Web and Email offline

This is the only comms channel I have open right now. The server that has been hosting the web site and email was wiped out Christmas Eve. No permanent loss there, except for the potential of loosing a chunk of the current email list. Restoring that is a top priority and I hope to have the new site and email up and running again on a new server in a few days.

Thanks for you're continued support!

John McGuire

Lower Lights Christmas House Update

Things continue to progress fairly well and it looks like we may make the Christmas deadline for occupancy on 1057 Bellows Avenue. Today, carpet is being laid, siding is being hung, appliances are going in, and we hope to pass our electrical final inspection (plumbing final is tomorrow).

We are in need of help on Friday and Saturday to do punch out items – everything from touch up paint to cleaning to sealing grout. All skills levels are welcome. We also continue to need assistance in preparing our other property for occupancy – needing painters/wallpaper removal.


If you can help with any of these items, please contact myself or one of the following:
Andy Scott 614-404-5162
Bill Ruark 740-972-1183

I want to also remind you that we are planning an open house/ribbon cutting for this Sunday from 2-3 p.m.

Thanks for your financial support, your hard work, and your prayers to make this possible.

God Bless,

David C Gay
Executive Director
Lower Lights Ministries, Inc.
1066 Bellows Avenue - Columbus, Ohio 43223
614.228.3855 (phone) 614.228.1255 (fax)
www.lowerlights.org

Bucyrus Update

You can find an article that gives a great update to the work continuing up in Bucyrus here.

Lower Lights Construction Update

Current work on 1057 Bellows Avenue continues to progress well. Roofing workers and the drywall crew are underway. The revised schedule is as follows:

Dec 3 – Drywall will be complete

Dec 5 – trim work to be installed

Dec 6-10 – Prime and paint (we have a team in place)

Dec. 8-10 – Install kitchen cabinets (help is needed)

Dec 10-14 – Install tile (help is needed)

Dec 15-20 – Install carpet (to be contracted)/ /fixtures (help is needed)

Dec 21-24 – Final Inspection

Again, I can’t stress how pleased we have been with the response we have received. I apologize for those who have not been able to plug in, but we are having to adjust things continually because of our time frame. Thanks for being patient.

I also want you to know that we are working on another property that has just come online for us. It is a two bedroom town home that we hope to have ready by December 16th. The scope of this project is not nearly as intense.

David C Gay
Executive Director
Lower Lights Ministries, Inc.
1066 Bellows Avenue - Columbus, Ohio 43223
614.228.3855 (phone) 614.228.1255 (fax)

www.lowerlights.org

California Wildfire Relief Pics

Nate and Trudy Bertram from New Life, Canal Winchester (Ohio) took these pictures on their trip to San Diego last week to work with Hilltop Rescue.

Hilltop Wildfire Relief Pics

If you are on Facebook, Chrissy Wyatt has some great pics up from the San Diego area relief work. If you aren't on Facebook, why not? ;-)

Local Christmas Service Opportunity

Lower Lights, a ministry working in the depressed Hilltop/Franklinton neighborhood of Columbus, needs volunteer labor to get a house livable for a local family before Christmas. The details are below. It appears there are two opportunities, this week to install insulation, and then after December 5 for finishing. If you’d like to go down, let me know and I’ll try to help organize SU volunteers.

Greetings all,

I apologize for not being in contact for several weeks, but we have been spending most of our time getting the mechanical on the house completed. The good news is that the electric, plumbing, and HVAC inspections have passed. The bad news is that the next month we are going to have to work like mad to get our family in by Christmas. This is ambitious (especially December being so crazy for all of us), but we believe it is doable.

The planned schedule is as follows:

• Nov 15-19 – finish structural needs for inspection
• Nov. 21 - have structural inspection passed
• Nov. 26 – have insulation installed (we could use volunteers!)
• Dec. 4 – have drywall completed (we are contracting this out because of skill level needed and time constraints)

This means from Dec 5-23 we need help:

• Priming/painting
• Installing plumbing fixtures
• Installing kitchen cabinets/appliances
• Installing flooring
• Installing electric fixtures

We are desperate for you to go to your networks and enlist as much help as you can. We can likely accommodate any time people have to work (we will have lighting and heat so that work can be done around the clock) and we can use various skill levels.

If you or any of your people can help, please call Andy Scott (404-5162) or myself (738-4129) and we will make arrangements.

I GREATLY appreciate your patience through this process and your dedication to open the door to homeownership for low-income families.

David C Gay
Executive Director
Lower Lights Ministries, Inc.
1066 Bellows Avenue - Columbus, Ohio 43223
614.228.3855 (phone) 614.228.1255 (fax)
www.lowerlights.org

Team 29 Picture Galleries

Gayle Henthorn

Rick Peszlen

John McGuire

Gerald (Hendersonville Church of Christ)

Team 29 pics and work update for Wednesday Night

Good evening. We're all tired after working our second day here in Chalmette. I've uploaded some pictures for your review with captions explaining them.

This is most of the Columbus contingent at University Church of Christ where we stayed in Tuscaloosa on our way down.

And we got down here to find that there is still quite a bit to be done before this place will be anywhere near what someone would call normal.

Still, there's been a lot of progress. Traffic is heavier here than it was in the spring. Many houses are finished with people living in them compared to only a few then. And more businesses have opened up. Life is slowly returning to normal, but quite a few homes look like the one above, or have been gutted, but the lawns cut.

A lot of the reason many people have been able to move back into their homes is due to volunteer effort. I stopped by St. Bernard Project to check on Liz and Zack who run that group who we worked for last Christmas. Here's their present tally from the sign on the wall:

They're going gangbusters and have helped a lot of people get back in their homes.

Churches are rebuilding and opening up too. I found a couple of new churches along Judge Perez Drive over by Aribi. I also snapped this pic of the newly rebuilt and expanded Chalmette Church of Christ by Home Depot:
The part of the building in the foreground is the new addition and the part to the right is the old auditorium where Team 7 nailed down sheathing and covered the exterior with tar paper in January '05. The foundation for this new addition was laid in April, but I was amazed and how nicely completed it is.

Yet... Across the street at the washed out apartments, repairs are moving slowly. Some are done and one resident I talked with had just moved in last week.

