Team 19 is on their way!!

55 Westerville South IB students, parents, and chaperons left from the school Friday morning at 8:00 on their way to work in Louisiana for their first week of Christmas break. Many of these kids were in the group of 35 who went at the end of the last school year. Some have been down even more.


Whitney Hayes (hugging her dad Brad Goodbye) is on her third trip.


Rossy is on his 4th trip!


South IB has had good media coverage of this trip. Several newspaper stories have run and will run about the trip. They were on clear channel news interviews Friday and NBC4 (Columbus) was on hand to cover their departure.

Thanks to all the media involved for continuing to cover the need and the actions kids like these are taking to continue to help more than a year after the disaster began.


Thanks also to Cavalier Coach for working with us to minimize the costs of this trip. With 55 people going, rented vans were cost prohibitive.


Principal Bell was on hand to see off the team as were many, many parents and relatives.

We are very pleased to have the opportunity to work with the local schools to organize and sponsor these trips. These kids are an inspiration to all of us who serve in this effort through their personal participation and vigorous fundraising.

Check the blog through the week and next week for more updates as they come in.

Team 20 leaves December 26 so if you feel inspired, you can still take some Christmas break to join us. I'll be posting every day that week with our team's progress, the changes in the area since I was last there in May, and our progress working on new organizations to partner with around New Orleans.

Katrina Relief Update from Pascagoula

I received this note from John Dobber at Central Church of Christ in Pascagoula Mississippi which I wanted to share with the group. While we have been unable to send a team there yet, I hope to direct some teams there after the first of the year when Hilltop is closed. You can find more info about the work they are still doing in their part of the country at John's blogs which are referenced.

Please be in prayer as to how and when you can start or join a team to go help in their community.

Hi John

Hope you are having a good Christmas season!

We are still helping people rebuild their homes, although they are having to buy their own materials these days. We spent most of our money already giving people sheetrock and stuff for their homes. Many have had a check from the Governor's Grant, and have the ability to buy the things for their house that they need. We do try to go the extra mile for those who did not get the grant, as much as we can. The greatest need is for skilled workers. We are still making some deliveries of beds, limited furniture, and food. Volunteers have also been working in our church building and I think we currently need some painting. We need a professional to lay the ceramic tile in our building as well. We continue to feed and house volunteers and have a pretty good capacity to continue that. On our work crew report you can see that we have a good number of folks lined up through July. (http://www.123jesus.com/work_crew_report.htm) I believe we are going to take another look at what we're doing about that time and decide what to do about continuing on. Things have improved dramatically in Pascagoula over the past several months, for which we give God thanks. And we do know of people who simply need their homes torn down and new ones built. We just do not have the capacity to do that for them. So we try to give them some relief...but ... it will not solve their problems. Many of these lived in sub-poverty homes before the flood waters came.

Well, I hope your holiday season is a great one. It's been unseasonably cold here on the Coast. I have enjoyed it, but I'm mindful of the people still living in campers. They are not too secure against the icy North winds.

God bless you...and let's stay in touch.

john