Thursday, December 15, 2005

Alicia and Brett's Wedding Pics

...are on the Tammany Oaks WhereISawJesus blog in this posting

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

LA needs you now!!!!!!

You have responded before and again we have the opportunity to show LA that they are not forgotten.

I received a call today from Master Provisions which is the group that has been helping us with so much of our shipping. They had been trying to collect toys for the kids in LA who would not have any this year. Because they have previously served in this mission field as a deliverer of goods and services they did not get the response they hoped for…………………….. This is good news for us!!!!!!!!!

We need you to reach down and let God touch our hearts yet another time for these people who have suffered so much. Master Provisions will have a truck at the Spring Road Church of Christ on Monday December 19th with room for up to 1\2 of a semi load of toys. That’s a lot of toys for the kids of LA, but let me assure you there are lots of kids in LA who need our love. Just to give it some perspective, we just sent 750 book bags down to LA and when I called to be sure they were needed they told me they had already handed out some 20,000 but there were three more schools getting ready to open after the holidays and the book bags would indeed be needed.

So the question is can we do it. In this time of hustle and bustle for ourselves and our loved ones, can we take a few moments, a few dollars, and a lot of prayers and do this for these people. For those of you who watched Extreme Makeover Home Addition on Sunday night you saw what the area was still like just over a month ago. Well after crying though out the “pay it forward” theme of the show my wife looks over at me and says what are we gonna do about how we are feeling!!!!!!!! She is and continues to be one of the key inspirations in my life!!!!

Well here we are with our opportunity in Extreme Makeover Soul Addition our chance to pay it forward once again to those in need. And I know you find it how I do, I receive so much more by just taking the time and doing it than I could ever give to anyone. Join me and let’s fill that truck.

For ideas on gifts you can go to whereisawjesus.blogspot.com and in the current needs section, click more details and there is a whole list of ideas. Remember you don’t have to make this hard on yourselves; these gifts are going to children who most likely will receive nothing else for Christmas.

Once you have your gifts here is what we would like you to do:
  • Select your gift or gifts
  • Select a gift bag appropriate for the gift or gifts – do not put the gift in the bag, they will prepare the bags in Mandeville. This will keep us from having to write out what each gift is etc.
  • Bring both to the Spring Road building, 74 S Spring Road Westerville, sorted by age group 1-12 or 12 to 18 and by boy or girl by 5:00 PM on Sunday Evening.
  • We will have designated areas set up at the church for the 4 categories. Just drop your gift and we will take care of it
Don’t kill yourself trying to find a gift bag, if one is not available we will take care of it. I am going by the Dollar store today and buying what they have for any that come in without.

For those of you who wish to help and can not get free to buy a gift and get it over to Spring Road simply let me know your purchase or monetary desires and we will have volunteers purchase and prepare your gifts.

So come take a moment and “Lets fill that truck”!!!!!!!!

For the 6 of you who have responded to me already, thank you and God bless you. For those of you still considering your gift, thank you for your kind thoughts and hopefully we can make it into your schedules for these kids.

The email went to 650 people, please know and understand that we are aware that there are many efforts going on in many areas for many different people. We do not judge or track who responds to our plea and who doesn’t, we simply appreciate when God moves anyone to action for the needs we are trying to fill.

May the God of peace and love greatly bless you and your families this Holiday Season

Brad

Monday, December 12, 2005

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