Here's our team at devo. John Chilcote from Westerville Christian put these together for this week and has done a great job of highlighting biblical exortations and relating them to our work here. This space serves as our cafeteria space and common room here in Chalmette Middle School.
I got this great sunset over New Orleans from the high I-510 bridge last night too.
There have been a lot of volunteers working on the community center clearing out old debris and getting it ready for an open house this afternoon.
The space was a bowling alley, but The Gathering has leased it to set up their community center, daycare, and church.

The Nashville group (Richard Swint who has cooked for us so many times on our overnight stays) has been wiring and plumbing Todd's house. Todd will be the community center director.
This view of an abandoned school is out his back yard. The neighborhood (Charles Court in Chalmette) has lots of evidence of a wave of water like the caved in wall in this shot.


This is a "house for sale" two lots around the court from Todd's
And this is across the court, two houses over on the other side.
All fairly normal in these neighborhoods.

The Worthington Christian crew have been working on Matt Woodward's house. Matt's the guy holding his son leading the prayer when the guys finished today.
He'll be the preacher at the new church and his family is already living here in the house.
The floorplan for the building we are working on looks like this:
And here is a shot of the building at the beginning of work along with a drawing of what the completed center will look like:

Aaron Johnson has been my primary contact for our work here. He's been organizing us volunteers, finding work, and making sure everything is in place. Matt says they are praying hard for someone to come manage the volunteer side here so Aaron can focus on the rest of his job. He's here with his family in a rehabbed house as well after living in the Crossroads building while his daughter was due.

How awesome is it that these people and others here on staff have picked up their families and left their previous lives behind to start a new church in a place they haven't known before and on the faith that God is calling them and the community here will become a new part of the Body by their commitments. What an impressive group of missionaries to America.

Tomorrow is our last full day working here and there's a lot more work lined up. I'll try to get you another update when we get back from dinner in "the Quarter" tomorrow night before we head home on Friday.

John McGuire

Team 29 in the field, Day 1

The Ohio crew had an uneventful trip down, made some pretty good time and got to Chalmette at Noon on Monday. Thanks as always to the ladies at University Church of Christ in Tuscaloosa for taking southern hospitality to a new level. The crew spent a few hours in the quarter, got dinner, and came back for a devo and bed.

The Tennessee contingent came in around 6:00, got unloaded and found food at Tony's in chalmette, home of the biggest PoBoys you've ever eaten, or tried to.

We worked several job sites today, Tuesday, our first day in the field. We finished a lot more cleanup at what will be the community center and carted of several trailers of refuse. Another team wired and plumbed on of the new church leader's houses. Another framed and cleaned up a house and yet another team did some more cleanup at another house.

I'll try to get some pics up for you later tonight or tomorrow.

This is an awsome team; lots of talent and everyone's getting along great. It's an absolute pleasure to be back and working with more incredible believers working their faith into this community.

Hilltop Rescue Wildfire Relief

Dear Friends,

Several of the Hilltop Rescue leaders have been scouting in San Diego County over the last several days. The reports coming in are troubling. I wanted to share some excerpts from their trip notes:

We spent time in Ramona with Darryl and Donna--a very sweet retired couple that had lived in their home for 42 years. Their lives changed abruptly last week as they were given an urgent message from a neighbor who had received a 911 call. When Darryl and Donna got the call, they had 5 minutes to quickly gather their cats and escape their home. Seconds later their home was an inferno. They lost everything. After navigating the 80-90mph wind gusts, Darryl and Donna spent the next few days in shelters.

We met with this family today (Darryl, Donna and her brother Randy) as they arrived and saw their home for first time. Their hearts were heavy and understandably they had a number of emotions. They were confused about what they should do next, frustrated that the insurance lines were so long, mad that 911 didn't call them to give them the same 30 minute warning that their neighbor had, convicted that they would rebuild, but mostly they were thankful to be alive and for the neighbor who warned them. They call him their hero.

I'm thankful that God allowed us to be with this family at such an important moment in their life. We weren't able to do much but listen to their story and be with them in this difficult moment. We prayed and gave them a simple message of hope by assuring Donna and Darryl that there are many more who wish to come and help them in their recovery. They tearfully thanked us for whatever we could do.

It was hard to leave. We wanted so badly to spend the rest of the day at their home. And yet there are so many more hurting families. In fact, countrary what the media is covering, we were surprised by the number of lower income and elderly families that are victims to the fires.

The needs here are basic. Folks just need help with clean up. As expected it's a mess.barns, homes, trailers, cars and other structures have been burned. In addition, the wind gusts caused many trees to fall even in areas where there was limited fire damage. The resident victims of the Ramona area desperately need volunteer teams to come and assist.

Reports like this and discussions with other area churches have confirmed that we should deploy volunteers in the area of Ramona. Ramona is a rural, lower middle class to poor community whose residents are in need of help with debris removal, tree removal and contents removal from damaged homes and general clean up. (Much like mucking houses in New Orleans, only dry). Corky Cowart will be leading this relief effort operation and will be full time in Ramona for the next several months. Hilltop leadership has met with the leadership of the Ramona Church of Christ and found them to be energetic and sincere in their desire to help in the community. This desire to help has led this small congregation of 30 members to offer us their church facility for use as a volunteer base camp. We are excited to be working with the Ramona church and are looking forward to having our first volunteers come in later this week.

Our next goal is to quickly obtain the tools we need to get to work. You can help today. First, please pray for this relief effort. Second, please sign up to come and serve. We need all types of volunteers to share hope in this area. Third, if you can't volunteer, please enable our volunteers to help by making a financial contribution toward the purchase of supplies and equipment. You will find a list of the items we need on our website.

In Christ,

June White
Director of Communications
Hilltop Rescue & Relief

Awsome Google Map of San Diego Fire Information

Here's a really nice reference from Google Maps for fire information around San Diego.

Hope you find it useful and interesting.


View Larger Map

California Wildfire Relief

Hilltop Rescue, our longtime Katrina relief partner who is based in LA, is setting up relief operations in Ramona, California near San Diego. The final location has not been chosen, but should be up and running this week. Details will be available at www.hilltoprescue.org.

