Servants Unite!

Hurricane Irene

2011-08-24T12:46:00.004-04:00

Pray for Atlantic coastal areas as Hurricane Irene heads in as a major hurricane. Projected course is strafing by the North Carolina Outer Banks as a category 3 or 4 (up to 135 MPH winds) and continuing just offshore up New England. The last major hurricane to hit New York City flooded lower Manhattan with a 13 foot storm surge nearly 100 years ago. That could be a worse scenario that New Orleans was with Katrina.

Followup Article on Hurricane Ike Recovery

2011-07-27T11:21:00.002-04:00

Two and a half years ago, Hurricane IKE flattened all but 1 house on a strand of beach on the Boulevar Peninsula. One house built higher and more solid than the others evaded the wave action that removed all neighboring construction. This CNN article follows up on the owners and the situation in Gilchrist Texas.

Please sign up for email updates in our new system

2011-05-16T10:28:00.003-04:00

The link is in the top right corner of the blog: http://servantsunite.blogspot.com

I'm having a very difficult time getting email updates out. 50% are failing, most Hotmail addresses won't get updates due to spam filtering and a number of others are also failing.

To continue to get email updates of postings here sent to your email, please use the link to the left to enter your email address into Google's FeedBurner tool for Servants Unite. The email address will be used for no other purpose than this. I'm an IT Security guy.... you can trust me :-)

There will be a period where I'll continue to use the old system so you may get a couple of dups that way, but it is unavoidable. I'll send this signup link to any of the addresses I can get mail through to so they can sign up through the new system as well.

Thanks for continuing to follow what we are doing and continued participation in relieving suffering. There's a lot to go around right now. You are needed more than ever.

Servants Unite!

John McGuire

Jackson Ohio Flooding Mudouts Needed

2011-05-13T14:34:00.003-04:00

Red Cross in Jackson is doing intake on needs after the flash flooding in Southeast Ohio this week. County EMA estimates 30-40 major or destroyed (destroyed usually means basement walls are caving in or foundation is unstable) and another 150 minor. That's a lot more than the media seems to be reporting.

If you wanted to help in Tuscaloosa or Memphis, but you just can't get off work, THIS IS YOUR OPPORTUNITY. The kewl thing is, we can work all day, drive an hour and a half home, get a shower and sleep in our own beds. If you are interested in working this weekend, let me know. Call, email, fb, whatever.

View Larger Map

Servants Unite!

John McGuire

Opportunity to send donations to Tuscaloosa

2011-05-13T14:05:00.002-04:00

Since our Servants Unite trip keeps getting postponed, I'm going to add our donations to this effort leaving this weekend.

OK, it's official: the Maple Grove UMC Adult Mission Team is going to take supplies to the Hargrove UM church in Tuscaloosa, Alabama on our way to New Orleans to work with Habitat. We will load a Penske truck (unless someone still comes through with a free truck) in the Maple Grove parking lot on Saturday, May 14 from 4 - 6 p.m. We are in need of a couple of people to load the truck - (maybe some of you who want to help with the mission trip but aren't able to go). Please let Bill Croy (bcroy22@gmail.com) know if you are willing to help in this way. We have arranged to leave the truck in Tuscaloosa and thus will not be in need of any extra drivers.

The supplies we will be taking to the tornado damaged area include the following: Household cleaning supplies, laundry detergent (liquid or dry), Clorox wipes, spray cleaners, paper towels, toilet paper, non-perishable foods (peanut butter, canned goods), scrub brushes, handi-wipes or reusable wipes, sponges, scouring pads, clothespins, clotheslines, heavy duty trash bags, dust masks, waterproof gloves, work gloves, It's important that items be either medium or small sizes (not the huge warehouse club sizes) because the items are distributed daily and are intended to handle 1 - 2 days of work. The distribution center at Hargrove UMC is open 7 days a week and they serve lunch and dinner every day.

Now, what would really be helpful is all donations being packed in a sealed cardboard box and it clearly marked on the outside what is in the box! This will help us with the packing - and not cause us to take time boxing items on Saturday!

OK: feel free to repost and send to others! Let's see what the internet, Facebook, phone calls can produce in less than 48 hours! Thanks for your help and we know the people of Tuscaloosa will be appreciative as well. If you have any questions, feel free to contact Bill at the above email address. Oh, and financial donations are welcome as well - checks made out to Maple Grove UMC will be used to purchase items and checks made out to Hargrove UMC for their daily lunch and dinner ministry to those helping cleanup Tuscaloosa and those who have lost everything! It would be helpful if we had the checks by 6:00 p.m. on Saturday.

Sincerely,

Bill Croy

I hate it when He tells me no...

2011-05-10T19:24:00.000-04:00

...Or more properly not yet... It seems like a logical plan. It seems like honorable service... but He's still saying not yet. I'll appreciate all your prayers asking for why and when and what's this all about. If you get an answer for me, please forward it along.

For the 2nd time in two weeks I'm putting off a Servants Unite trip to Tuscaloosa. For various reasons most of those who have wanted to go can't yet. All the maybes were no when I tried to solidify the list today. and there are only three of us that were going to go. That plus I've been somewhat ill, have work commitments, and something kinda feels wrong about going even though it seems quite reasonable to me. I've pushed these things enough times to know that if it looks hopeless and He wants it to happen, He takes the barriers away, and if it seems reasonable, but He's against it, it doesn't really matter what I do to push it along, it's not happening, or there's a darn good reason He is telling me to wait. Patience is not one of my virtues... So unless something changes drastically in the next 24 hours indicating alternate instructions, no trip to Tuscaloosa for a few weeks still. I'll keep you posted.

Alabama (and other) Relief Will Continue

2011-05-10T09:18:00.002-04:00

We have 4 people (ish) going Thursday targeting Tuscaloosa. There are also a dozen or so more people interested in going on later trips. Given the pace of recovery in Alabama and other tornado stricken areas and the 500 year flood taking place along the Mississippi River, there will be plenty of opportunities for more to go. If you are thinking about it, get me your contact info and preferred dates and I'll help get you hooked up with others to form a team.

If you'd still like to join this first team let me know ASAP. If you have supplies to send along, please get them to Westerville Christian Church ASAP. Here's the present list of attendees:

John McGuire
David McGuire
Rachel Creager
Kenny Nichols

Your prayers and contributions are very appreciated.

Volunteers Flood Tuscaloosa Today

2011-05-07T21:42:00.002-04:00

A story from Tuscaloosa today describes traffic jams of volunteers of untold numbers showing up to help. Disaster relief is always fluid and never predictable.... We'll keep watching and plan accordingly.

Why is This Tornado Outbreak Different?

2011-05-03T21:11:00.004-04:00

While out of the area response is not usually necessary for tornado events, this NOAA report released today shows an unrecorded density of tornadic storms last week.

305 tornadoes suspected, 190 on the 27-28 timeframe that included most of the Alabama damage. The previous 24 hour record was April 3-4 1974 @ 148 that included the infamous Xenia tornado.

This NOAA map of storm rotation highlights the severity of the storms, widespread effect, and the most damaged areas highlighted in bright yellow and red for the greatest rotation.

Here is the article explaining the map.

Reschedule Alabama Team 1 - May 12-18

2011-05-03T11:25:00.003-04:00

I updated the information on the original blog post for our first trip. More people were available to go a week later, it gives us more time to get things in order, and that'll put us there when the local volunteers may start to wane so we can fill in some of the need. We may look at touching some outlying areas that may have been hard hit, but neglected and may start becoming more apparent by the time we get there.

You can find good first hand information about the changing conditions there at these sites:

http://gracedigest.com/2011/05/01/rising-from-the-rubble-in-tuscaloosa/

http://oneinjesus.info/ as well as other thoughts by Jay Guin

http://www.facebook.com/pages/SBC-Disaster-Relief/248933738262

Southern Baptist Disaster Relief Updates

2011-05-03T10:16:00.002-04:00

Lots of info here and here. As always, their crews are moving into the areas effected in large numbers.

Response Schedule

2011-05-02T10:33:00.002-04:00

I'm rethinking the "leave Thursday 5/5" plan in favor of going a week later. Several have expressed an interest to go, but later. I'm also having a hard time getting organized with competing priorities.

Opinions and council from anyone reading is appreciated.

Other considerations, the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi are at an all time high flood level and extreme measures such as blowing levies to sacrifice rural areas in favor of population centers are being implemented.

When it rains it pours right?

Servants Unite!

John McGuire

Indications of the need for counselors on disaster relief missions

2011-05-02T10:29:00.002-04:00

This CNN Story

"It's just an amazing, emotional roller coaster for these people," he said. "Once we were able to take a break from it and think about it, it was heartbreaking."

Tuscaloosa Bound Thursday May 12

2011-04-30T21:12:00.003-04:00

Please ask to have this announced at your church Sunday morning and distributed through church emails, facebook pages, tweets, twits, or whatever works.

You can be serve
Servants Unite Alabama Team 1 will leave Thursday May 12 at 3:00pm from Westerville Christian Church 471 College Avenue, Westerville Ohio 43081
We will arrive at University Church of Christ in Tuscaloosa around midnight central time
We will work long days Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. There may be an option for some to return Sunday evening. Depending on the situation we will continue to work into Wednesday afternoon, then head home. That will get us back at Westerville Christian after midnight Wednesday night.

We'll know more after we spend a few days down there, but there will likely be an opportunity for other teams to go and help in the coming weeks.

You can help from here
Please ask your churches to be collecting the following items that we can take to distribute or get supplies nearby if available:

Personal care items - soap, shampoo, razors, deodorant, tooth brush, toothpaste, etc.
Baby care items - diapers, wipes, bottles, formula, etc.
Water and gator aid
Tarps
Gift Cards - Lowes, Home Depot, Walmart (there aren't krogers or giant eagles in Tuscaloosa ;-)
Cash - to help with travel expenses, food, and other needs in Tuscaloosa
Prayers

These things need to get to Westerville Christian. If you have a lot and can't get it there, please let me know and we'll arrange a pickup. If you collect more after Thursday, that is OK. There will probably be additional teams and I'll be sure to get what we have delivered to the area whether or no and it will be needed.

There are a lot of places we could work, but we have a relationship with this church who has housed many of our volunteers overnight and fed us all so well on the road for Katrina relief. It's a small honor to be able to help them in their time of need.

Like after any large disaster there is much uncertainty. These trips are always like that. We will know a lot more this time next week after being on the ground and working for a few days. Everything we learn will appear on the blog here.

You should plan to bring:

Air mattress
Sleeping bag
Pillow
6 days worth of grungy clothes (something clean to wear home)
Sturdy shoes/boots with thick soles. Steel toes may be beneficial
Basic personal care needs -toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, shampoo, deodorant (this is not a beauty contest)
Work gloves
Dust Masks (N95 are best)
Tools - chain saw, sawzall, pry bars, shovels, sword (Bible :-)

As always, the most important job is to listen to people's stories and help them with their needs, emotional, spiritual, and physical.

Thanks for serving.

Servants Unite!

John McGuire

Volumes of Tuscaloosa Tornado Information

2011-04-30T08:41:00.003-04:00

Jay Guin at University Church of Christ in Tuscaloosa has been putting together a lot of interesting and useful information. Rather than try to re-create that

See his blog here. I'm sure I'll reference it more as we move forward.

Specifically he references a radar map of the tornadic storms crossing Alabama. Rather than a line of storms, it's a chain of individual storms. I see 15 distinct bow echos that indicate the cells are Tornadic.

There's also a concise map of tornado paths.

University Church is now accepting volunteers. Tentative departure date for a team is next Thursday evening, May 5 from Westerville Christian Church at 6:00. This may well change as we work out details, but that's something to shoot for. Several have already volunteered to go.

Jay has a list of items needed near the end of this blog post.

We're Going....

2011-04-29T14:06:00.006-04:00

I don't know where and don't yet know what we need, or who is available to lead teams. Start letting me know if you are interested. Phone and email are to the side and you can reach me on facebook too.

PLEASE PRAY FOR DISCERNMENT. There's too much to absorb and sort out right now.

I know of 4 bad off locations hundreds of miles apart where we have connections.
View Larger Map
University Church of Christ in Tuscaloosa is just a block north of the tornado path as is the church of another friend, Church of the Highlands, there who is starting up a relief effort. Homewood Church of Christ in southwest Birmingham has also hosted teams. My friend was the preacher there till a month ago. The building is fine, but there is "death and destruction" all around. The state VOAD is apparently not engaged, but that may change. No other organizing group has surfaced to lead unaffiliated groups like ours in intake and volunteer organizing like Hands On Nashville did after the floods there last year. There is a likelihood the damage and loss of life is much greater than has been reported. There is also a water shortage as the storm took out several water storage towers.

Monrovia Church of Christ in Huntsville wants to start up a "Tammany Oaks" style relief operation there. Tim Hines called with that info an hour ago.

Chrissy Wyatt, one of our Hilltop Rescue buddies in Chattanooga reports that areas 10 miles east of there and down into Ringold Georgia are really bad as well.

I can't decide where to go first, or whether I personally can go at all. Southern Baptist Disaster Relief groups report on their fb page that they are deploying all over the region. Information should start to gel in the next couple of days, but like Katrina, nobody knew the whole story till a week and more after the event.

You can help here now by organizing your churches to collect cash, gift cards to home improvement stores, tools, and probably water. Getting money and gift cards in will be easy. Water and tools will require some drivers and trailers.

Could really use a source for a double axle enclosed trailer for things like this if you know of any.

Servants Unite!

John McGuire

Tuscaloosa Situation

2011-04-28T15:16:00.000-04:00

This is a blog by an Elder at University Church of Christ, just north of the tornado's path in Tuscaloosa. A couple good posts of information now and more worth following to come I'm sure.

Record Tornado Outbreak

2011-04-28T07:44:00.002-04:00

Yesterday was a very bad day for a lot of people. Numbers are still coming in, but hundreds are dead, thousands homeless, and the quantity of tornadoes yesterday, over 170, has far surpassed the record set 37 years ago.

