Team 8 Work in Louisiana Continued

As Promised Mark Morris has completed his report of the work He and Mark Kindberg did in Louisiana last week.

Wednesday: We spent the morning time framing on the third story (attic) floor in the warehouse. Concrete for the first floor piers was scheduled for noon, but actually got there about an hour and a half or so late. We poured the piers in the warehouse to support the columns, and a five-foot square pad outside the kitchen door. As I said before, those support columns were top priority, so it was good to see that concrete going in. I was reminded once again how out of shape I am. I hadn't poured concrete in several years. Pouring and finishing it consumed our afternoon.

Thursday: I could hardly move Thursday morning! I knew I had to get up, but my body needed convincing. I was really hurting. The last few years I've spent in the office pushing keys on this keyboard have not been good for staying in shape. I got myself ready to go to work, but had to face reality, as time got closer to head for the warehouse. I was so exhausted that I just couldn't do it. Mark Kindberg, who was my co-worker for the week, was supposed to pick a rental car up at the end of the week from an agency down by the airport, so we decided to take the morning off and scope out the location and hopefully make things go more quickly on Saturday when we'd be picking it up. Once we got across the causeway and into New Orleans I thought that I'd take the opportunity to try once again to meet with Fred Franke at Carrolton Avenue, where Operation Nehemiah is headquartered. That trip really paid off, because we not only got to see Fred, but Brendan Hendrix who is now with the Hilltop group in Slidell. It was a great time to talk to them both and get their stories on how things are going from their perspective.

Thursday afternoon was spent picking up material at Lowe's and delivering them to the warehouse to prep for another workday on Friday. Mark Kindberg learned on Thursday that his uncle in New York had passed away the night before, so he changed his plans for driving to Florida to riding back to Columbus with me instead.

Friday: Having had an easy day the day before, my body was recuperated and I got up feeling energized and ready for a good day of physical work. We did have a very productive day anchoring the steel column bases to the floor and setting the 6x6 wood columns to support the weight of the dorms and storage areas above. That load on the columns was a load off my mind. As I said previously, that project was top priority. There are tons being added with the work going on upstairs, and getting the proper support installed was paramount. We also got more work done on the third story floor framing. A couple of more hours would have allowed us to get the third floor framing finished, but time just ran out on us. We left that project primed and ready for the next crew to finish.

We left Mandeville at 6:00 P.M. on Friday in order to make our return to Columbus a little sooner on Saturday so that Mark could see his family before they left for Florida. He was planning to leave Sunday afternoon for New York and his uncle's funeral.

The disaster relief folks all are focused on serving the needs of the hurricane victims, and they recognize that Satan is attacking them to stop their efforts. Please pray for them to be unified and for their relationships with each other to grow spiritually. Rest assured, our efforts will continue to be effective as we go down and work with them. I'm already thinking of how I can work it out to go back.......after my body heals!

Because He Lives!
Mark Morris

Team 8 Returns and Update on Spring Break

Welcome home to Mark Morris of Northland Church of Christ and Mark Kindberg of Westerville Christian who spent this past week working on the disaster relief facilities in Mandeville and scoping out the emerging organizations that are opening up in New Orleans itself. They've been great ambassadors to us this week and we praise God for their answer to His call to service. Read Mark Morris' updates on the blog entry from earlier in the week and look for another writeup here from him in the next couple of days.

I've posted some more of his pictures on the WhereISawJesus along with some of his report on the gulf coast relief effort. I'll put his gallery of 97 pics up with a link from here when I get past a problem on the server Dave Reno is still so generously sharing with us.

Spring Break
Your support is obviously still needed. Here's a list of the signups for our spring break trips:
Team 9, March 11-19th - 25 students and an organizer from University of Buffalo.
Team 10, March 18-25th - 2 volunteers, but expect this to grow as we get closer.
Team 11, March 26-30th - no volunteers presently signed up.
Team 12, April 8-15th - 2 volunteers, but expect some Westerville youth groups to join.
Team 13, April 16-23rd - New Life youthgroup

Spread the word. You can download this flyer to post for your youth group or any group who would like to join one of these trips.

Thinking ahead to summer missions? There is a tentative trip planned the week of July 4th since some people have shown interest and it is a holiday week.

Servants Unite for the Future
We need contacts at churches to be ambassadors from Servants Unite to help plan our response to the next disaster. This may be the blizzard currently blasting New England, tornadoes in our back yard in May, or hurricanes in the southeast next summer. It is urgent that we make these plans and build a communications network.

I've sent emails to a person from each church I know has been represented by at least one volunteer in our effort. I have not heard back from those I've assigned and I'm getting a bit concerned. Servants Unite can unite us all in the next effort, but we need affiliated churches and members there who can coordinate that effort. Please email me back if you can spend a small amount of time to coordinate with your church leadership and make plans for future efforts.

If you are interested, here is a list of the churches of people who have specified their membership when they volunteered in no particular order. About half those who have volunteered specified and this doesn't include the northern Ohio or North Carolina churches so there may be a lot more:

1. Westerville Christian Church
2. Spring Rd Church of Christ
3. Reynoldsburg CoC
4. Northside Fellowship
5. Northland Church of Christ
6. Southwestern Church of Christ
7. First Community Church
8. Linworth United Methodist
9. New Life Church
10. Alum Creek Church of Christ
11. Soma Church
12. St. Luke Lutheran - Gahanna
13. New Hope Chapel
14. Flanders Road Church Of Christ
15. Easton Worship Center
16. Norway Avenue Church Of Christ
17. South Dayton Church Of Christ Springboro
18. Urbana Church Of Christ
19. CENTERVILLE Church Of Christ
20. Church In The Falls
21. Xenia C Of C
22. Central Church Of Christ - Cincinnati

Are you getting the idea that together we can do SOOO MUCH! Spend a small amount of time to help your church be included in our future plans.