Unlike the TV coverage of large, expensive homes that have been destroyed, many of the people they met were in a similar economic state as those we’ve been helping in Louisiana. They have determined a large need for immediate assistance and expect to find more work as residents were just beginning to return home in many areas yesterday.

The damage is more than just fire. Winds up to 80mph and higher in some canyons downed trees and damaged buildings the day before the fire. There’s lots of debris to haul away and cut up with chainsaws.

Robert Machen and Corkey Cowart spent yesterday touring the damaged area and took some video. Here’s the link.

Servants Unite does not presently have funds to cover air transportation across the country. Tickets on Skybus from Columbus to SanDiego vary by day, but you’ll find on their site that you can expect to pay about $140 each way. If you would like to go out, you can contact me for more information or visit the Hilltop site.

Wildfire update from June White at Hilltop Rescue

Dear Friends,

As you know from watching the news, the situation in Southern California is growing more desperate. We're now in the third day of seeing the images of homes burning and residents fleeing from the rapid fires sweeping through this region. The reports from churches in San Diego County indicate that there are countless brothers and sisters displaced and in a state of shock after abruptly being forced to leave their homes. Many do not know what will be left for them after the fires subside.

The fires have forced the evacuation of more than 350,000 houses, most of them in San Diego County. With the area's average household size of 2.6 people, that means the evacuation could encompass nearly one million people. It's basically a mass migration in San Diego County. Many of these families are lower income residents with limited means to start-over. The numbers are staggering.

This is our backyard.Southern California is the home of Hilltop Rescue. Just as many from this area responded to the hurricane Katrina relief efforts of the Gulf Coast, it's now time to set our sites on the broken lives here. Having a brother or sister available to lend a hand through this process will be a life giving eternal moment.

An assessment team will be working with local churches and communities to determine the best way to assist. Please visit our website as we'll update it with the latest information on the situation and our response. As a reminder our website is www.hilltoprescue.org.

Through your service and involvement with Hilltop you've come to know that the value of what we provide is labor, "strong backs" willing to assist with the recovery process. If you are willing to assist and help those needing to start over, please let us know by going to the Hilltop Rescue Website and volunteering for service. If you're not able to come and serve at this point, please consider donating to Hilltop and to enable others to come and serve in the recovery process.

Please pray for the fire victims of Southern California. May God bless the broken lives and use Hilltop in the process of recovery.

In Him,

June White
Director of Communications
Hilltop Rescue & Relief

Ohio Flooding and California Wildfire Relief Info

Couple updates for you all this week. There will be a need for volunteers in Northern Ohio for quite a while and this week’s rains may cause additional flooding in other areas. I’ll keep track, but please keep me posted of any needs you come upon that we should respond to.

Here’s an update from the Churches of Christ Disaster Response Team web site:

DRT is continuing to work with the church in Findlay, Ohio. We continue to purchase building material and household supplies for those without insurance. We are in need of skilled volunteers for the completion of sheetrock and flooring especially. Thousands of people are out of their houses and in need of assistance.

Their web address is www.churchesofchristdrt.org. You can feel free to contact them directly, or I can hook you up.

Hilltop Rescue is contemplating setting up operations in California for wildfire relief. We are very early in the process and it is not yet certain what organizations like ours can do in this type of disaster or how it will be accomplished. I’ll keep you posted and you can monitor www.hilltoprescue.org for more information. If you want to think this far ahead, round trip on Skybus to San Diego looks to be around $280 with a week advance, but some days are cheaper and a couple are more expensive.

I have a request to help roof a house in Gahanna from Cindy at New Life Church. The roof is leaking down a wall and some internal repairs may be required. The homeowner has materials, but needs assistance installing the new roof. This would be a good weekend job before the really cold weather hits. To volunteer, contact me, or Cindy Schmidt at (614) 475-8500.

There is a short notice, local work mailing list that I use to send all requests like this and short notice Habitat opportunities. If you’d like to be added to that list and get those extra notifications, please send me an email.

Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. -- 2 Corinthians 9:6-8

John McGuire
Servants Unite!

Habitat Help Needed 10/20/2007

To be added to the "Short Notice Opportunities" list and receive these notifications via email when they come out, email me with a note saying so.

Hi all,

We have a last minute need for volunteers for Saturday, October 20 from 8:30am to 4:00pm. We could use 15-20 people and will register people on a first come, first serve basis. Tasks could involve installing vinyl siding, but will be determined by what gets accomplished between now and then by other volunteers.

If you are available, let me know, and I can send you more information.

Thanks!Deb
Deb Light
Volunteer Director
Habitat for Humanity-Greater Columbus
3140 Westerville Rd
Columbus, OH 43224
Office 614-364-7020 (direct line)
Cell: 614-332-9192
Fax: 614-414-0432

Upcoming Trips and Projects

Our assistance will continue to be needed in Northern Ohio for some time, specifically in Bucyrus, but may expand to other areas as needed. Volunteer opportunities are available most weekends and during the week and accommodations are available for those traveling some distance to work there.

November 11-November 17, Team 29 will be working in Chalmette, near New Orleans. We will leave after church Sunday from Westerville Christian. An organizational meeting will be held there as well next Tuesday, October 16 at 6:30pm. Here is where to find us:

View Larger Map

Christmas time trips have been very popular the last two years of Katrina relief work. I am planning two tentative trips for the week before Christmas and the week between Christmas and New Years. One would leave around Saturday, December 15 and return Saturday, December 22. The other would leave Wednesday morning, December 26 and return on January 1 as we did last year.

Spring Break can be amazing this year! All these Columbus area schools, maybe more, are off the same week in 2008, March 22-30:

Columbus, Hilliard, Dublin, Worthington, Olentangy, Westerville, Big Walnut, Gahanna, South Western, Grandview Heights, Hamilton, Groveport, Canal Winchester, Pickerington, Bexley, Whitehall, and Tree of Life.

Only 3 districts adjoining Columbus are not off this week:

• Upper Arlington is off the week before.
• New Albany-Plain is the following week.
• Reynoldsburg is April 5-13.

I’d like to plan a massive youth oriented trip to New Orleans or Bayou La Batre for that week. We could conceivably send hundreds of volunteers! The work would be reconstruction of houses, community centers, and other efforts to support churches and rehabitation of houses in the area still recovering from Katrina.