The worst tornado outbreak in U.S. history occurred in April 1974, when 148 twisters touched down in 13 states over a 16-hour period, according to the National Weather Service. The agency said 330 people died and 5,484 were injured in a path of damage that covered more than 2,500 miles.

The worst of these was a mile wide F5 that destroyed most of my wife Melinda's home town, Xenia, Ohio.

Yesterday's rush hour tornado that hit Tuscaloosa just south of the University of Alabama was the same kind of beast. It had been on the ground for 2 hours and continued through more towns after Tuscaloosa. There are a number of videos of the tornado churning through town on the Alabama Fox 6 station.

The path was just a few blocks south of the University Church of Christ where we've had teams stay on the way down or back from Katrina relief trips. I've traded a couple texts with Sandy who organized our stays. Knowing this church and their proximity to ground zero I expect they'll be working with members and the community to help recovery. While tornadoes usually do not require outside assistance, our relationship with this congregation and the scale of this damage may mean we are needed. I'll post updates here and on facebook

How Does the Disaster in Japan Compare

2011-03-14T12:02:00.003-04:00

Our experience as an organization has been with hurricanes, localized flooding, and river flooding. Our partner organization, Hilltop Rescue has done some wild fire response. As devastating as these events have been, we are fairly well prepared with what to expect. I propose, however, that faith based organizations, informal relief organizations like ours, and even the big government supported organizations have a long way to go to prepare for what has happened in Japan.

The scale and diversity of challenges in Northern Japan is beginning to be illustrated in this current CNN lead story:

The official death toll, rising every few hours, reached 1,886 on Monday [3/14/11]. But that didn't account for thousands of bodies Japan's Kyodo News said had been found in the hard-hit Miyagi Prefecture on Japan's northeast coast.
At least 2,369 people were missing Monday, the National Police Agency said, and the number of dead is expected to go up as rescuers reach more hard-hit areas.
Public broadcaster NHK reported that 450,000 people were living in shelters.
"It's just adding insult to injury," said Ryan McDonald, an American living in Kitakata, about 60 miles west of the Fukushima Daiichi power plant. "The earthquake was horrible. Then The tsunami was horrible. And that's not enough. Now there's a nuclear fear."
The town of Minami Sanriku -- about 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the Pacific Ocean -- had morphed into a massive pile of wood that used to house 20,000 residents.
About 15,000 people have been rescued, Kyodo News reported Monday, citing Prime Minister Nato Kan. Among them was Hiromitsu Shinkawa, a 60-year-old man from Minami Soma who was swept away with his house, Kyodo said. A Japanese destroyer found him floating 9 miles off Fukushima Prefecture

This is all very disheartening to me. It seems the bar to measure what constitutes a disaster keeps rising over the last decade. Each new worst-case-scenario is increasingly more extravagant than the last. The fear I have for what God may be preparing us for with our relief work is rising with each of these events.

The best quote I've seen applicable to this is from someone I am acquainted with from my gridSMART cybersecurity work at AEP. As Andy Bochman of IBM said "Good work rarely gets done in the fetal position."

We have work to do in analyzing this present crisis, even if we aren't applying it directly right now. How would we respond to a similar earthquake in California where "63,000 buildings had been damaged, more than 6,000 of them obliterated?" How would we respond to a tsunami, most likely in Oregon or Washington State, but anywhere along the West coast where all structures within 20 feet of sea level, miles inland are washed away with only minutes notice if any? How would we respond to a similar cascading failure of nuclear reactor control systems that could happen nearly anywhere in our country including Ohio? And how would we respond to all of them simultaneously as is required right now in Japan?

I don't have the answers. All of us thinking through these questions and working together to find answers, however, could be of tremendous benefit if our nation were confronted with similar catastrophes.

Your thoughts? How do we function as His hands and feet to victims of so extraordinary a circumstance as this is shaping up to be?

Servants Unite!
John McGuire
servantsunite.blogspot.com

Ohio and Japan

2011-03-12T21:43:00.002-05:00

It appears flooding in Northern Ohio over the last couple weeks is bad, but not the concentrated, large scale problem we had in 2007 in Bucyrus and Findlay. Yet, the water still hasn't receded many places so there may yet be a need for Servants Unite to mobilize. Southern Baptist Disaster Relief is engaged in the Marion County area. I'll pass on word as that materializes.

There is little our organization can do for Japan. This triple whammy of worst case scenarios, major earthquake, 23 foot tsunami, and now the threat of multiple nuclear reactor meltdowns appears to yet again set a new precedent for how bad a disaster can be. There are two organizations I have worked closely with who I can recommend over the usual suspects for handling money. IDES and WFR have been active in international disasters. They are affiliated with Christian Church and Church of Christ respectively. The people at IDES are good acquaintances and I am personal friends with the organizers at Whites Ferry Road. These are the sweetest people in the world yet they maintain strict oversight over how funds are spent. They will stretch a penny to make copper wire, yet those projects they support are very effective at shining Christ's light in the darkness.

We can help support their efforts and pray, pray, pray, pray, and pray some more.

Servants Unite!
John McGuire

Lots of flooding in Northern Ohio

2011-02-28T17:49:00.002-05:00

If you would like to help, please contact me by email or on my cell phone (listed to the right).

Snowfall from last week melting with rainfall last night has created major flooding in Findlay, Lima, and some other Northern Ohio towns. I don't know what I can do or organize or whether people are interested in going up to help the cleanup. For that matter it's still too early to judge whether the areas of damage are wide spread enough to require help from outside the local communities to clean it up.

Areas marked with purple on this National Weather Service map are where the need for help will be greatest. I'll keep my eye on the needs, but I'm not going to be able to go up and do a survey till the weekend.

This does not appear to be as widespread or severe as August 2007 when we spent several weeks working in Bucyrus area and other groups worked in Findlay. During that response, we made contact with EMA directors for several counties and ended up working with Tim Flock in Crawford County (Bucyrus). We helped a local resident with some disaster relief experience set up intake for residents with needs and organization for volunteers during the initial effort. FEMA ended up declaring a disaster area and the process became more formalized after a few weeks and was taken over by our VOAD. In Ohio, that's Lutheran Disaster Services.

I get information and updates from LDS, Mennonite Disaster Services which is active in the area, Southern Baptist Disaster Relief, and Methodist Disaster Services. I'll post any information from those organizations or any additional information I collect here.

Please pray for those who have lost property and vehicles in the flash flooding, that they will find help that they need and find that Jesus is looking out for them.

Servants Unite!
John McGuire

I need some local disaster relief volunteer help this Winter in Bucyrus

2010-12-02T19:50:00.001-05:00

I need the help of a few people to work on a project with me back up in Bucyrus. This is an opportunity to help a family that has sacrificed much to help their community after flooding in late 2007. Servants Unite sent a number of volunteers up and I spent two weeks helping Linn Ash organize intake, assessments, and volunteer teams following unprecedented flooding across Northern Ohio. Here's a reference from the blog from the first day we worked there.

Now Linn's family needs our help. They are accustomed to being the helpers, not the helped so the need for assistance is uncomfortable for them. Linn has strong faith, but physical issues are getting to be a problem. Since our work there, her family has found they have a couple different, rare genetic diseases. The symptoms of those are racking up some disabilities for Linn, her husband Tim, and their kids. Their two story house is getting to be a problem.

They were able to buy a ranch house this week. It needs a couple doors widened and maybe a ramp built as well as normal pre-move in prep. Then we need to help them move and prepare their current home for sale. That will involve some additional destruction/light construction work. Selling season starts in Spring, but I'm sure they'll want to have that stresser taken care of as soon as possible.

If you think you'll be able to help me on Saturdays or Sundays over the coming weeks, or you can lead work on a week day, please send me an email. I'll add you to my list and keep you notified as work dates solidify so you can determine whether you can help those days. If you can, please pray for the Ash family and for God to use His people to meet their physical needs. There may also be need for some materials. If you'd like to help out with those, please email me as well.

Thanks guys!

The Gathering

2010-09-28T22:28:00.002-04:00

We've sent several crews to Chalmette, Louisiana to work with The Gathering church plant. The community center/ex bowling alley has been a long time coming, but they are on their final push to get it up and running.

They need help. If you can take a team down before the end of the year, small or large, who knows how to help with their needs or be a good assistant to someone who does. Here's the latest update from Aaron and Matt:

We wanted to send a quick update regarding the progress at the Gathering Place...i've been working with multiple small adult teams to finish this by the end of the year. and then it became "Project 52"--with God's help, would it be possible to finish the place in 52 days like He did with Nehemiah. We are in the 4th week and have certainly seen answered prayer--the workers He has provided, the materials donated, money provided, and safety afforded as well. Matt, our pastor, sent this update out, so I'm passing on to you....thanks for reading and loving us.

Really, can words sum up these pictures. It is amazing to see what has happened in just a few days. Who would have thought toilets would have been such an exciting picture. I will have a lot more pictures to show next week.

By the grace of God,we are moving so quickly in the completion of this building. It is amazing to watch the church in action, being used by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Praise God, all Glory to HIM.

9/16 Ohio Tornadoes

2010-09-17T10:19:00.003-04:00

Looks like there are a couple of small property damage areas after last night's storms. If anyone knows of others, or people who need help cleaning up storm damage, please get in contact with me.

Athens area
An apparent tornado overturned several trailers at the Pine Aire Village mobile home park in The Plains. It then destroyed part of the high school football stands and press box where a girl's soccer game was in progress. Fortunately all participants and spectators got to shelter before it hit. Final damage I have been able to find then is an auto repair shop on the east side of Athens. Nobody was killed, but a few people had minor injuries from being tumbled in their mobile homes with their belongings.

View Larger Map
You can see a local photographers images from last night here

More news stories will be available at Athens newspapers' sites
Athens News
Athens Messenger

Wooster Area:
Damage appears to be limited to some treas and the Ohio State University Agriculture Research and Development Center. Again, nobody was killed and there was only 1 very minor injury reported.

The Daily Record Newspaper Site

View Larger Map

Delaware County
Olentangy High School lost some gym roof. Again, no injuries and crews were working on recovering the roof overnight and this morning.

Earl

2010-09-02T10:58:00.002-04:00

This is a large and powerful Katrina like storm. Likewise the damage it has the potential to cause is similar. If it skips off the outer banks and heads back out to sea, land impact will be minimal, but it's track continues to trend towards land. Running up the coast could subject the entire New England seacoast to hurricane force winds and some surge. While the worst case is not currently in the forecast, if it were to come up the Hudson River, Chesapeake, or other estuaries like Katrina came up the MRGO the result would be catastrophic.

After Katrina, the press tracked down worst case scenarios that actually could be much worse. Among these is a Category 2 or stronger coming into New York City. Transportation, communications, and power would all be destroyed in an area of much higher population density than New Orleans was.

PRAY!

If the worst happens this weekend (another Labor Day weekend storm?) I'll have instructions for how we can help.

Anyone feel like a road trip Friday night?

Servants Unite!

Pakistan flooding disaster is REALLY bad.

2010-08-24T20:05:00.002-04:00

This CNN article outlines the suffering currently in Pakistan. Not that there is much our organization can do, but there are a massive amount of people without homes, food, water, and the basics.

Roughly 4 million people are homeless from mammoth flooding that covered much of Pakistan for three weeks. Hundreds of health facilities are damaged or destroyed. Millions are at risk for deadly waterborne diseases from the filthy flood waters.
Officials estimate the death toll between 1,500 and 1,600, but Kapadia says he thinks the numbers could skyrocket as water recedes and more bodies and animals surface.

Five Year Anniversary

2010-08-23T19:52:00.002-04:00

Five years ago the McGuire family took our first beach vacation to Gulf Shores, Alabama. If you told me then that I'd know the highways down to and around the Gulf of Mexico like the back of my hand, the geography of which city is where, who lives in any of those places I would have never believed it. I and many of you have now been to so many of the beaches, churches, and restaurants, worked in people's homes, gained lifetime friends, and have come to feel we have a home and family in the lower latitudes of our country.

Five years ago hurricane Katrina converted the beach road along Gulf Shores where my family had played with the fishes a few days before into open ocean. Floating casinos in Mississippi were made beached hulks. Hundreds of thousands of homes, churches, businesses, and livelihoods were washed away by the waves and the water along with several thousand people's lives.

Thousands of us now know our way around post disaster Slidell, Bayou La Batre, Chalmette, New Orleans, Mandeville. We will never forget the people who's homes we have cleaned out and rebuilt, the friends we worked with, and the brotherly love we experienced working in New Orleans.

In those 5 years, we have also served in Iowa, Houston, Galveston, and Bucyrus here in Ohio. Some of us have gone on to other mission work as a result of our experience and have engaged others. I'm sure, like you, my outlook, priorities, and life is now quite different than it was before my involvement in relief work with you brothers and sisters.

The work has slowed and we've gone back to our lives for the most part. I'm back to working a full time IT Security job again. I'm at AEP downtown working to secure the gridSmart project. Our hearts for missions and relieving the suffering of those stricken by disaster, however, are still strong.

With the projected path of Hurricane Earl inching closer and closer to North Carolina and the New England states, we are reminded of the mission God put before us 5 years ago. Then we saw thousands of people in dire circumstances. Third world calamity conditions, right here in the USA. We know we risk a storm like Katrina, Ike, or even the localized flooding we've seen in Nashville and other places this past year will continue to require the skills we've built over the last 5 years.

Servants Unite, though dormant currently is ready to spin up when the need for volunteers to serve in disaster relief rises again. I remain committed to continuing the mission with you whether we need to send volunteers to Cape Hatteras next week or Miami next year. Keep monitoring the blog for updates and needs.

John McGuire
President
Servants Unite!

