why all the strong storms this year?

This article is a good meteorological explaination in laymen's terms.

FYI, Tropical Storm Epsilon formed today in the central atlantic, 5 over the previous 1 year record. We've also seen the strongest storm on record and the most to reach hurricane strength this year.

Next year's forecast is for 15-20 like this year was. We went well over that.

Be thinking about the long term of Servants Unite and what role you would like to play. I'll be getting more information and questions out regarding that shortly.

John McGuire