Special challenges for youth trips like this involve:

• Getting enough youth sponsors to go.
• Having enough skilled adults to keep the kids productive.
• Coordinating transportation.

To put such a trip together, I’ll need help from you to publicize and staff the trip. We’ll also need to be recruiting adults with construction skills and tools to help make this trip productive for the kids.

Please prayerfully consider how you can arrange your schedule to support any of these activities.

To inquire about, or join any of these trips, please call me or email me at the link on the right of the blog.

Cajun Dinner Fundraiser

So if you're missing the food of the gulf coast, have a hankering for fellowship, and want to support our next trip, you've gotta come to Westerville Christian Church, Friday Nov 2 at 6:30 pm in the FLC for Cajun Fest. Our address is 471 College Avenue, Westerville, Ohio 43081.

View Larger Map

Proceeds from this dinner will help to cover the expenses for Team 29 who will leave November 11 and return November 17. Please see the posting on Upcoming Trips for more information.

You can print a sign to put up at your church, work, or around your community and you can print a bulletin insert that you can find here.

Hope you can join us!

My Status Update

I am so pleased God continues to let me work on this project. It is unbelievably fulfilling serving Him, all of you, and the storm victims we've been helping the last two years. Our successes are all His and any good we do is only a reflection of Christ working through us, but I am so grateful He chooses to let me take part. I have met the most amazing, yet common people I never knew existed within the faith community or anywhere else.

As most reading this know, I began adjusting my life to focus full time on Servants Unite and part time IT consulting last February. I am not drawing compensation from the organization, but soliciting regular donations to help cover my family's expenses. The complete story is on this blog posting.

Since then, I have been receiving monthly funding from one church and two individuals. This funding with the addition of an amount from another church is covering only 25% of our expenses. I have made some of the other 75% consulting and Melinda has contributed substantially from her part time job, but we have still invested over $25,000 in personal savings to meet our daily needs. With spring break and summer relief work completed and Bucyrus work stabilizing into an ongoing operation, I am focusing more on consulting, but that takes away from the time I can spend on building Servants Unite and organizing or ongoing efforts.

I know what we can accomplish and have a vision of what this organization can be. Every little investment we have made has yielded enormous kingdom dividends. Those of you who know me personally know of the passion I have for getting us there. I am constantly reminded, however, that I can't do it alone. Right now we need a couple dozen people to help expand this ministry and I could really use that other 75% to cover my expenses and begin replenishing my reserves.

Your business helps me as well. I and others I work with through Franklin Computer Services can handle any Information Technology needs that your company or church may have. By utilizing my professional services, you are supporting my ability to focus on building this mission.

It is my prayer and hope that more of you can step forward to fill leadership positions in Servants Unite, help in fundraising, and personally contribute to help me focus even more on this job.

For more information on funding my efforts or helping to grow Servants Unite, please email me.

Thanks for your support.

Non Profit Status Approved!!!

We received a letter from the IRS yesterday stating that they have approved our request for non-profit status under section 501(c)3 of the internal revenue code! This is really a major triumph. Though it may seem basic and expected, the implications are huge for the growth of our organization. It qualifies us for more funding and stretches our funding further.

We are allowed to work under the assumption that this approval would come and have been doing so. I can now tell you for certain though now that your charitable donations, both monetary and in-kind, made directly to Servants Unite are deductible from your taxes. I can also tell you that this makes us accountable to the IRS as well as you when we allocate resources.

This is especially critical as our general funds are near $0 after our summer trips and the Bucyrus response.

This means we can accept corporate donations. Most corporations will only give to a 501(c)3 approved organization. You can help promote donations to Servants Unite from your employer.

We can accept employee donations and corporate matching funds through payroll deduction at your employer. Several volunteers have been waiting on this approval to donate through their employer. Please check with your Human Resources department. If you have payroll deducted donations to charitable organizations presently with your employer, you should be able to redirect some or all of this giving to Servants Unite. The process is not complicated in most organizations. Generally our tax ID number and some information about the organization (www.servantsunite.org) are all that is required.

This status also makes it more attractive to churches, mission groups, and other non-profits to support us financially. Please help make your church leadership and mission organizations aware of this update. We can use steady funding as we have functioned to date on one time gifts and special collections. We also need to get commitments from churches for special collections or reserve funds to finance our next response.

You can always give to us personally. Again, your monetary or in-kind (stuff) donation is tax deductible. You'll be getting calls from lots of unknown solicitors from now through Christmas. Please keep in mind that these phone solicitors frequently keep 80-90% of your donation. Donating to Servants Unite will assure that 100% of your donation goes to a worthy cause. You can donate through the Paypal link on the web (which will eat 2% of your donation), or mail a check.

As we've seen we can get a lot more mileage out of donations than the traditional and much larger recipients of corporate funding who have enormous overhead. Nearly 100% of funds donated to Servants Unite go directly to our mission with very small administrative costs and no salaries.

Finally, our tax exempt status saves us money when we buy materials and equipment for use in our work. I'll work on getting the appropriate information to vendors we purchase from.

Thanks for your continued support!

Servants Unite!

Bucyrus Work Proceeding

We're ready for volunteers and project work in Bucyrus again. Here's the update from Crawford County EMA I received today.

Great success this past week. The call center made some 250 calls the last few nights, FEMA has over 300 cases that they are in process of handing over or contacting individuals. A large cleanup was completed last weekend by a Lutheran group out of New York. The paper just hit today with the front page reading residents are to call with damages. The article was not clear on who should call so we will be taking more calls for Case Workers over the next few days.

Case Workers have even been closing a handful of cases this week with simple purchases like a freezer of washer. It appears we will do another weekend of cleanup not sure how many cases we have at the moment. When you know you have people wanting to come give me a heads up and I will see what cases are open at the time for you. Deb McCoy is the Volunteer coordinator her home number 419-689-9799, she will be able to coordinate lodging and cases. We will have work orders by end of this week for which we will complete for each case and will be used to track progress of residents. It is fully working now just coordination of the work as it comes in. It does not appear that the cases will hit all at once as they just keep coming through steady like 5-8 a day.