Disaster update from Lutheran Disaster Services

2010-06-11T14:25:00.003-04:00

This seems like a sound assessment so I thought I'd share. I have to note, however, that our friends in Bayou La Batre and at The Gathering in Chalmette, Louisiana are always looking for financial and volunteer assistance. Their ministries are going to be particularly in demand and can be that much more effective in this oil response in their communities.

Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

We continue to monitor the devastating oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and pray fervently for all those who have been affected. Indeed, while the long-term effects of this tragedy will be felt by all of us, for those whose lives and livelihoods have been directly impacted, the needs for help are acute and overwhelming.

Earlier this week, Jessica Vermilyea, disaster coordinator with Lutheran Social Services of the South, took part in an ecumenical listening tour into the bayou marsh areas of Plaquemines Parish in southeastern Louisiana. As part of this group, Jessica heard from fishermen, business owners, and other local leaders about how the oil spill is affecting them, even as many of them continue to struggle with recovery from Hurricane Katrina.

We have received numerous inquiries from Lutherans around the country about volunteering in some capacity along the Gulf Coast. At this moment, only people who are being specifically trained and equipped by BP are being permitted to work directly in the clean-up process. This has much to do with the health and safety risks of handling the crude oil. In the future, opportunities may emerge for other types of volunteer roles, and each state in the area is receiving names of volunteers who are interested in helping. To register, follow one of the following links:
• Louisiana: volunteerlouisiana.gov
• Mississippi: volunteermississippi.org
• Florida: volunteerfloridadisaster.org
• Alabama: servealabama.gov
Several questions have been raised about whether a national funding appeal should be launched in response to this tragedy. Our commitment has always been that we will find the most efficient ways possible to use financial contributions to meet unmet needs that arise from disaster. At this time, BP has pledged that it is their responsibility to pay for all costs related to clean-up as well as to reimburse those who have experienced a loss of income as a result of the spill, and anyone seeking to file a claim can do so directly through the BP Web site. Given the unique nature of this situation, we will not be seeking funding for this response.

Instead, we lift up the unfolding needs of those in the many states affected by flooding and tornadoes so far this spring, including as recently as this past weekend in Ohio, Michigan, and Illinois. I ask you to consider giving a gift to support the responses getting underway in places like Yazoo City, Mississippi and Nashville, Tennessee. Click here to give today.

In the mean time, we will continue to listen for emerging unmet needs along the Gulf Coast and for meaningful ways that we might engage there. As we do, I ask for your continued prayers for the beautiful land and people of the Gulf Coast as they struggle to overcome this continuing tragedy.

In service,
Rev. Kevin A. Massey, Director

Lutheran Disaster Response
Bringing Help and Hope...
Phone: 773-380-2748
Fax: 773-380-2493
Visit us on the Web at LDR.org
Are you on Facebook? Join the cause.

North West Ohio Tornado Damage from Sunday Morning

2010-06-07T08:21:00.001-04:00

The Toledo Blade has an article on the damage.

Welcome to Hurricane Season 2010

2010-06-01T08:36:00.002-04:00

A weekend tropical cyclone got a head start on Central America where the death toll is rising and a sinkhole of dimensions difficult to believe has opened in Guatamala City after mudslides from the torrential rains. I have a note into our friend Tim Hines who works missions in Honduras to verify all is well with their work there.

The US National Weather Service predicts an active season in this article

“If this outlook holds true, this season could be one of the more active on record,” said Jane Lubchenco, Ph.D., under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator. “The greater likelihood of storms brings an increased risk of a landfall. In short, we urge everyone to be prepared.”

NOAA also has a FAQ on how a Gulf of Mexico hurricane may effect, or be effected by the oil plume. For those of us who have already shoveled crude out of people's living rooms in Chalmette from the Katrina damaged refinery, this will probably be more of the same.

It's hard to believe it's been nearly 5 years since we began the post Katrina cleanup. Though the past year has been quiet we're already to respond if needed again this year. When the need appears to be there, I'll investigate whether Servants Unite can be of assistance and get the word out to you all scheduling trips. Till then, be praying for a lighter than predicted season and for opportunities to be Christ to people in their distress.

If you are wondering if volunteers are needed in Tennessee...

2010-05-03T10:29:00.003-04:00

I don't believe so yet. Though it sounds pretty bad around Nashville in the press this morning, here's the update I got this morning from Southern Baptist Disaster Relief. If I get more info, I'll post to servantsunite.blogspot.com

Storm System Sweeps Across the Central and Southern States

Storms over the weekend caused tornadoes and flooding in Tennessee, killing at least six. David Acres, Tennessee state disaster relief director, says, “The cities of Nashville and Lavergne, Tenn., have been declared disaster areas.” The American Red Cross (ARC) has opened shelters, but the shelter population has remained small. Acres says, “We have been in contact with ARC, and they have not needed a Tennessee disaster relief kitchen.” Tennessee Baptist Convention has also been in contact with emergency managers, and they stand ready to assist with debris removal or mudout of houses.

The storm system also left a path of destruction in Arkansas, Alabama, and Mississippi and was moving through Kentucky and Georgia late Sunday evening. One death was reported and a state of emergency declared in Arkansas. Three deaths were reported Sunday morning in Mississippi. Pray for Southern Baptist volunteers working to help their neighbors in these states. As daylight comes and the system continues to move east, many will be out assessing damage, running chainsaws, and cleaning up flooded homes.

Prayers for Entire Pacific Basin

2010-02-27T09:35:00.002-05:00

This quake in Chili is a MAJOR disaster. At magnitude 8.8 it is 1000 times the power of the Haiti quake. Read more here. Nine foot tsunami waves have been measured near the epicenter and are traveling out through the entire ocean. They are due into Hawaii soon and anywhere with a Pacific coast is subject to waves higher or lower than this when it gets there. This is a disaster in progress. Prayers people get away in time and that loss of life is minimized across the world and near the epicenter, a very heavily populated portion of South America.

Project Opportunity to benefit Haiti

2010-02-24T19:32:00.002-05:00

Southern Baptists Disaster Relief is a well oiled machine. They are collecting Buckets of Hope to ship to Haitians who are homeless, hungry, and generally miserable. More information about the things they have going on are here

Be keeping up on www.lifeline.org for their needs and trip plans. Commercial flights are resuming into Port Au Prince soon and there will be opportunities to go work if you are interested.

I have friends who have been and one who is there this week. This is typical disorganized disaster relief work, but to a whole new degree. If you plan to go you will want to be sure you are working with a well established organization who knows the lay of the land well and has connections with the community down there.

Trauma Docs Requested for Haiti Relief

2010-01-19T14:39:00.001-05:00

Please forward this information to others who may be able to help...

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is requesting physicians of specific specialities to deploy with the National Disaster Medical Assistance teams to Haiti. The need is for trauma surgeons, orthopedists, anesthesiologists, and others with experience in treating crush injuries. Volunteers must be able to serve for at least 2 weeks, and be willing to live and work in spartan conditions.

Preference will be given to physicians who are Creole or French speakers, and to those currently credentialed through the Medical Reserve Corps in their home state, or the ESAR-VHP program (Emergency Services Advanced Registration of Volunteer Health Personnel).

These volunteers will need to be credentialed as temporary federal employees and will need to be able to provide credentialing paperwork as soon as asked. Credentialing normally takes about a week. Volunteers with these clinical skills should contact Michala Koch at Michala.Koch@hhs.gov. Not everyone who wishes to help will necessarily be deployed, and those without the requisite skills may not receive a direct response.

For medical professionals wishing to help in this way in future relief efforts, please take a few minutes to learn about the Medical Reserve Corps, identify your local unit, and register to become part of the corps. To do so, visit www.medicalreservecorps.gov. This is the channel through which medical volunteers are deployed immediately following an event, and only those registered beforehand are likely to be deployed.

Thank you for your service!

Mike Nevergall
Assistant Director

Lutheran Disaster Response
Bringing Help and Hope...
Phone: 773-380-2748
Fax: 773-380-2493
Visit us on the Web at LDR.org
Are you on Facebook? Join the cause.

Haiti updates/Links

2010-01-19T14:28:00.003-05:00

Really great new photos

Please pray unceasing for the people of Haiti and those ministering to them.

Lifeline, a Westerville, Ohio based (stateside) mission who has been active in Grand Goave Haiti for 30 years. I'll keep postings here of immediate needs and when trip opportunities become available. Servants Unite is not funded to cover the cost of international relief trips unfortunately, but people are asking about the opportunities to go.

Doug and Amy Reichley are "two buckeyes in Haiti" They are in Gressier with their new baby boy and working on adopting a Hatian boy. They may have to come home soon if they can get his paperwork in order to come to the US. Amy's parents are setting up this additional organization to fund the rebuilding of a destroyed orphanage in their christian village.

Our friends at the Whites Ferry Road Church of Christ disaster relief organization have been at international disaster relief for 30 years.

All of the above are working, even in this tragedy, to bring people to Christ. Doug and Amy report over 300 people there have accepted His grace and salvation since the quake a week ago!

Haiti

2010-01-13T08:12:00.003-05:00

The more news comes out, the worse the effects sound. This is a place totally unprepared for such an event where people barely make it day to day as it is. Haiti has incredible poverty and risk to life and loss without a major earthquake. Look here for more information on how we can help as it becomes available. You can find a first hand account of one of the missionaries I know down there at this link.

Personally I'm asking for prayers for lifeline.org missionaries Gretchen, who is in-country with a team, and her husband Bob who is still in Westerville. I can imagine how he has felt all night and this morning. Also, pray for our close friends Doug and Amy Reichley, a young couple with a new son and a new adopted Haitian son this past year who are missionaries in the epicenter as well. All of them are OK after the quake, but lack of resources, poor communications, social instability, and disease will be immense problems for everyone on the island of Hispaniola in the coming days and weeks.

See an old friend Sunday

2009-12-15T20:13:00.001-05:00

THE Brendan Hendrix of "Git R Done" disaster relief fame at Tammany Oaks, Hilltop Rescue, and other efforts after katrina will be visiting at Westerville Christian Church Sunday with us! If you are in the area and would like to say hi, let me know ASAP and we'll hook up on details.

Aaron Johnson's October update from The Gathering church plant in Chalmette

2009-11-19T08:52:00.002-05:00

Aaron Johnson with The Gathering Christian Church plant who we have worked with in Chalmette, Louisiana sends a monthly newsletter. For those who don't know, His family has moved down from Indiana to build the church there as have Matt Wooodward and several other ministry staff. Their church is growing and the previous bowling alley they are building into their community center and meeting place is finally coming along too.

Since this is an especially eventful newsletter (think growing family) I thought I'd post it for you. To view the PDF, click THIS LINK

Ida know...

2009-11-08T22:44:00.002-05:00

Ida is expected to come into Pensacola Tuesday as a Cat2 hurricane. It could be stronger or weaker, but seems to be making a bee line for that section of the coast. Hurricane warnings are up from Biloxi Mississippi all they way around past Panama Beach Florida. That puts our friends in Bayou La Batre squarely in the effected zone.

A category 2 won't likely bring the kind of wind damage and storm surge that a major hurricane like Katrina and Ike did, but can still be dangerous.

Please offer up prayers for our friends and those involved in their mission there.

Lots of disasters in the last week...

2009-10-01T07:43:00.001-04:00

Southern Baptist Disaster Relief sent an update out on all last night. This is a good, concise status on these areas.

Disaster Relief Update - Wednesday, September 30, 2009
“Therefore, God’s chosen ones, holy and loved, put on heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.” Colossians 3:12 (HCSV)
The Lord has given Southern Baptist Disaster Relief (SBDR) volunteers many opportunities to show His compassion and kindness towards others. From Georgia to American Samoa and on to the Philippines, hurting people need the touch of Christ.
Tsunami Devastates American Samoa

The North American Mission Board has been in contact with the Hawaii-Pacific Baptist Convention (HPBC). The tsunami that struck American Samoa Tuesday left in its wake wholesale destruction across the capitol city. The damage includes the Baptist Seafarer’s Center where nothing is left but the cement shell. Missionaries Joeli and Tupe Sovea, along with their children, lived at the Seafarer’s Center and saw all of their personal possessions washed away with the rest of the contents of the building. Thankfully the family is safe. The Happy Valley Baptist Church, located near the airport in Pago Pago was spared. Property destruction across the island chain is immense and lost of life is great. Pray for the faithful on the ground that they may truly be a light in the darkness.
Hawaii Baptists were spared and are now in the process of preparing to respond to American Samoa with their airlift kitchen and 15 volunteers. The logistics of getting to American Samoa with the ‘Fly Away’ Feeding unit, food and volunteers to staff the unit is the next hurdle. Pray for wisdom and patience as Hawaii Pacific Baptist Convention Disaster Relief leaders and NAMB Staff work with the American Red Cross and FEMA. The Disaster Operations Center at NAMB is working closely with HPBC leaders in an effort to support them in this monumental task. There is the possibility units from other state conventions will be requested. If the request comes DOC staff will forward HPBC’s request knowing that SBDR volunteers will respond as they are able. We do serve an awesome God!
Read more at Baptist Press.
Floods in the Philippines
The heavy rains that flooded the Philippines have created an opportunity for Southern Baptist Disaster Relief ministry through our working relationship with Baptist Global Response, the aid arm of the International Mission Board. BGR has requested assistance in accordance with our agreement and at this time four states (KY, SBTC, OK and TBM) are gearing up to send teams to assist in the Baptist response there.
Earthquake Shakes Indonesia
A large earthquake shook the nation of Indonesia late Tuesday. At the time of this update there has been no request from our international partner, BGR, for assistance. We do join our brothers and sisters of Indonesia in prayer. May the unbounded love and power of our Lord Jesus Christ be manifested through those already on the ground!
Georgia Cleanup Continues
We are in the midst of our second week of response to the floods that have destroyed whole neighborhoods in the Atlanta area as well as Toccoa and Trion. At the time of this update there are 7 states on site helping GA Baptists in the relief efforts. There are many other states that stand ready to assist as needed.
Support Southern Baptist Disaster Relief Efforts
Your prayers are your most important contribution to all of these relief efforts. Pray for victims, volunteers and leadership.
You can also support Southern Baptist Disaster Relief efforts with your financial gifts online or by contacting your State Baptist Convention Disaster Relief office

Georgia Flooding Update from Southern Baptists

2009-09-28T16:30:00.001-04:00

Georgia Flood

The Georgia flood has been described as an “epic flood.” Seventeen counties have now been declared disaster areas by the Georgia Governor’s Office with 14 of those counties having been approved and designated as disasters by the President’s Office. Damage estimates from the State Insurance Office could exceed $500 million.