Thanks,

Tim Flock
EMA Director
Crawford County

You can contact Deb McCoy directly if you choose, but I need to keep track of the volunteer hours we are spending there and I have resources available to reimburse you for any materials that are needed.

Housing is available at Camp Michael, near Bucyrus.

To volunteer or ask questions, please send me an email or call my cell at 614-404-8610.

Relevant Stories in Relevant Mag

I found two articles in the current issue significant to us. Unfortunately, unless you get the mag or know someone who does, you can't read them as articles are not available online. I do recommend the magazine. It is inexpensive and pertinent to youth, youth leaders, and post modernists. www.relevantmagazine.com

There is an article written by a college student, Adam Foldenauer, who worked with Nazarene Disaster Response Team in Chalmette and Gentilly (burbs of New Orleans). Adam writes a very reflective article on the impact to volunteers, homeowners, and the fact that it still looks like the hurricane happened yesterday. Most of us know it was much worse as incredible as that sounds. This article gives a great perspective on faith and tragedy as well as the work left to do. He writes:

I also saw Christ in many residents. A disaster like Katrina surely caused many to question God, but I noticed a divine determination in those who turned to God after the storm. Gloria, a friend fo our homeowner, stopped by the home where we were working to see the progress. She's eager for her friend to be able to return home. She told me, "God is going to bring something out of all this. I'm not sure what it is yet, but I think He wants to make our faith stronger."

The other article is pertinent to those 115 of us who drove down July 7 to work in Bayou La Batre. Remember the traffic in Nashville and all the people walking towards downtown? We thought it must be a concert or something. It obviously wasn't football in July.

As it turns out, it was "The Call" Nashville. This was the 2nd of what has become a series of prayer and fasting events. The first was in DC, September of 2000. In Nashville, 60,000 filled the Titans football stadium to pray, some having fasted for days! The next call is 08/08/08 in DC, but other events like Nashville will be held in stadiums across the country starting in October and leading up to the DC event. www.thecall.com
is the main web site. The closest stadium event for us in Ohio is in Cincinnati, January 12, at US Bank Arena (Riverfront Coliseum for us old timers). This is a link to the details of that event. Registration through that link is free, but required.

Habitat Help Needed Saturday 9/29

Hi all,

We have a last minute need for volunteers for Saturday, September 29 from 8:30 to 4:00. We could use 10-12 people and will register people on a first come, first serve basis. Tasks could involve framing, but will be determined by what gets accomplished between now and then by other volunteers.

If you are available, let me know, and I can send you more information.

Thanks!

Deb Light
Volunteer Director
Habitat for Humanity-Greater Columbus
3140 Westerville Rd
Columbus, OH 43224
Office 614-364-7020 (direct line)
Cell: 614-332-9192
Fax: 614-414-0432

Remember all those damaged family photos?

...that we hauled out of people's homes, or cut the moldy dissolved bottoms off of to leave for residents who had given up hope of getting them back? Found a relief organization who handles that part of the relief operation:

Operation Photo Rescue

Awsome Coverage of New Orleans 2 years after

This Yahoo News production is really amazing. Gives you a good idea of where recovery is at from residents. This is current, very representative, and very well produced.

Bucyrus Status Update

Thanks to all of you who have spent a day or more working in Bucyrus to help in the recovery up there. We’ve gotten a lot accomplished as you can see in the blog posting from Linn last week. I wanted to get you an update to keep you all in sync for where we are and what will still be needed.

We got most of the requests for mucking out taken care of by end of day Saturday, though I expect more will come in. Mostly we got a big peak of them a week ago and got a lot of them cleaned out. We also eliminated several dozen requests as unreasonable, due to dangerous or extremely uncomfortable conditions. There was still one resident who came in Saturday to complain her husband wouldn’t listen to the need to take out his drywall. She was suffering respiratory problems and had sores on her arms from the contamination in her house. A few stragglers like this may still require demucking as residents are forced to request help.

The first response operation we set up is disbanding Tuesday, and rolling responsibility over to a long term recovery committee. It will be made up of county and city officials and trained by the Ohio VOAD. They are hiring a couple caseworkers to qualify residents and will start that process tomorrow or Tuesday. In a couple weeks, they expect to have some of the midterm needs identified where we can start helping people rebuild and handle any new requests for muck out.

What this means is that we have a couple weeks of hiatus between the mucking work we’ve completed and the need for volunteers to participate in the reconstruction work. That works well as these places need time to dry out. I’m hearing moisture readings need to be between 15% and 20% in the studs to start rebuilding.

I’m dropping back to managing the resources we have available once people are identified for private aid and I’m hoping my new friend Linn who lives there is going to assist in that. We have money to buy some building materials for that process from some local companies, some local churches, and a couple of the national relief orgs. Another Ohio flood relief group from over by Wheeling is setting me up with places to get grants for a lot of this as well. We have the same locations for out of town volunteer accommodations for that phase.

Your continued support will be needed in coming months to help get people back in to permanent housing. 70+ destroyed housing units will need to be replaced so I expect to have some Habitat builds for us to work on. I’ll keep you all posted as things change and plans solidify.

Thanks again for your servants hearts and continued support of this effort.

John McGuire

Bucyrus Update from Linn

Hi Everyone!

Today we worked on consolidating, and getting things ready for Friday and Saturday. We are planning to have 10 jobs for tomorrow, and 7 jobs for Saturday. I have asked the Southern Baptist men if they would be willing to be crew leaders on Saturday for any new volunteers that may need some guidance. They are presenting it at a meeting tonight.

I believe we have 10 cases to do on Friday, and 7 more for Saturday. That does not include the ones the Southern Baptists have.

We are hoping that this will be the end of the clean up phase of this recovery process.The city will not pick up any more after the weekend.

There are still a few people who were able to deny any problems existed but have now been driven out of their homes by the stench today. Hopefully, there are no more people like this. We feel badly for these people and hope that you will continue to keep them in your prayers.

Tonight, I am thinking that we have enough volunteers for Saturday. If you are planning on bringing a crew, we will put you to work. I would like to know your group numbers so that I can be sure to have enough food ready for lunch on Saturday. Please remember to pick up your own respirators, or breathing masks. We do have some gloves. It would be helpful to bring your own tool kit, also.