The response has taken time to get underway. Stuart Lang, Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief Director, reported, “Some roads are still impassable.” GEMA reported that 4,636 FEMA Individual Assistance registrations have been received as of 7:00 p.m., Saturday, September 26th.

Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief has activated 21 DR teams including feeding, recovery, chaplain, assessment, mud-out, and command/communication units. Mud-out teams in the Trion/Summerville area have neared completion of the work in that area. Stuart says, “Local churches have been involved in ministering to their communities.” Georgia Baptist has facilitated this ministry.

The North American Mission Board is supporting Georgia Baptist with the deployment and placement of state convention partners. Alabama has three units deployed. Additional volunteers from Alabama, Kentucky, Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia, Texas Baptist Men, and Baptist General Association of Virginia have been activated and are traveling this week. Additional state partners are standing ready to respond as assessment continues and needs are clarified.

The NAMB command post, generator unit, and shower trailer have been deployed and are operational.
A staffed phone center with a toll-free number (1 800 460-6881) has been activated and is taking calls from homeowners who have been affected by the flood and need assistance. The phone center is open from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. daily at this time.

Please continue to pray for all involved.

National Disaster Relief Leadership
• Bruce Poss, Disaster Relief Unit Coordinator
• Terry Henderson, Disaster Relief Operations Consultant
• Karl Ragan, Disaster Relief Planning Consultant
To contact the Disaster Operation Center, call 1 888 462-8657 or e-mail dr_offsite@namb.net

Georgia Flooding

2009-09-25T23:37:00.004-04:00

I received emails from 4 faith based relief groups yesterday. This is in Southern Baptist Disaster Relief's back yard. They expect outside help will be needed mucking and helping the large number of un-insured rebuild, but the work isn't ready for volunteers yet. An update today says that they are working to set up operations in Toccoa, Trion, Austell, Powder Springs and Douglasville, Georgia.

Luthern Disaster Services is the VOAD in Georgia and they say pretty much the same thing, but they usually spend 2 or 3 weeks getting dig in and spun up.

Churches of Christ DRT is setting up in the Churches of Christ in the Austell, Powder Springs, and Douglasville areas of Georgia.

You can see from this google map that these areas are all to the West of Atlanta, not far outside the loop.

View Larger Map
As I am leaving for a mission trip to Zimbabwe next Friday, October 2 for two weeks, I am unable to coordinate any trips down at this time. Please do not let this dissuade you from getting involved! If someone can take the lead on organizing a team or two during this time, please call me this week and I can help you get it started. There are a couple people I'll be calling on to lead this effort. As information becomes available it'll be posted here and sent via email.

Servants Unite Status Update

2009-09-17T09:43:00.002-04:00

"No tropical cyclones at this time." Not quite, but nearly the story of the summer. While there have been a couple storms in the Atlantic and Pacific and some localized flooding events this summer, the major events we usually respond to have just not occurred. We've just passed the anniversary of Katrina/Rita (has it really been 4 years?) and Hurricanes Gustov and Ike from a year ago our last official response. Remember when our power was still out and front yards were still full of tree limbs this time last year?

Cleanup is still underway for all of these events, but it seems most people who have been involved with Servants Unite have focused more on financial crises and other events that hit closer to home. Personally, I've been consulting (I'm an IT consultant when not doing disaster relief) and been blessed with a lot of time to get in better shape with my wife and spend some serious quality time with my kids. I hope God has blessed all of you with the same. A time of peace and reassurance.

Now I believe this current lull is only that. We live in a fallen world that is subject to all kinds of disaster. In the last 9 years we've seen just about everything. It terrifies me to think what God may be preparing us for with this respite and more healthful lifestyle he's helped me and some other ministry friends into this summer. When the next big thing comes along, I will be contacting you. Servants Unite will be spinning back up. And with all that we've learned in the last 4 years we'll be ever more able to shine the light of Christ on disaster victims and engage our friends, family, and neighbors in mission work.

Next month, October 2-13, I'll be on a mission trip with Westerville Christian Church to Zimbabwe. We'll be spreading the gospel to people who have never heard it. Apparently a bunch of white Americans can really draw a crowd there. We're also taking seeds, clothes, basketballs and soccer balls. We'll be building a home for the preacher of the church we've been supporting there as he is getting married during our visit. We're also setting up some basketball goals we shipped in a container last year. Should be a busy 8 days in country and a long haul out and back traveling.

Will you please pray for this trip and for me personally to be all God intends?

If you'd like a taste, you can take a tour of an African village with "Step Into Africa", a World Vision exhibit at Westerville Christian September 25-29. For more information on that, go to www.westerville-christian.org.

If you're rested and aching for some mission work. We do need to organize a fall and winter trip to Chalmette to build out the community center for The Gathering Christian Church plant. They have their building permit and are ready to build a house for God's people to work in a previously flooded out bowling alley. If you can help with this by taking a week off this fall for missions, especially if you have some handyman type skills, please let me know when you are available and we'll start planning a trip. You can email or call using the contact information at the top of the blog.

Servants Unite!

You can follow Servants Unite on Twitter. You can also friend john@servantsunite.org on Facebook and join the Servants Unite group there.

Visit Warm and Cheerful Chalmette This Fall!

2009-08-19T16:58:00.003-04:00

The Gathering Christian Church plant that we've worked with in Chalmette the last two years has the go ahead to build out the bowling alley for their community center. They need us back to help get that done. Plans are not yet made. If you have availability for a week or two, please email me with special skills you have and times you could go. I'll publish that back out to the list to see if we can nail down a trip or two to help them out.

If you haven't been back since soon after the storm, you'll appreciate the difference. People live there again. Baseball happens. School happens. Going out for dinner or ice-cream happens. It'll do your heart good to see some of the fruits of your previous labors and help the continued recovery at the same time.

Here's the information I have from them right now:

"The Gathering Place"

We are moving forward with our building and from now on will refer to it as The Gathering Place- our future community center and meeting place for the church! We got our final building permit at the end of July and hope to close on the purchase of it in September. To the right is the floor plan of the first phase, with two more areas for future phases. This area will hold counseling offices, a multi-purpose room, meeting spaces, and restrooms.

We are extremely excited to watch as God builds this place of ministry. We are prayerfully planning as we move forward with what He has already provided. This August we will be working on tying re-bar, installing under-slab plumbing, and pouring concrete. Please lift us up in these endeavors!

2009 Hurricane Season So Far

2009-08-19T16:45:00.002-04:00

Just so people don't think I'm watching.... There is a major hurricane, "Bill" out in the Atlantic, but it is not expected to make landfall. There's a chance for storm development in the Gulf of Mexico, but this storm season has been unexpectedly light. Even in the midwest where we generally have a few flooding and severe storm events a year, there has been little of the mahem we've come to expect the last few years.

Due to a general lack of interest over the past 12 months, we're kind of in a holding pattern as an organization. When the next big thing happens though details on how you can help will be here as will I and other's who have been team leaders in Servants Unite over the last 4 years since Katrina came onshore.

I pray that you've had the opportunity to spend more time with your families and other ministries recently. We will be called on again and your help will continue to be needed.

Local work opportunity

2009-08-19T16:42:00.001-04:00

President Obama recently announced a Summer of Service initiative called United We Serve. This 81 day initiative will culminate with a new National Day of Service and Remembrance on September 11, 2009.

Rebuilding Together Central Ohio is ready to answer President Obama's call! In the spirit of United We Serve and the new National Day of Service, RTCO is looking to mobilize 100 volunteers in the greater Columbus region. In volunteering, Americans will be reaching out to impact our neighborhoods in the areas of energy efficiency, sustainability, and beautification.

Volunteer activities will include:
Energy Efficiency Outreach Project
o Assembling and distributing 500 Energy
Efficiency Outreach bags to local residents
Community Garden Maintenance
o Clean up local community gardens, turning soil and
preparing them for the Fall and Winter months
Street Clean Up
o Canvassing local streets for trash, separating
recyclables from non-recyclables

The dates of service are August 28th and 29th. Volunteers will meet at Rebuilding Together Central Ohio's Office and go out into the community from there. The first 100 volunteers will receive a United We Serve - Rebuilding Together T-Shirt and water bottle.

Interested?
Contact:
Aaron Murphy at aaron@rtcolumbus.org or

Jonathan Duffy at jonathan@rtcolumbus.org

Need a big adventure this summer?

2009-07-02T10:57:00.001-04:00

Mennonite Disaster Services is building log houses in Eagle Alaska on the Yukon river. Details on that and their other projects are below:

This is the MDS Update for July 2, 2009
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED FOR ALASKA PROJECT
After heavy flooding this spring along the Yukon River, homes in Eagle, Alaska sustained extensive damage. MDS will begin a binational project in Eagle in July. We are seeking strong adult volunteers to help construct 13 log homes between July 13 and September 12, 2009. Volunteers must be in excellent physical health and able to assist with a variety of construction activities. Volunteers will be expected to work 10-12 hours a day, six days a week on a construction crew. Accommodations will consist of insulated tents with no running water. Meals will be supplied by local volunteers. Travel to the project will be provided and requires small aircraft travel from Fairbanks. Minimum time commitment is two weeks with preference given to volunteers who are able to serve four weeks or more. If interested, please contact our Akron office at (800)241-8111.

CURRENT NEEDS
Caretakers
Diamond, LA: July 25-Oct 3
Caretakers are volunteers who stay at the project to answer the phones, clean the MDS facilities, do small repairs, organize tools, and provide general maintenance so that the projects will be ready to start up again when the volunteer groups return.
Call if you are available to serve for any amount of time.
For information, call Sarah Yoder at (800)241-8111.

HOUSE BUILD IN COLUMBUS
Thanks to volunteers at the MC USA Convention in Columbus, Ohio, Kristy B., a single mother from Pass Christian, MS, will have a new home soon. During the second day of the MC USA convention, 15 volunteers took part in constructing the walls of Kristy's new house. More volunteers are expected in the days to come as youth groups continue to sign up. The house build is highlighting MDS' Partnership Home Program in which churches have the opportunity to partner with MDS to build a house for a family in need of a home. On Saturday, July 4, MDS will give volunteers the opportunity to participate in a house dedication before the house is dismantled and placed on a truck to be driven to Pass Christian where it will be completed.

DIAMOND, LOUISIANA
Disaster: 2005 Gulf Coast Hurricanes
At Mr. Ron’s house, we had anywhere from two to three crews working at the same time. Much was accomplished on his house this week! All of the siding, soffit and facia are now on the house, and crews were working on priming and painting the siding. We had a few crews working on finishing up some of the electrical wiring and plumbing so the house can get a rough-in inspection next week. Mr. Ron is really looking forward to living in his new house!

DULZURA, CALIFORNIA
Disaster: 2007 Wildfires
This week saw the windows arrive for the B house and the C house. The windows were installed in less than half a day with much credit due to good framing practices that had all the rough openings the correct size. With the house now wrapped and the windows installed we can get the next inspection on its way. The facia and soffits were also completed by week’s end with the house taking on a completely new look. The plumbing and electrical rough-ins have also been completed and now the sprinkler system can be installed. When the next inspection passes we can then get to work on the siding and drywall after the roof is done.

NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA
Disaster: 2005 Gulf Coast Hurricanes
The weather remained extremely hot and humid when the team from Harvest Community Church arrived. Many in the team had served with MDS before, and knowing the routine, were anxious to get to work. The week was entirely dedicated to finishing the interior of the home belonging to Ms. Marie. Trim work was completed and painted, closet doors hung, interior doors painted.

PASS CHRISTIAN, MISSISSIPPI
Disaster: 2005 Gulf Coast Hurricanes
This project will re-open July 5.

Contributions may be sent to:
USA: 1018 Main Street, Akron, PA 17501 or
Can.: 6A-1325 Markham Rd, Winnipeg, MB R3T 4J6
Online: Donate
Telephone: (717) 859-2210 or (800) 241-8111

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Local volunteer opportunity

2009-06-04T22:35:00.001-04:00

As a volunteer driven organization, the hard work and dedication of volunteers like you makes our success possible. Interested in lending a hand?

Ruby needs a helping hand with the following repairs:
*Repair/replace drawer fronts on 2 kitchen cabinet drawers
*Get closet door in bedroom to run properly on tracks
*Remove old caulk around tub and re-caulk.
*Repair or replace kitchen faucet.
*Fix loose master bath pedestal sink
Ruby lives in the 43211 zip code.

If you are interested in making a difference in this homeowners' life please contact:

Aaron Murphy
Volunteer Coordinator
(614) 258-6392 or
aaron@rtcolumbus.org

Rebuilding Together Columbs looking for some light help

2009-05-19T12:23:00.000-04:00

As a volunteer driven organization, the hard work and dedication of volunteers like you makes our success possible. Interested in lending a hand?

Brenda received services during our Christmas in April Event but there are still a few loose ends that need to be tied up before we can call her project complete. We are looking for a couple of volunteers to caulk around the new tub surround and window, finish the drywall and paint the bathroom. Brenda lives in the 43219 zip code.

If you are interested in making a difference in this homeowners' life please contact:

Aaron Murphy
Volunteer Coordinator
(614) 258-6392 or
aaron@rtcolumbus.org

Update on Various Spring Disasters from Southern Baptists

2009-04-29T09:19:00.001-04:00

Forwarding this to all of you as a way to illustrate the present needs for Disaster Relief work. Most everything that has come up in the last few months is being taken care of locally. Keep an eye out, though, for needs associated with the potential flu pandemic as well as spring storms and flooding.

Disaster Relief Update - Wednesday April 29, 2009
"…in whom you also are being built together for God's dwelling in the Spirit."
(Ephesians 2:22)
2009 Disaster Relief Roundtable
A productive week has just concluded in Phoenix, Arizona. Southern Baptist Disaster Relief Roundtable included leadership from across the United States. It included wonderful times of worship, discussion about how Southern Baptists can better serve our Lord through the ministry of Disaster Relief. Our partners; American Red Cross, The Salvation Army, FEMA and The Office of Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships had representatives at the meeting.
An important decision about credentialing was made. Southern Baptist Disaster Relief now has a standard name badge that will be recognized by security officials when entering a disaster area.
The annual Disaster awards were also presented. This year’s recipients were:
Robert Dixon Award – Norman Wagoner
Joel Philips Award– Rick Taylor and Tom Cline
Distinguished Volunteer Award – Steve Chrisman, Al Martin, Golden Schell, Carol and Thurman Stewart and Tom Westerfield
Swine Flu Spreading
As the number of cases of Swine Flu climb in the US and around the world the World Health Organization and The Centers for Disease Control have issued a Phase 4 Alert. A wide array of resources and up to date information are available on the CDC website www.cdc.gov/swineflu.
North Myrtle Beach South Carolina Fire
To date 79 homes have been destroyed and 150-200 homes have been damaged and are unable to be occupied. SCDR is working with all emergency factors in the county. At this time a command post has been established at First Baptist Church North Myrtle Beach. A feeding unit, shower unit, and a multitude of crisis interveners and chaplains are on foot within the communities devastated by the fires. Assessment and chainsaw units will respond to cut down the burned, scorched, dying and dead trees around homes.
Texas Fires
SBTC volunteers are cleaning up after wildfire damage in Montague County. They are working out of FBC Bowie. They have completed 12 jobs and with 11 remaining. Jim Richardson, SBTC State DR Director, reports 81 volunteer days in this response.
Florida Floods
Florida SBDR teams continue their ministry to families who had homes damaged during recent flooding. Mudout teams and shower Units remain on site at First Baptist Church in Lee Florida.
Georgia Floods
Georgia Disaster Relief teams completed their work in response to flooding in the southern part of the state.
2009 SBDR Statistics as of April 29, 2009
SBDR volunteers have already logged over 15,000 volunteer days in 2009.
Volunteer Days 15,276
Meals Prepared 139,136
Mudout Jobs 34
Chainsaw Jobs 4,550
Repair Jobs 21
Roofing Jobs 19
Children 0
Showers 2,570
Laundry Loads 467
Water (Gallons) 0
Messages 0
Chaplaincy Contacts 635
Professions of Faith 49
Gospel Presentations 266
Other Decisions 32
Ministry Contacts 3,817

National Disaster Relief Leadership
• Bruce Poss, Disaster Relief Unit Coordinator
• Terry Henderson, Disaster Relief Operations Consultant
• Karl Ragan, Disaster Relief Planning Consultant
To contact the Disaster Operation Center, call 1 888 462-8657 or e-mail dr_offsite@namb.net

3 1/2 years later, help keeps pouring in

2009-04-15T18:22:00.000-04:00

Posted by Stephanie Grace, Columnist, The Times-Picayune March 22, 2009 2:22AM

Dear spring breakers: Thank you for coming.
I'm guessing I'm not the first person to say that to you. You've probably heard it a lot during your time here in the New Orleans area, from the people whose homes and schools you've worked to put back together and whose favorite public spaces you've helped revive, or from those who've just crossed your paths somewhere along the way. You may have also heard some variation on the theme, based on the memorable line from Streetcar Named Desire about relying on the kindness of strangers. Perhaps it's grown old by now.
But be patient. Please indulge us for getting emotional at the sight of a busload of you, heading out for a long day of work or treating yourselves to ice cream after a job well done. It's just that we find it kind of overwhelming that you're back again, or here for the first time, after 3 1/2 years.
Think about that; at your age, 3 1/2 years is an awfully big chunk of time. It's probably hard for you to fully appreciate how it feels to be well into 2009, yet still living amid the wreckage of 2005.
You also might not grasp what it's like to feel as if the rest of the world moved on a long time ago. We keep hearing about Katrina fatigue -- honestly, don't you think we have it too?
Yet we work hard to remind people that the vast majority of the Katrina victims aren't scam artists. They're just regular people whose only sin was thinking that the federal government's levees wouldn't disintegrate, homeowners fighting to get back to where they were on Aug. 28, 2005, when they still had houses and communities.
So thank you for not needing to be reminded.
You are not unique or even unusual for being here, but that doesn't make you bit players. You are part of something enormous, something powerful. Every time you roll up your sleeves and pick up a hammer or screwdriver or shovel or paintbrush or garden hoe or ladle, you move a mountain.
Collectively, you've helped to save a way of life. My colleague Bruce Nolan, who writes about the flood of volunteers that hasn't let up since the storm, swears that some of you have actually saved lives, literally, by showing up at exactly the moment when someone was ready to give up hope, and asking what you could do to help.
And you didn't just help. You let people tell you their stories, allowed them to get some of the hurt out. You met people whose lives are very different from yours, and you showed them the respect and appreciation they deserve. You found joy in what's quirky and wonderful about this place, and you gave it back to those who need it most. You listened, and for that, we thank you.
And there's one other thing. You've shown enormous heart, even when your leaders have too often been heartless.
It was bad at all levels of government, but worst at the top, among the crowd that was in charge when the storm hit.
From the early days when they dithered while the city drowned, through years of bureaucratic fighting over rebuilding projects, they tried to distance themselves from the tragedy. They didn't want to deal with it. They thought the people they represent all over the country didn't have the will, or the interest, or the attention span, to rebuild an essential American city.
They talked down to you, in assuming you'd forgotten, or were too self-involved to care after the cable news moved on to the next big story.
You proved them wrong. And for that, we thank you most of all.
. . . . . . .
Stephanie Grace is a staff writer. She may be reached at 504.826.3383 or at sgrace@timespicayune.com.

Bob Lentz Worthington Christian trip to Houston

2009-01-22T11:18:00.001-05:00

Four volunteers from Worthington Christian Church went to Houston area to work with C.O.R.E.-Alliance in rebuilding home damaged from the hurricane.

We worked on a house whose owner was 85 years old, leagally blind, with two grown children with her who are disabled. What a chore this woman as in her golden years of life.

We followed a group of college studens who had put on the first two coats of spackling on the drywall that was replaced. Our job was to sand the drywall, put on another coat of spackling, prime and paint the walls. We not only sanded and aded another coat but had to add a skim coat where required. We put on three coats of paint to get the texture that was on the walls prior to the sections of drywall that was replaced. In doing so, we were able to match the texture so the replaced drywall was not noticable.

We installed 13 interior doors, primed the trim, painted most of the trim and installed 3/4 of the trim prior. We had a great time working for the Lord and being a helping hand in a very small way.

In Him,

Bob Lentz

If you are wondering if you are still needed in Texas...

2008-11-03T08:14:00.002-05:00

I got this note yesterday from Ed Perry who took over the Hilltop camp in Houston from me a week ago.

There are occurrences in all of our lives that defy logic. There are moments that define our day as well as moments that define our purpose. I would like to share with you one such moment.
Wednesday in Shoreacres was a "normal" day as relief work goes. After almost 2 weeks of trying to synchronize our schedules we finally got to assist Terri with cleaning out her house and yard. A very stoic and self-sufficient woman, Terri's heart was softened considerably by the Southeast coC (Aurora, CO) youth group's enthusiasm. The work went quickly and it was evident that we would finish by lunchtime. My full intention was to use this time to pre-run ahead of the team's job schedule to insure that the upcoming jobs were as reported.
As I ran (yes, ran) to the truck my cell phone rang. I paused to answer so that the oh-so-very annoying warning alarm of the truck wouldn't disturb the caller (or me) only to notice that during this pause that one of the kids had an item that Terri wanted to save. After correcting this I started once more for the truck. Sitting on the seat was the Release form for the homeowner to sign (sorry, June!) I ran back to the house again to get the signature. Sprinting to the truck like a man half my age (cough, cough) I reached for the keys when I remembered that Terri had some new shovels that we were using and they would surely be mixed up with our tools. Terri said as I entered the house "Ain't you gone yet?" No, but I asked her to watch for her shovels and hugged her once more. On my way at last -except that I turned left out of the driveway instead of right and was going the wrong way. Sigh.
About 4 doors down I spotted a semi-clear driveway to turn around in but there stood a short woman pushing a very full wheelbarrow of moldy drywall. I hit the brakes, rolled down the CRANK windows on the truck (none of them fancy push-button things for us) and asked if she was the homeowner. Yes, she said, with sweat rolling off her face.
Would she like some help with her house, I asked?
"No, I couldn't afford that."
"But this help is free, there is a gaggle of teenagers a few doors down."
As the look on her face turned to disbelief, I backed up the street to ask the kids and sponsors if they would help, and help they did. As I finished my errands they moved furniture, took out drywall and cleaned up the mess. Only later did I learn that her young daughter was very seriously ill and in the hospital. It is my understanding that she and her husband and family take turns staying with her and cleaning up the house from the flood, in which they lost most everything. The kids were touched deeply and one later offered a book she had brought as a gift to take to the daughter, since all hers were ruined. Grateful tears came to this woman and the volunteers alike.
My point is this: Had my grand plan of getting these IMPORTANT things done for the Lord gone even remotely like I envisioned, I never would have met Edith Sanchez. Five seconds in any direction would have caused our paths to miss.
At least now I know who is really making out my itinerary!
Praise to the One whose ways are higher than our ways!

special ed

Sunday Worship

2008-10-21T19:50:00.003-04:00

Clear Lake Church worshipped as usual Sunday morning while the volunteers from Northside Christian, Harding, and Lubbock Christian drove home and the volunteers from Prestoncrest finished a yard cleanup and pulled a large stump.

Mick and I spent the afternoon with the church youth group cleaning out Stennie's (like Jennie's) house in San Leon. The waves had washed the front wall in (facing Galveston Bay), washed the contents against the kitchen in the back of the house (towards the street) and pushed the bottom of the back wall out.

We had to tear loose the hinges on the door and force it out to get the refrigerator and other debris out of the house.

Her daughter, son-in-law, and grand kids got there after we started and she arrived from Batton Rouge just as the crew got in the church van to come back for Sunday evening activities.

Saturday, everyone hit it hard for their last day working

2008-10-21T18:32:00.005-04:00

The Lubbock crew didn't get back till 9:00 at night. They planned to knock off at 3:00 and see the beach since they had been working in Galveston, only blocks from the water all week and hadn't gone, but they ended up unloading a surprise 18 wheeler of food and supplies from Nashville at the Broadway Church and got to the ocean about dark.

The Harding crew cleared Walter's house in San Leon and his yard, what I thought was more than a day's job. They finished by noon! After having lunch on the shore of Galveston bay, they headed down to Galveston to pick up more door to door work with the Lubbock crew. They have a professional journalist in their crew so I hope to have more links to post on their work for his stories and pictures soon.

The Northside Christian team spent a third day at Sharon and Brandon's house helping her to sort her stuff and part with that which is not recoverable. You can imagine how painful this can be to throw away all you have...

There is still an entire lot of fallen trees she owns next to her home that we have to clear.

The 4th group for the weekend was a "young marrieds" (or almost there) group from Prestoncrest Church of Christ in Dallas. They cleared the home of Jerry and Connie in Shore Acres. I walked in and they introduced me, but before they even got my name out, Connie had worked her way around the stuff piled in the room and grabbed me for a hug.

They both had tears for the hearts of the crew that had given their time to help them out.

I drove through the neighborhood since I hadn't been there yet. It's just as bad as San Leon. Chalmette type of Neighborhood, but the houses right on the bay are battered and one burned badly during the storm. Of the 640 homes in the burg of less than 1500 residents, 575 had at least four feet of water.

Friday was a good day to work

2008-10-21T17:34:00.004-04:00

We added 18 Harding students to the volunteer base Thursday night. They started on three tree jobs for a church member, Jeanie, and two of her neighbors, Connie and Ms. Francis who live in Santa Fe. They brought out an enormous pile of branches from Ms. Frances' yard where several trees went down.
They also removed a tree that has been leaning on Jeanie's roof since the storm.

They cut up a large tree with a 2' trunk and another large tree in Connie's back yard.

And Jeannie fed them all really well!

The Lubbock crew worked more in Galveston while the Northside Christian crew continued working in Shore Acres.

I surveyed San Leon, checking out a request for help with a house that had lost a wall to the waves to make sure it was safe for volunteers. While there I found 91 year old Walter trying to get his storm door off the back addition to his two story house.

The wall had slid off the foundation in the waves and was leaning at an angle that made the door hit the eves when it opened. I removed the door and the extremely water logged exterior door he had already pulled off and left leaning in the doorway. The opposing wall was leaning the other way and the structure seemed stable, though it was obviously not sound. More on the crew clearing his house on the Saturday posting.

I dropped contact information with a couple of churches near the area, the post office, where the postmaster said her 81 year old father needed help, and another relief operation working at the Maranantha Baptist Church there in San Leon.
They fed me a great lunch. Committed relief was heading back to California Saturday and a new group is moving into the flooded, soggy, recovering church.
The entire area is heavily damaged. Much like the 9th ward after Katrina.

The first row of homes that received the bulk of the wave action are heavily damaged, or moved off their foundations. Large boats are in yards. Newer vacation homes are mostly up on stilts and were not badly damaged, but many full time residents' homes are small, built on the ground, and not well maintained. There were quite a few "yard sales" going on where everything was set out on the lawn to dry out...

Some people are living in tents.