Please- we still need volunteers to be thinking of ways that they can help. We will be doing painting and re-building in the very near future. JC Church and Deb Pinion are working with VOAD to begin case management, and start this next phase.

We appreciate the support that you have given us at Crawford Volunteer Flood Recovery Group. As your "founder", I deeply appreciate all of the help you have given to this effort. I do not have all of the details as to who or what the next group will be, where it will be headquartered, or even a phone number. However, I believe that our community leaders are working to make this an easy transition. More information will be coming to you soon.

Please stay in touch.

We will be here in this office through Tuesday, 9/11/07. Some of you donated the use of office furniture and supplies. Please come back in on Monday any time, and Tuesday morning to pick up what we have not used. It belongs to you, and we would like it to get back to you. Unfortunately, I do not have complete lists as to who gave what, so- I need you to come and get it yourselves. (Plus, Timken friends, there's NO way, I can move all of these desks back.)

Thanks to Ohio Mutual and Farmers Citizens also, I believe they were the primary donors of office supplies!

Ok, I will be taking tomorrow, Friday, off. I will be with my husband for his gall bladder surgery at BCH. Rachel Meade, is my right hand assistant here at HQ. Please direct inquiries to her and I will occasionally call in.

Thanks again for your prayers and support through this important work.

Linn Ash, Volunteer Coordinator

Bucyrus Current Needs as of 9-4-2007

We need relief supplies donated to the Bucyrus effort. We have caught up on demand for cleaning kits, bleach, and filter masks, but new items are now in short supply.

4 volunteer workers:

• Short handle coal shovels (flat edge)
• Brooms, Mops, and Squeegees
• Gloves
• Trash Bags

4 the relief center:

• copy machine
• toner
  
• paper
• telephones

4 victims:

• new underwear (all sizes)
  
• paper products
• diapers (all sizes)
• bedding (pillows, sheets, blankets)
  

I also need Servants Unite volunteers to survey and work in other areas affected by this flood. This is our time people. Our flood. Our neighbors. Our own back yard. If you've been on a relief trip, you are an expert and your experience is needed. Let the spirit use you to shine the light of Christ.

Other areas aren't getting the attention we've been giving to Bucyrus. I can't personally do more than what I've done here and need other experienced Servants Unite volunteers to take what we've built here to other affected areas as well as continuing to help organize here. FEMA reps stopped by our office Saturday and told Linn that they have not found a better organized volunteer operation in their experience. Linn and the local organizers have done an awesome job of beginning to care for their community.

Southern Baptist volunteers are in from Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia. Christian Appalachian Project is here from near Lexington, Kentucky. Other local residents are also working this week. Your help is desperately needed to continue cleaning out the 240 backlogged requests we have waiting this morning.

Servants Unite!

John McGuire

Labor (of love) Day

Yea, that’s pretty cheesy. Sorry about that, but I can’t think of anything cooler.

The tide has definitely shifted in Bucyrus since last weekend. We’ve gone from seeking work from residents to receiving repeated calls for immediate assistance. We have a large backlog of jobs (hundreds) and only 20 volunteers working in homes Saturday. Tuesday morning we had 4 calls backlogged. By evening it was up to 48. Wednesday evening, we had 250. What changed? Mold grew. Additionally, people are coming out of the shock of what happened to them and how desperate their situations really are.

Monday is Labor Day. Please consider bringing your family, friends, church members, coworkers, and others to help recover from this disaster that has hit all too close to home.

The volunteer center is at 1305 Mansfield Street, Bucyrus, Ohio 44280. The phone number there is 419-562-3777.

Call to let us know you are coming and how many are in you group and show up there to sign in and get work assignments.

Servants Unite!

Inside a flooded house

and pictures from the clothing distribution at the 7th day Adventist church. Marcellus who is the preacher at that church provided these. Check back in a day or so as he has more he'd like to share.

Volunteers still needed in Bucyrus

We've been running into some roadblocks that are a little frustrating. We know there are hundreds of homeowners who need our assistance. They don't seem to be performing all the remediation they need to and think they are done, but drywall and insulation aren't out and pressure washing and disinfecting still need done. Many people haven't accepted that there is really as big a problem as there is. But yesterday and today, the mold started really showing.

We ran a story in the paper that we were here to help and had the local radio station announce that we were here and business is taking off. Today we started with 4 backlogged requests for assistance. Right now (6:00pm) we have 47 backlogged and the pace is picking up. In fact, that number started out at 44 when I started typing the sentence before all the interruptions that put it back up to 47.

Help is still needed to continue the cleanup and I expect many more requests to come in tomorrow. Come and join the fun!

In addition. An effort was begun today among the local churches to find congregations to sponsor individual families who are now homeless. The goal is to handle the midterm housing needs where there seems to be a gap. Several hundred houses are unlivable, though people may be living in a nasty house.

Please ask your church if you can participate, even helping to sponsor a family in this effort. This is the most pressing need that seems to be without a government solution.

Thanks to Jim Fifield!

...of Westerville Christian Church for helping me finish the form for our 501c3 non-profit status. I am horrible at the paperwork side of this thing. Jim has taken on helping me handle the accounting and taxes.

He is a very efficient professional accountant. You can reach him at 614-263-0405. I encourage you to utilize his services.

Pictures from the first week in Bucyurus

Here's the pictures I've taken this week.

John's relief shots

Here are the pictures Linn Ash took during the flood.

Linn's flood pictures

First Day of Work in Bucyrus

I want to commend the volunteers from several churches with Servants Unite as well as local groups from around the area who pitched in today. As usual we plan how the first day of work is going to happen and find we didn't anticipate everything. The volunteers were eager to perform the tasks assigned and gracious with the frustrations that came up. They were 200% more efficient than even I expected! They all left hot, sweaty, dirty, and tired so I believe, by that measure, they had a good day's work :-) Nick pointed out that even people they checked on who didn't want help were comforted to know that someone cared enough to offer.

The Madison County EMA director was in Bucyrus the last two days and spent the day with the leadership of the fledgling volunteer effort today. I found this note from her on my email when I got home:

Thanks for all your help - Servants Unite is truly doing God's work! The group you had here today was amazing!!
God bless, Krista

Linn Ash, the county volunteer coordinator raved about our volunteers as well. We need more! We'll have more work for you to do beginning Monday.