Thursday started out Rainy

2008-10-21T12:38:00.007-04:00

Really rainy! That didn't slow down the volunteers though.

The Northside Christian Church group started on Sharon and Brandon's house in Shore Acres.

Brandon, 16, really hooked in with this group coming back for dinner with them Thursday night and helping them on another house on Friday.
That Job was for Phyllis, also in Shore Acres.

They worked the weekend on Sharon's home as there was so much to be done.

and they had some fun in the Gulf checking out the damage to the beach homes in Galveston

The Lubbock Christian group spent their whole weekend doing work around Galveston with the Broadway Church of Christ. They cleaned up around the building, unloaded truckloads of mattresses and food. Served 900 meals a day to the community, and mucked out six "or more" houses. Or more, because they would move from one place to the next doing small jobs for those who needed help as well.

Photos from Houston Work 10/15 - 10/19

2008-10-21T12:23:00.002-04:00

Jeff Smith

Bill Thomas

Mechelle Meyer

Robin Emerson

Amy Pyles

Houston Relief Update

2008-10-21T10:41:00.007-04:00

I've been in Houston for a week and a half now managing the Hilltop Rescue operations on the ground. We have been VERY busy. There is a lot of need here and we are receiving volunteers. We can use more! The need is real and the work is stacking up. here's the story.

Hilltop has been on the ground since right after the storm. We surveyed the area and and found a definite need for outside volunteers. The local community has responded amazingly well, but local volunteers are drying up as people get back to their lives after giving days or weeks of their time. The need is greater now for outside volunteers. Between our own requests for help and those going unmet by other relief organizations in the area there are hundreds of work orders to fulfill.

This past weekend, we had 62 volunteers in from Harding University in Searcy Arkansas, Northside Christian Church in Tulsa, Prestoncrest Church of Christ in Dallas, and Lubbock Christian University. They were awesome workers and amazing people to work with. Some would have been happy working day and night.

We completed 14 jobs mucking houses and clearing downed trees from yards over the weekend as well as getting a lot of small side jobs done for neighbors of those we were working with, or just driving down the street and asking who needs help.

The worst hit areas where we can work are Galveston, San Leon, and Shore Acres. Areas on the Bolivar Peninsula (across the mouth of the bay from Galveston) are still off limits and most homes were completely washed away in those towns. Those areas are marked by yellow and red on this map respectively.

Wind damage to trees covers a much broader area, but is pretty much confined to the Galveston Bay area.

Our operations in Houston are being hosted by the Clear Lake Church of Christ. We are 20 minutes from most of the hardest hit areas. We have 42 real mattresses, 6 showers, plenty of bathrooms, a huge kitchen, and a gym we can use if it isn't being used for other purposes. We have a pool table, fooseball, and air hockey! We have plenty of tools for volunteers to use in their work, a 15 passenger van, a pickup truck, and two tool trailers to haul tools around in as well. This place rates 4 stars compared to the flooded school buildings, tents, and MASH showers we've had in the past. The church has basically turned over the back third of their building, their youth area, to us to use as long as there is a need.

The church has been awesome! The elders and church leadership have been overwhelmingly supportive of our operations to help them reach out to their community and responsibly spend the funds they have collected for the work. This is a place where "real Christians" prevail as the hands and feet of Christ. We are only supplementing what they are doing in their community. The youth group continues to work mucking houses in the area and church members made some fabulous dinners for our volunteers this weekend. I am personally quite impressed with our partners here.

Like the man said "Come on in boys! The water's fine!"

Servants Unite!

John McGuire

Pictures from Galveston Today

2008-10-13T23:06:00.002-04:00

are at this link

And Pictures from the Northwest Church in San Antonio last week are at this link.

Our Farvorite Hero!

2008-10-12T16:45:00.004-04:00

CNN has whittled down their list to 10 heroes for 2008. I wouldn't even mention that here, but one of them is a friend of ours. Liz McCartney, cofounder of St. Bernard Project is one of the finalists! We worked for them Christmas time, 2006 right after they set up shop. Now they've completed rebuilding 120 homes and are hitting it harder than ever. Give Liz a click to vote for her at this link.

Back in the Lone Star State

2008-10-12T15:30:00.001-04:00

Servants Unite has 1 volunteer in Texas working for the next two weeks. Me.

I arrived in time for lunch today (Sunday), just as the closing song was being sung here at Clear Lake Church of Christ where Hilltop's camp is set up. I'm relieving Stan Cunningham from Northside Church of Christ in Nashville as camp manager when he returns home Wednesday.

Our hosts are awesome! We have new showers they built in for volunteers, real mattresses, great kitchen facilities, and some of the nicest people... but most everyone we've worked with who is willing to do this kind of thing has been that way.

We're spending the next couple of days arranging work for two large groups that come in Wednesday and Friday staying through the weekend.

You are still needed! There's a lot to do down here and a lot of hurting people that need to see you caring for them in their crisis like you did after Katrina. I know I've been home with you the last three weeks since Ike came in and we're all focused on our falling retirement savings, scared about our jobs, and fretting about who's going to win the presidential election. Please take this opportunity to break out of the worries of this world that are bogging you down to focus on eternal goals by being Christ's hands and feet to those here who have lost everything.

Since the media, (except for the Houston Chronicle) is off on other things, I'll be reporting on what we find the whole time I'm here. Please follow the blog and look for email updates over the coming days and prayerfully consider whether you can take that time away from your worldly fears for the refreshment that comes from working in the Kingdom.

Servants Unite!

John McGuire

First Ike Video

2008-10-02T08:26:00.003-04:00

To see the work being done in the Houston area and the work left to do, see this video on YouTube. Jeremy Glover, the youth minister at Clear Lake Church of Christ, our host church, put this together.

Survivor Storm Stories

2008-09-29T19:59:00.003-04:00

From the Houston Chronicle.

16-year-old Jerrith Baird searched for his 58 year old Grandma via kayak the day after Ike and found nothing but a few of the pilings that held up her house and submerged vehicles of his friends.

Mike Anderson was washed 14 miles inland with heaps of debris, an ordeal that lasted 36 hours.

The current count of those missing is over 400. Many are listed here.

Prayer Requests for Mark Day

2008-09-26T22:22:00.001-04:00

Mark flew to Houston today to help June White of Hilltop Rescue set up camp. Your prayers for Mark and our Hilltop partners are earnestly requested.

Ike Missing

2008-09-26T22:16:00.003-04:00

After seeing the devastation and hearing of the lack of evacuation, I've been afraid we'd see this story emerge. The Houston Chronicle has posted a list of 331 people who have been reported as not seen since Hurricane Ike. http://www.chron.com/databases/ikemissing.html

From the home page of the data source:

The Laura Recovery Center is providing a hotline to report information on people missing as a result of Hurricane Ike. This data is actively shared with appropriate law enforcement agencies.

When using this data, please consider that things are still very confusing in the wake of Hurricance Ike. Some data may be inaccurate or incomplete. Please help us improve this data. We are updating and verifying the data as our resources allow.

Hilltop Rescue Release on the New Camps

2008-09-24T20:47:00.001-04:00

Dear friends,

I'd like to introduce you to a family from South Louisiana. They are Cajun by birth, with a long and rich heritage of Louisiana traditions. They are a hard working family who enjoy the blessings of good Cajun cooking and the fellowship that goes with great food, good family and faithful friends. They've seen many hurricanes come and go through the years, yet they keep rebuilding their lives each time, refusing to leave the area. They recounted that, when the twin hurricanes Katrina and Rita roared through their homes three years ago, they found hope and help from some new friends at the Maplewood Church of Christ in Sulphur, LA. As I spoke with the matriarch of this family, tears formed in her eyes and a lump caught in her throat. Even after three years she still finds it a bit difficult to talk about the wonderful young people who came to her home to muck out the filth that Rita had left behind.

For the past three years this family has continued to rebuild. not just their homes, but their entire community. This past week we all stood side by side on the muddy floor of their son's home. He had completely remodeled it, tearing out walls and replacing them with beautiful wood columns, tongue-in-groove paneling, and a solid wood kitchen bar. It was coming along beautifully when Hurricane Gustav blew into town. Amazingly, they were all kept safe as that storm blew by the coast and tore into the inland areas around Baton Rouge. This proud Cajun family sighed a big sigh of relief, praying that God's mercy was available to those who were not so lucky. And then, a week later as Hurricane Ike headed into the Gulf, they all held their breath once more. With mixed emotions they watched as Ike headed for Texas, and they once again felt like they were safe. They had no idea that Ike's sheer size would drive a wedge of water into their homes once more.

We joined Brian Spicer, the minister of Maplewood Church of Christ in neighboring Sulphur, and arrived once more to see what aid could be provided. Proud, and putting on a bold face, we heard the shake in her voice and saw the tears in her eyes as she challenged her family to rise once more to the challenge of rebuilding their lives. Hilltop Rescue has heard her challenge, and recognized that her plea is echoed throughout Southwest Louisiana and Southeast Texas. As we begin the process of answering that call, we are praying that you also hear it. Are you willing to go into the heart of disaster, either in Louisiana or Texas? Are you ready to help change other's lives, and have your life changed in the process? Our new friends need you. Sign up today!! If you are unable to go, please consider a financial donation. And, above everything else, keep us all in your prayers. (This message was sent to me by Stan Cunningham, a member of Hilltop staff who spent 6 days driving in southern Louisiana and Texas to assess damage and talk to hurricane victims.)

Partnering with the Maplewood church in Sulphur and with the Clear Lake church of Christ in Houston, we are setting up two volunteer camps which will run at the same time. We are stepping out in faith that God will provide volunteers and supplies needed to keep both operations running. Our focus will be smaller communities where aid is not as available; and just like always, our priorities are the elderly, the handicapped and disabled, single mothers, and those without resources. There are many families like the one described above in need of help. Will you join with us in meeting this need?

Sincerely,
June White
Director of Communications
Hilltop Rescue & Relief

www.hilltoprescue.org

Time to Hit the Road!

2008-09-22T23:23:00.002-04:00

If you’ve been following our survey results last week on the blog, you know we need to be responding to Hurricane Ike. If you haven’t you can get the details here. In short, this is no Katrina. People have food and water and a place to stay. Neighbors are helping neighbors. There is a large area of destruction though and outside volunteers will be essential to helping many start their recovery.

Now that most of us have power back and have taken care of Ike’s damage here, we are ready to send a team as early as this next Saturday morning, September 27, 2008. Our long time partners, Hilltop Rescue are setting up two camps to help cover the 200 miles of gulf shore affected by this storm. One between Houston Texas and Galveston at Clear Lake Church of Christ will be ready for volunteers Sunday evening. The other near Lake Charles Louisiana at the Maplewood Church of Christ will be ready for volunteers Monday, but it will be rougher accommodations to start out.

It’s time for Servants to Unite! Please find your part in the following list of needs

Please forward this notice to your friends, family, and church family.
Start organizing people you know would be interested in this opportunity and pick a date to join a team. To sign up or ask quesitons, email john@servantsunite.org.
Consider donating to cover expenses, and talk to your church leadership and missions team about contributing to our financial needs of shipping people to Texas to work for a week.
We have a special need for people with plumbing skills in Houston ASAP and people in Lake Charles with construction skills. This task is to help prepare facilities for volunteers who will be working there over the coming weeks.
We need team leads to step forward and vehicles for teams to use.
We need your prayers for the success of our mission, for the safety of our volunteers, and for the faith of those we are going to help.

Teams will leave on Saturday mornings, travel two days (20 hours) to Houston, or to Lake Charles (17 hours) arriving on Sunday night, work Monday through Friday, and travel home two days the following weekend. Overnight stops will be with our friends at University Church of Christ in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, the halfway point on the trip.

Teams will go every other week for the next 6 weeks and on demand after that.
Ike team 1 September 27-October 5
Ike team 2 October 11-October 19
Ike team 3 October 25-November 2
Special teams may be ran by request for special group circumstances.

You will need the same clothing and the same basic tools we have had in New Orleans and Iowa work. Those are listed in the volunteer link on www.servantsunite.org.

Donations may be made by mailing a check (please identify yourself in an accompanying note) to 5511 Copenhagen drive, Westerville, Ohio 43081, or using the Paypal link on the blog and web site. Servants Unite is a 501(c)3 non-profit which makes your donations tax deductible. 100% of donations will go to the care and feeding of volunteers working in the disaster zone. Primary expenses are fuel, food, vehicle rental, and support of our hosts’ expenses to have us.

Normal retail and other stores and restaurants are open in the areas where you will be staying. This is not the uncertain circumstance we went into right after Katrina. You will be staying in safe suburban neighborhoods. The people you will be working for will be extraordinarily grateful for your sacrifice of a small portion of your life for them in the name of our Lord. And just like those we’ve met in the New Orleans area, people are just ridiculously friendly and happy just to have someone listen to their story.

More information and updates as they are available.

Servants Unite!

John McGuire

Cleaning up Churches of Galveston

2008-09-20T12:52:00.003-04:00

This link is a photo gallery of people on the island already cleaning up the churches in Galveston.

Crystal Beach Before and After

2008-09-20T10:22:00.004-04:00

The Houston Chronicle has a set of recovery photos here that include these before and after aerial shots of Crystal Beach.

Last Man Standing

2008-09-19T22:58:00.007-04:00

Probably the most shocking Ike aftermath picture is of the only house standing on the ocean side of Gilchrist. Compare that to what was there before on the google map satellite view of the town on the Bolivar Peninsula.

View Larger Map

This Story on CNN.com is about the people who lived there and their experience.

Ike's storm surge last week devastated the Bolivar Peninsula town, flattening most of the roughly 200 homes there. The couple's yellow house at the beach -- supported 14 feet off the ground by wooden columns -- was the only house on Gilchrist's Gulf Coast side not to be flattened.

"As we got there, the tears started flowing," Warren Adams, 63, said Thursday after his first visit to the home since evacuating. "There's a yellow house sitting there, but that's all. It was devastating."