The EMA directors I've met up there have been great to deal with. Several from nearby counties are in Crawford county to assist Tim and his team. They are sharp, show genuine concern for the people they are charged with protecting, and are constantly brainstorming for ways to do their job better. Not the government functionaries we have seen at the federal level.

None-the-less, they have a finite responsibility in this. Recovery will take a long time. Even if a federal declaration comes as most expect we know from our experience that it will be months or years before the local governments and residents see financial relief from federal grants.

Tonight, most flooded homes in Bucyrus have been cleared of their furniture and belongings. A couple exceptions waiting on insurance appraisals are all that we could find this afternoon. Others will inevitably materialize, but the majority have been cleared by residents, friends, and neighbors since Wednesday when the water receded.

Left to do in many of these homes:

• Remove wet drywall, cabinets, carpet, and insulation. Most don't realize this is required to stop mold growth.
• Pressure wash and treat water exposed wood with bleach solution.
• Shore up sagging floors and minor structural problems. Basement wall problems have condemned over 60 homes and state inspectors may have condemned more today, but I've witnessed that the most wavy floor won't get it that designation.
• Replace drywall, floor coverings, cabinets, paint, and wallpaper.
• Replace appliances. Furnaces, water heaters, stoves, refrigerators, freezers, washers, and dryers.
• Replace furniture.
• Replace personal belongings that are replaceable.

We are getting requests for appliances already as people who are displaced move into new places. Specifically today I have a request for a stove. I need people to help arrange Good used appliance donations and transport them to Bucyrus as well as a dropoff location. I can also accept gift cards to Lowes or Home Depot. I'll turn those over to the new Crawford County Flood Recovery Group for equitable disbursement to needy residents. These are a great way to donate to people in disasters. You can put a message with the card and be assured it is spent on things required to rebuild a household.

Servants Unite is also low on cash to perform relief operations. We need to purchase tools for volunteers to use for recovery, cover some transportation costs, and directly support needy storm victims in their recovery.

To donate to Servants Unite or send money, gift cards, or household appliances for storm victims, refer to the "Supplies Needed" link on the web site at www.servantsunite.org Please specify the intent of your donation to go to storm victims directly, volunteer operations, or as needed.

Volunteer operations will resume Monday. The Crawford County organizers are taking tomorrow to spec new jobs for the volunteers we have coming through next week. If you'd like to join them, let me know!

Here are a few pictures from today's work.

Bucyrus Volunteers Meet Here

We'll be in our volunteer coordination office at 7:30am in Bucyrus. I invite SU volunteers to show up around 9:00

1313 East Mansfield Street, Bucryus, Ohio 44820

View Larger Map
Look for the Dominos Pizza sign.


We had 80 people show up for the local church, civic, and community leaders meeting today! The local groups appear to be turning out well.


See you in Bucyrus tomorrow! Or when you can come up.

Bucyrus Needs for Donated Items

Bleach - to demold mucked houses. There is none available here
Diapers - will go to ODJFS to distribute. Victims are out of diapers
Mops
Buckets

Power Washers
Coolers

Bucyrus Thursday Update

First, I need some experienced volunteers to assist in assessing potential cleanup jobs tomorrow in Bucyrus. If anyone is available, call me on my cell, 614-404-8610, before noon.

The meeting place is not solidified yet for Saturday. I have a location at a downtown church, but it isn't optimal and I'm looking for a better option still tomorrow. We will meet at 9:00 Saturday, but I'll have to get you the definite address via email tomorrow.

I spent the day with Linn Ash, the newly anointed EMA Volunteer Coordinator and Tim Flock, the directory for Crawford County. You'll like them, they are the kind of people we've grown to respect for their leadership in disasters.
We spent the day plotting how we were going to prioritize work requests and validate they are ready for volunteers. We also connected with the Red Cross and Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services. We talked to a few churches, checked out a few homes, and got the lay of the land.

Tomorrow we are having a meeting of church, civic, service organization, and other leaders in the area to ask them to mobilize their constituencies to volunteer in their community. We will be surveying the first jobs to be handed out on Saturday and solidifying a base of operations. Without taking on too much, we are going to check on other counties' progress in volunteer cleanup management and find a way to help them get going as well.

Volunteers from around the region are needed in the effected area. While flood water has receded in Bucyrus, Findlay still has high water and as I write this, more than an inch of rain is predicted from storms entering the area now.

Some residents are cleaning out their homes and a few have insurance to cover it, but there will be many who need our assistance.

The tote board in the Crawford County EMA office of residences damaged looked like this by the end of the day:
Affected - 255 some damage
Minor - 542 mostly flooded basements, water heaters, and furnaces
Major - 179 flood damage in the first floor of the house
Destroyed - 59 structurally unsound
Total - 1032

More homes collapsed today as water was pumped out of basements and the pressure outside the walls caved them in. Prayers for these families and all the others left homeless please.

The Major and Destroyed homes are 10% of the residences in this relatively small town. Some other statistics. ODJFS estimates 200-300 homes in the county are unlivable, 500 families or 3000 individuals are homeless and staying with relatives. that's 7% of the county's population. They also note that the storm victims are disproportionately elderly and poor. The Sandusky River crested 17 1/2 feet above average making this a 100 year flood event. The water hasn't been recorded that high since 1912.

My phone is Cingular/AT&T and does not work within 5 miles of Bucyrus... So if you don't get an answer, please contact Linn Ash at 419-561-1110. I'm hoping to have a Verizon phone up tomorrow to use while I'm up there. Special thanks to Mitchell Ratalczak at the Verizon Wireless store in Westerville (614-563-0863) for his assistance. Give him some business if you would!

Bucyrus Work Lining Up

I need 4 volunteers to work in Bucyrus tomorrow. The task will be helping Crawford County EMA to qualify requests for assistance and start to organize volunteer workers. This is not physical work and offers a lot of contact with storm victims. They have up to 840 requests for assistance, but need to gather considerably more information to begin prioritizing them and assigning volunteers to the task. More requests will be coming in. Call me to sign up for tomorrow at my cell phone, 614-404-8610. No such thing as too late.

I'll also need the same or replacement people for that task through the weekend and into next week. Please sign up for that via john@servantsunite.org. We will start out working in Emergency Management in the Crawford county Courthouse at this address.

I am looking for local churches to work out of and through. We want to work with a local church so the people we help know where to go for support when we are no longer there personally.

Specifically I need a local non-instrumental Church of Christ who will help distribute relief funds and supplies from relief organizations of that affiliation. Accounting for those donations would become a job for an elder of the church. Resources are available, but I need someone to take that responsibility.

We need to build cleaning kits to donate to victims. Here is the inventory I pirated from Nashville Disaster Relief. I recommend filling the bucket with the supplies covering it with a towel and holding it in place with a rubber band (or a lid if there is one).

• 5 Gallon Bucket
• Heavy Duty Hand Brush
• Heavy duty scrubbers (Brillo pad)
• Woolite
• Clorox cleanup
• Heavy duty cleaner (Degreaser)
• Sponges
• Playtex gloves
• Waterless hand gel
• Formula 409
  
• Pine Sol
• Comet
• Bathroom cleaner
• Soap
• Rags
• Flashlight & Batteries
• Dust Masks

EMA is asking for church organizations to serve meals for the community and volunteers. This could be distributed in the neighborhoods, and available at a church building or defined location.

Volunteers will need to come prepared with tools till we can get with a church and purchase some.

Volunteer coordinators are needed. These should be experienced volunteers from Katrina work who can give a week (or whatever) to lead day workers in demucking homes.

We are not really prepared for this financially. Our current funds are at $3,665.32. I'm working on getting funding for some of this from other disaster relief orgs, but Servants Unite will most likely incur some expenses in this. I am already purchasing magnetic vehicle signs, a display banner, and will need "yard signs" to advertise who volunteers or storm victims should contact in the affected area.

We will need some funds coming in quickly. You or your church can donate through the paypal link on the Servants Unite web site under "Supplies Needed". You can send checks to my address which is also on that page or deposit them directly to our account at Chase. I can give you that number over the phone if you need it. We are functioning under non-profit status applied for, but do not have an answer back from the IRS. This means that donations should be tax deductible, but I can't tell you it is guaranteed.

More updates from ground zero tomorrow.

Ohio Flood Relief Wednesday Update

Nine Ohio counties, Allen, Crawford, Hancock, Hardin, Putman, Richland, Seneca, Van Wert and Wyandot are all under a state of emergency; up from the 6 last night.Just heard from Troy Blair, youth minister of Northland Church of Christ (Team 1). He’s working in Bucyrus cleaning out his sister’s basement. He’s met with the EMA directory for Crawford County who I will be speaking with shortly as he is intent on getting help into their area as soon as possible.

Troy reports a lot of residential damage in Bucyrus where Marion and Shelby have more commercial and government building damage. Since our initial connections seem to be in Bucyrus, we will plan on working there Saturday and Sunday. Friday is a maybe. Additional days and work locations will be determined as we assess needs, progress, volunteer turnout, and volunteer availability.

We will arrange for accommodations for volunteers who live further away from the area at a local church as we did after Katrina. While these plans aren’t defined yet, contacts are happening to solidify this aspect of the response.

Presently I have 4 volunteers scheduled for Saturday. I need RSVPs from you via email to john@servantsunite.org ASAP. I need to know how many people we can offer to the effort so that I can estimate how much work we can commit to. I need to hear from you now for us to be effective this weekend and beyond.

I also need you to engage your church leadership and get this message out to your church email list. 500 people will get this email, but their church congregations represent thousands of potential volunteers. This is an even easier opportunity for an introduction to the type of mission work we have been doing on the gulf coast. Our friends, families, coworkers, and church families should have the opportunity we have had to witness God at work through our efforts and we have many many families hurt by these storms that are in need of our assistance. I know how addicted you all are to this work. If you think back to your trip to the gulf coast, you’ll have to join in.

I am available to discuss this work with anyone who has questions. Have them call my cell number 614-404-8610.

We will require standard mucking tools:

• Flat shovels
• Wheelbarrows
• Plastic bins to carry wet debris up out of basements
• Boots
• Gloves
• Safety glasses
• Hammers
• Wonderbars (prybars)
• Old clothes

More updates later or tomorrow as plans are firmed up

Servants Unite!

We are activating in response to Ohio flooding

We are getting more info on Oklahoma flooding and will try to send a team in a week to two if volunteers are willing to go. It appears the need will persist. The need there is severe and we are needed there just as we were after Katrina.

First though, we have trouble right here. Six Ohio counties are under a state of emergency from up to 9 inches of rain yesterday which has flooded many towns here. I expect you’ve seen the video on the news this evening of the flooding and coast guard helicopters plucking people out of the flood water. More rain is in the forecast for the rest of the week.

The town of Shelby, in Richland County has people sleeping in a shelter tonight in the High School on the West side and an elementary school on the East side. The black fork river has cut the two sides of town in half.

View Larger Map

Bucyrus in Crawford County is also flooded making national news tonight. Many of us have traveled through there up route 4 on our way to Cedar Point. The Sandusky River is still rising there and won’t crest till tomorrow, IF no more rain falls. Many are in a shelter in the YMCA there tonight.

View Larger Map

In Mansfield, the post office flooded and the news isn’t covering additional areas.

Van Wert, Allen, Harding, and Wyandot counties are also under a state of emergency.

Only 1 in 10 households in flood prone areas tend to have flood insurance and the most needy people don’t tend to have the insurance. There will be many who will need lots of outside assistance getting their homes put back together and replace their belongings. Some will likely lose their homes altogether from collapsed foundations and basement walls destroyed by the rushing water.

Plans are not yet defined, though I already have at least one volunteer to work this weekend. I will be contacting Senior Citizen’s Centers, the Red Cross, Mayors, Emergency Management directors, and local groups coordinating volunteers that we can partner up with to offer assistance in the areas affected.

You are needed for the kind of kingdom work we have been doing in the gulf coast, but this is right in our back yards. We can serve all day giving people hope and come home to sleep in our own beds after a hot shower, thankful that we have both.

Please forward this note to your church email lists, friends, and family who would be willing to give up their weekend to help our neighbors.

I will get more info out to you on email and via the blog over the next couple days to firm up those plans.

Servants Unite!