Ike Photos

2008-09-18T15:39:00.002-04:00

A friend of mine emailed this link today. This is all the stuff Mark and I were unable to see, either because flooding had receded or we weren't allowed into areas.

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/09/the_short_but_eventful_life_of.html

Here's a link to the few interesting pictures I took this week. The way this storm came out, it's either really bad, meaning we couldn't go see, or it's not so much worse than here.

New News Links

2008-09-17T16:35:00.002-04:00

National news isn't covering much from Ike, but I've changed the newslinks to the right to focus on this event. The Houston Chronicle is a great source.

Assessment Complete. On the Road Home

2008-09-17T14:31:00.004-04:00

Hoping this update finds you all with power and showered though it appears half the outages, 300,000 as of this morning, are still not repaired. Both our wives have been without all week so we're glad to be getting home tonight and able to assess the situation up there first hand. We completed our assessment across West Louisiana and East Texas yesterday afternoon, stayed with Tim in Mandeville again last night and are nearly to Birmingham on our way home right now.

There is a confirmed need of our type of help and there are several good options for us to partner with as their readiness matures. There are conflicting media and aid organization reports about the disaster area. As usual, what we’ve seen first hand indicates an average of what you may be hearing and what people have been emailing me. There are often those who exaggerate a situation intentionally or not, for good motives or bad. I am working hard to backcheck any information against what I can see and people who have proven trustworthy in our work.

The area effected and the population density of those not able to live in their homes is much smaller than we found after Katrina. Maybe 5-10% or so. There are probably many more casualties than have been reported as searches are just beginning. Barrier island communities where tens of thousands did not evacuate have been wiped clean in some sections by the storm. Those still out there continue to be evacuated by boat and helicopter to shelters. One man with a boat was allowed through a checkpoint where we were stopped yesterday to rescue friends who had called him from their roof in High Island.

This is no Katrina. None-the-less, there is extensive damage. Wind damage is probably about the same as at home in Ohio actually. Lots of limbs down and power out, but there were a lot of electrical crews in staging areas along I-10 in Louisiana and Texas not working. About half the electrical grid damage we saw was actively being worked on. Many areas of Huston have power restored, even right down next to Galveston Bay where the Eye came ashore. There are a few roofs missing significant areas of shingles and a lot of branches down, but the locals are pretty much cleaning that up.

View Larger Map

Flooding is a different situation, though, entirely. There are two categories of that. The worst hit places on the barrier islands, we could not get to, but photos on the news from the President’s visit yesterday show large areas where one in twenty houses, maybe less remain. The debris and even the piers that the house sat on are washed away. Nothing is left. That isn’t something we can help fix any time soon.

I want to head off a misconception for you that I had myself. Galveston Island, on the whole, is not a wealthy resort community. Many poor to middle class live on the island in ancestral homes that have been damaged or removed by the storm. 1/4 of people live below the poverty line. 14% are over 65. These are the kind of people we focus on helping.

There is a narrow line of flooding, much of it rural that we can work on immediately once we have a base of operations to work from. The largest pocket is near the space center along the eastern edge of Houston near Galveston bay. League City, Texas City, and places like that. Rural areas around Orange Texas and South East of Port Arthur are flooded, but mostly didn’t get the wave action that wiped away the homes that were more exposed to the sea. There is a low density of damaged homes in many areas, but everything in Bridge City was flooded.

We saw several distribution locations (news reports 60) FEMA has set up around Houston. The Southern Baptists were setting up a feeding station at Orange which is an appropriate location. They also have others on the way in according to their email update yesterday. Except for the most devastated areas where authorities rightly want to encourage people to leave because they are just unhealthy, people are not going hungry or thirsty that we can tell. Stores and gas stations are open in Houston and opening hourly in other areas as power is restored. Walmart in Port Arthur was open without power. Target in Friendswood was giving out truckloads of ice and water. The Red Cross is distributing meals. The Houston food bank is looking for additional assistance as their demand is way up, but still is functioning.

The primary need that we can fill as soon as a hosting organization is ready for us is mucking and maybe a little chain saw cleanup work.

Southeast Church of Christ in Friendswood, a Houston suburb may also host a relief effort for that area. They are in a suburban area and have great facilities for us to use and they are only 30 minutes from most damaged areas including Galveston and Bolivar Peninsula areas that were the hardest hit.

I’ve made contact with two churches in Nederland/Port Arthur about hosting operations for areas around Beaumont, Orange, Bridge City, etc.

Hilltop is discussing the possibility of hosting in Sulfur, Louisiana and investigating the areas we hit this week as well.

View Larger Map
Their decision of where to set up shop will impact our decision as we know the four needs of volunteers, work, showers, place to sleep, and food will be managed.

We’ve left business cards at churches that look suitable where we couldn’t find anyone and spoken with quite a few contacts investigating the needs and our options to work down there so it’s been a productive trip. The situation is still very new and fluid, as these things are, so no definite plans yet.

I still want to plan a tentative trip for Saturday, September 27. This would be a two day drive with an overnight each way, work for 5 days, and return home the following weekend, October 4 and 5.

Servants Unite!
John McGuire and Mark Day

Winnie Texas

2008-09-16T12:47:00.003-04:00

Lots more wind damage here. Got 7 miles from High Island and were stopped again. Appears there's still not getting to the coast.

Learned that Southeast Church of Christ in Houston area is setting up operations. No answer on the phone, but we're heading that way.

News from the Road

2008-09-16T11:31:00.004-04:00

Yesterday we drove through west Louisiana and into Nederland, Texas. There's no power on the Texas side anywhere except for a couple gas stations right on the I-10. We're now in Port Arthur and finding the worst hit areas, but I'll blog this out in sequence of our trip.

The wind damage is not so severe as with Rita and Katrina. Not even close, but some towns received a lot more storm surge than they did 3 years ago.

We did not visit, but Daphne German was in Laplatte, Louisiana last night and reports whole neighborhoods still underwater there.

After waiting through a lot of traffic (Texas plates headed home) we checked out Lafayette, and New Iberia and found no obvious problems there.

Delcambre, Louisiana has some flooding from storm surge. It had receeded enough that many people were already cleaning out their homes, but some roads were still flooded so we couldn't get out to the lower, extremely rural areas.

We drove west through Lake Charles finding minor wind damage, but most power is on, stores are open, and all is actually more normal there than in Ohio.

We spoke with Brian Spicer in Sulfer, Louisiana who has been running volunteer ops in West Louisiana since 2005 says most areas are OK, but he has heard from many residents of Cameron who have been rebuilding the last three years that their town is wiped away again. Even homes with 15 foot stilts (new building code) had water in them. They are in hotels he says. This area will need assistance in the weeks ahead, but there is little we can do now and can't get into the area yet.

Brian has met with 30 families from Cameron today and new information from ariel and boat surveys reinforces that the community was almost totally destroyed. They would like to have camping gear, stoves, ice chests, pots, pans, gas cans, insect repellant, probably tents, so they can live out there once they can get back into the area. They hope that will happen in the next couple of days.

We crossed the Texas border and topped off with Diesel. We turned south and drove through Orange (no power, and some wind damage) and into Bridge City. Areas around those towns flooded heavily and scuttlebut has it that many died there, but officials are not saying. We witnessed search and rescue boat and helicopter patrols at the base of the large bridge on the south end of town where we were turned back.

We drove through Beaumont (some power, some wind damage, flooded underpasses) and down into Nederland, TX where Mark Day's wife Jan has a cousin... Yea, it's that convoluted, but yet again God provided us with clean sheets a soft bed, and a tepid shower.

This morning we started in Port Arthur/Nederland area which has some wind damage and no power, but not a lot of structural damage to homes or electrical grid. A policeman, a preacher, and a church secretary we talked to all felt blessed with the outcome, but said Orange and Bridge City would really need help. We made some good contacts who may be able to host volunteers there.

We are attempting to get closer to the Boulivar Peninsula area where there was a lot of damage to assess. We don't expect to find any churches habitable down there though. We were turned back taking a southern route to Sabine Texas where they are only letting in residents, and the guy behind us with his boat who was going to rescue friends from their flooded neighborhood.

We went around another way towards High Island and were blocked by two barges washed on to the road. Dead cattle were in the ditch to the side and dead fish were scattered on the road. Got a pic (of the barges and fish) that'll I'll place here if I can.

We redirected again and ran into a closed floodwall, and after a final detour manged to get back onto the I-10 West of Beaumont.

I'll post updates as we can and as we have cell data service for Internet access.

Tim Hines reports president bush declared today that volunteer expenses would be reimbursed from the government, that we've gotten disaster fatigue and not as many people are volunteering. We hope this is true and await specifics.

Pray for us and Gary Watt's team from Hilltop Rescue as we survey the disaster zone.

Pray for all the storm victims in Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky too. While I'm down here, I know many of you, including my family and Mark's are without power and cleaning up their neighborhoods. Be safe!

Servants Unite!
John McGuire

On the Road Again

2008-09-14T16:50:00.001-04:00

Mark Day (South IB groups) and I are traveling down I-65 currently while you are enjoying the remnants of Hurricane Ike. There's been quite a lack of information coming in from the storm's aftermath so we're on our way down to scout out needs and hosting sites to work with. Post storm analysis, though, says Galveston bay only got a 13 foot storm surge rather than the possible 25 foot predicted due to a change in course of the storm. That means the maximum surge was felt more around Port Arthur and Beaumont, destinations we hope to investigate this week.

Plan on a team leaving by next Sunday for chainsaw and mudout work. Also useful will be counselors and medical types who can handle first aid for the body, the brain, and the soul. If you can join such a trip or take responsibility to lead it down, please reply by email, or call Melinda McGuire at 614-523-3996. She tells me (via cell phone), though that our power is out at the moment. Hopefully those problems up there will be short lived.

There are going to be people needing trees cut up there. Amy Fox, one of our initial volunteers, has already called with a large tree in her yard in Westerville. If you need help, or want to offer it, email replies or a call to Melinda will work to get people together for the local effort too. If you have elderly or disabled neighbors, please take this opportunity to check on them today and tomorrow.

We're staying with Tim Hines in Mandeville tonight. We will keep you posted as to what we find this week on the blog and less frequently via more emails.

As always your prayers are requested and appreciated for safety, the wisdom of the spirit, and successful outreach in Jesus' name.

Servants Unite!
John McGuire

This is the next big one

2008-09-13T08:27:00.004-04:00

Our response now seems inevitable after two large storms have rolled over an area covering more than half the gulf coast in a week.
This is a telling article about the last major hurricane to hit Galveston and Houston 100 years ago.

Unfortunately, Ike, though a category 2, is expected to be producing a maximum storm surge, at this hour, of 20-25 feet; up to 11 feet higher than that 1900 storm which destroyed everything on Galveston Island. Add to that wave heights of 25-50 feet. All this due to the fact that the storm is over 900 miles wide and carries tropical storm strength winds across a 550 mile swath including much of Louisiana still recovering from Rita and Gustav. Estimates indicate, only 60% of Galveston residents left the island. Most of Houston was not evacuated to avoid the deaths and other problems experienced in the evacuation attempt from hurricane Rita 3 years ago.

As the storm has come ashore, officials are telling the press this is their worst case scenario.

Please be in prayer today for those who have lost their lives last night, those who will be out first to begin the relief response and rescue, and our part. We will need volunteers to collect water, lead teams, be hands and feet in the disaster zone, and help organize all our efforts. We need contacts in the area to find a partner to work with. We'll need the power of the Spirit to sustain us and use us to His will.

Servants Unite!
John McGuire

Help for Haiti

2008-09-11T08:36:00.005-04:00

Servants Unite, small as we are, is not an international relief organization. However, as we've been blessed with weekening storms this season, Haiti has been beaten by every one of them. A humanitarian crisis is looming.

Lifeline Christian Mission has a large mission with diverse services in Grand Goave Haiti and their US operation is based right here in Westerville, Ohio.

They are receiving 5 times the usual number of people seeking food and clean water. Unfortunately, they have had to turn people away.

To help alleviate the need, they hope to pack a container this weekend with the supplies in their warehouse to ship out next week. Volunteers may be needed in Westerville when the container arrives. I will let you know when it is there.

They are also asking for additional donations to ship as many containers as they can fill.

My recommendations is if you feel called to help organize donations for this special need they are filling, help organize your church, school group (IB kids :-), service organization, work, whatever to gather only the requested supplies at your meeting place. We can then get the supplies to Lifeline in bulk rather than several hundred people dropping off a case of water each.

Servants Unite will organize pickup of these supplies from your location and deliver them to Lifeline if you need assistance with that part of it.

If you wish to work with Lifeline directly, go for it. The contact at the office who will be handling supplies is Dana Krahel, Volunteer Coordinator. They are at 184 Olde County Line Road, Westerville, Ohio 43081. Phone: 614-794-0108.

Here's the plea letter we received this week:
We ARE having a Non Perishable Food Drive in Ohio and one in Indiana and hope to get an entire container of food ready to ship in about 1 month (we already have some food on the way now to Haiti for a stop-gap measure and we’ll buy what we have to buy, Lord willing!):

Canned and foil packaged meats and meals
Dried beans, peas
Rice
Pastas of all types
Canned vegetables
Soups
Canned meals such as Spaghetti-O’s, etc.
Bottle Water
Peanut butter

When making a choice the lighter the weight the more we can get on the container

At this time we are NOT requesting clothing or shoes; only food.

We have put out a plea for funds but are also preparing a flyer to be sent to our churches asking for these items. We will receive them and send them on regular schedule containers too, as long as they keep coming in. We ship at a minimum once a quarter from our warehouse.

Thank you again and pray with us that in all of this loss that people will turn to Christ and know that He is the answer!

God bless you and tell everyone at Westerville “thank you”!
Bob and Gretchen

Ike Ike go away!

2008-09-11T08:25:00.002-04:00

Prayer, petitioning for the devolution of Gustav... The storm weekend to a category 2 rather than growing to a category4. Katrina, if you'll remember was roaring into New Orleans as a strong category5, but deteriorated to a category 3 by landfall. Rita had the lowest barometric pressure ever recorded while in the gulf, but deteriorated, against predictions, before making landfall and missed the metropolis of Houston/Galveston, also against predictions.

Ike is the last storm on our scopes of this menacing train of storms this past month. It is projected to make landfall near Houston tomorrow night. The trend in course predictions from the National Weather Service is moving it closer to that highly vulnerable area overnight.

Responding to Houston, like we did New Orleans, is more difficult because of the added distance. Nonetheless, if called, we will go.

Let's do our best to avoid that necessity, though with prayer and petition to our Lord to quiet the storm as he has the others. As bad as they have been, we know this one can be even more devestating to more than 2 million people living there.

John McGuire

Post Gustav Update from Chalmette

2008-09-11T08:14:00.003-04:00

Here's an update from Aaron at The Gathering who we've stayed and worked with for several trips during the past year.

greetings,
if anyone emailed over the weeked, we had a small snafu with our website and server, so i may have not received what you sent this way. same with shauna.

anyhow, we received power on friday, sept 5th- most people's refrigerators were a bit of a mess. neighbors across the street lost lots of shingles--enough that the paper and vents were gone, too leaving exposed wood and attic-their drywall ceilings fell into the bedrooms! what a mess.

shauna returned friday evening and our whole team has jumped in:
-patching shingles -tarping roofs -standing fences back up...

..mowing lawn for a national guardsmen who had long hours on duty in new orleans during the evacuation -cooking food and passing it out "down the road" (several people still w/out power on the far east end of our parish sunday and monday)

tomorrow we'll go help remove the floor at dennis' house- he's a good friend who was very close to moving into his house last week (moving in for first time since katrina). we were going to go over and do some touch up painting, but his front door blew in during Gustav and his new flooring is ruined.

from some of these comments notice the heartache that some people might have with some old Katrina emotions returning. our task is clear- serve and love like Jesus, pointing at Him and reminding people over and again that He is hope and love.

thanks for asking about things and for sending the emails our way. a few of you said you'd been meaning to call me anyway- ha, my how disasters bring us together. and for that, see attached picture about how we all find strength to lean on-finding anything and everything to make a fence stand! and the first pic is our group driving back from the retreat.

please pray that our work and daily endeavors keeps advancing the Kingdom rather than our own agenda.

our AC went out in the car- now we have those decisions to make. and next week we plan to begin a Financial Peace group meeting at a local school. hopefully another way of meeting people and helping families. thanks!

aaron johnson
the gathering
chalmette, LA
504 610 7779

Tuesday night update from Brendan

2008-09-02T20:59:00.002-04:00

Well it's about 6:30 pm and were almost out of it here. We are still getting some feeder bands carrying wind and tornadoes. We have had a few close calls near my home but most of them have landed out in pastures. Tomorrow I am venturing out into surrounding areas. Baton Rouge got hit pretty hard with wind damage and there is a big need for chainsaws. So we will see.

For anyone that has tried calling me at my 985 number I had it changed to 225-368-5223. Guy with my old number says I must have alot of friends cause he has gotten many calls. Anyway just letting everyone know we are ok. Thank you for all your prayers.

brendan

The next few weeks...

2008-09-02T07:22:00.003-04:00

Tentatively I think we can still plan to send a team down to Louisiana or Mississippi this coming weekend. If you wish to go, please email me or call Melinda at the numbers on the blog. Work will primarily be chain saw work cutting up trees and tarping roofs. Accommodations are not yet secured for more than a few people so the team may need to take a camper or two with them. More details as they are available.

I have not heard of a need for supplies to be shipped down at this time. However, tens of thousands of low income New Orlineans have been shipped to shelters across the country. Churches are hosting them as close as Louisville Kentucky. There may be a need to assist them until they can get back home, depending on some decisions the Red Cross will have to make.

More details on Gustav relief as they are available.

Many more storms are coming. Hanna is aiming at Charleston South Carolina, Tropical storm, soon to be hurricane Ike formed yesterday and is following Hannah, Tropical depression 10 formed overnight out past Ike and is in line following it and Hanna West.Also, another area of activity between Hannah and Ike as well as a 2nd area of activity North of the train may still develop into storms. We are facing a huge increase in activity that may still require responses to other parts of the country. Keep posted for updates.

Brendan's OK and already looking for help

2008-09-01T21:21:00.003-04:00

Greensburg where he's at presently was hit hard all day by heavy storm bands. Many tornadoes have been reported throughout the area all day long. Lots and lots of trees are down. They lost power at 10:00, cell service at 11:00, and landline phone service at 1:00 today. It's still storming hard there now. He drove 15 miles up the road to get cell service to check on family and get word out.

The area he reports is most heavily effected by the wind damage and downed trees is in the yellow on this map.
He's working on a place for chainsaw crews to stay and work for next week.

Monday night update on our friends.

2008-09-01T20:16:00.002-04:00

I've heard nothing from anyone in New Orleans. My cell showed a connection to Brendan's phone in Greensburg, LA, but just static on the line. Not sure if he heard me or not. Sent a text. That area has had a lot of tornadoes and strong storm bands all day. I'll put up a new post when I hear from him.

Talked to Daphne German in Bayou La Batre Alabama. The surge was not bad there. There was water and waves over the park we stayed in there last summer, but they could drive through it at noon today. She reports there is not much damage that far east.

Heavy storm bands went through the Mississippi coastal area between there and New Orleans. I expect if we are needed it'll be for chain saw crews to work in that area and north of New Orleans for a few weeks. As of now, just on the back side of the storm it appears that massive amounts of prayer have paid off.

More on the way

2008-09-01T19:47:00.006-04:00

After Gustav, there's a train of storms incoming.Hannah is projected to land on the Georgia North Carolina border Friday as a Category 1 or weak 2. Tropical Storm Ike gained that status today after becoming a tropical depression just this morning. It is heading for the Caribbean islands.

Projections of both Gustav and Hannah are showing they will impact our weather here in Ohio.

Gustov Drops to Category 1

2008-09-01T15:02:00.003-04:00

Gustov came ashore around 9:00 this morning Central Time. It has now dropped to a Category 1 level as it moves further onshore oblique to New Orleans exposing that area to the heaviest rains and tornado risk. Tornado warnings are up out through Mobile Alabama and up to Hattiesburg, Mississippi.

Storm surge is hitting 9' and a little more in peak areas, but the New Orleans Industrial Canal is at the top of the flood walls and waves are being blown over. There is still a good possibility that continued surge and runnoff from the heavy rains up stream can push the water level over the wall and begin to flood areas West of the canal.

A barge and two decomissioned Navy ships have broken loose and are pinned against a bridge, but may damage the flood walls if they break loose.

It isn't yet as bad as expected, but there's still a lot we don't know and it isn't over yet. Please continue prayers. They are working!

Gustav Update - Monday Morning

2008-09-01T09:32:00.003-04:00

Just woke Brendan Hendrix up checking on him. He says it's picking up pretty good there in Greensburg, LA. Gustav is just off Houma, Louisiana and has degraded to a category 2 storm!

Update from Brendan Hendrix

2008-08-31T22:40:00.002-04:00

Friends,
It's around 8 pm now and the outer bands have started hitting where we are. I am located about 25 minutes north of Hammond, La. no way of tellin' what it's gonna do as to the erratic nature of this storm. It is currently a catagory 3 with winds of up to 115 mph. I have been steadily trying to arrange things here for immediately following the storm. For those of you not privy to this the northeast side is usually the worse side of the storm for winds and tornadoes. Thankfully through prayers from you all this storm has lost alot of its power between Cuba and here. Just continue to pray for the storm to dissipate.

I will keep you all updated as best I can.

god bless
brendan

geaux tigers!!!!!!!!!!

Oh to be as prepared as Southern Baptist Disaster Relief

2008-08-31T20:35:00.001-04:00

Here's their latest email update:

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight”. (Proverbs 3:5-6 NIV)

Southern Baptist Disaster Relief continues to plan for Hurricane Gustav. For the second time in three years the worst-case-scenario could be in store for the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas. Southern Baptists, along with our national partners, are planning for and anticipating the worst.

Terry Henderson and an Incident Command Team are en route to Camp Garaywa, located in Clinton, Mississippi. Camp Garaywa is owned and operated by the Woman’s Missionary Union of Mississippi. Also staging at Camp Garaywa will be mobile units that will move to the coast as soon as appropriate assessments take place. A second Incident Command Team is in route to Temple Baptist Church in Ruston, Louisiana.

Southern Baptist liaisons are located at the National Headquarters for American Red Cross and the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency in Washington, D. C. They will assist in providing close coordination and communication with these agencies. American Red Cross has also provided a liaison to the North American Mission Board’s Disaster Operation Center (DOC) located in Alpharetta, Ga.

Meals are currently being prepared by Southern Baptist Feeding Units at shelters housing evacuees in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and, Texas. Chaplains are serving with the Feeding Units to provide ministry and support for the evacuees and volunteers.

A combined capacity of more than 575,000 meals per day has been activated and has begun moving toward the anticipated impact area. A total of 39 Feeding Units from 23 Baptist state conventions are moving toward the central Gulf Coast and are expected to arrive over the next three days. Each Feeding Unit will be accompanied by chainsaw, communication, and shower units as well as Disaster Relief trained chaplains. A conservative estimate is that more than 4,000 Southern Baptist volunteers will be traveling with these units.

Ministry sites in the Gulf Coast area have been pre-identified by state Baptist convention, American Red Cross and Salvation Army leaders. Once Hurricane Gustav has cleared the area, Disaster Relief leaders will assess the viability of these sites to provide accommodations for units and volunteers after which units will be deployed to begin ministry to persons impacted by the storm.

While the east coast state Baptist conventions are continuing to watch Hurricane Hanna, they are also releasing assets to respond to Gustav’s affected area. State Baptist conventions located in the Northern, upper Midwestern and northwestern United States are expected to be in the second phase of deployment. Following Hurricane Gustav’s landfall and assessments provide by Southern Baptist leaders and our partners decision will be made about future deployments.

NAMB’s DOC has moved to a Level IV, the highest activation. NAMB staff and volunteers will be manning phones and entering data to support the affected and responding state convention units. Tomorrow’s hours of operation for the DOC will be 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. Eastern Day Light Savings Time.

Florida Baptist Convention continues to respond to needs caused by Hurricane Fay. The response have move to local area churches and associations ministering in their area with Florida Baptist Convention’s leadership closing their command centers.

The only power we have right now is prayer

2008-08-31T13:30:00.003-04:00

Tonight at Westerville Christian Church at 6:00, Greg Bondurant, has planned a prayer time to ask God's mercy to dissipate hurricane Gustov and protect the gulf coast from the massive destruction we saw after Katrina. Against the models, the storm has been weakening and projections are on their way down. To me, knowing the prayers that are being asked of our Lord, that is an answer. There's nothing else we can do right now. We cannot stop a hurricane with our own efforts. We can only ask the creator of the heavens and the earth to cover those in harms way with his grace and mercy.

Please join us tonight at 471 College Avenue in Westerville, organize your own church or group to pray for the continued weakening of Gustov, or join us from where you are at 6:00 eastern time tonight to ask God to block and disperse this storm to His glory.

Mandatory Evacuation Ordered for New Orleans

2008-08-30T22:53:00.002-04:00

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin ordered a mandatory evacuation of the city beginning at 8 a.m. Sunday but urged residents to flee now. "You need to be scared," Nagin said as Hurricane Gustav roared into the Gulf of Mexico with 150 mph sustained winds. "And you need to get your butts moving out of New Orleans right now."

Gustov has passed Cuba, is at category 4, and is forecast to top out at 155 MPH winds tomorrow. Category5 the top of the Safir Simpson scale is >155 MPH winds. This is a Katrina like storm ironically landing near the same place as Katrina.

Increase Predicted in Gustov's Strength

2008-08-30T14:46:00.002-04:00

Gustov is now predicted to brush Category 5 status before coming ashore in Louisiana. Keep those prayers coming!

St. Barnard Project Team Update

2008-08-30T14:30:00.000-04:00

Thanks for the note and your concern. We have been busily preparing for the worst and hoping for the best. We spent the past two days removing tools from our clients' homes, taking yard debris to the dump, and making sure that materials are away from the windows. In the office we moved everything of value upstairs. We've got a great staff and they were cranking it out for the past two days.

We are about to head north either to Atlanta or closer if we can find a hotel room. We've secured our home, packed up our stuff and sedated the cats.

Please thank everyone for their concern and let then know that we're doing ok. We'll be in touch and let you know when we have nore info.

Take care,

Liz

Letter from The Gathering church plant in Chalmette

2008-08-28T20:52:00.001-04:00

Hello friends,

Thanks for your calls, emails, and texts today- I’ve heard from people in multiple states and we are encouraged by this.

I meant to write earlier in the week to share a moment with you all- a pause moment, I guess you could call it. Sunday evening at the Gathering, there were 3 guys visiting. One of them, age 50, had been once before. So matt is teaching out of Matthew and asks us to look at a verse in the book of Malachi. Every time we jumped to a new scripture he leaned over to look at which way I was flipping in my Bible, asking "what page are we on?" "Where’s that book" etc.

I just write to share the "pause" in this story. It wasn't an earth shattering moment, I didn’t break down in tears, but I paused at what God was showing me. I don’t want to take the Holy Scriptures for granted. I want to crave and desire the message and voice that God uses His Word for. And I want to "pause" more often so that I see what God is doing around us, like bringing a rough guy, 50 years old, to look at Jesus healing people in the Gospels. I thank Him and praise Him for slowing me down in that moment.

That guy came and painted with me all day Monday- he doesn’t have a job right now, but the relationship continues. Thanks for "pausing" to read this- I hope your days are stopped periodically so you can hear and see the Holy Spirit at work. Forgive me, God for skipping those moments all too often.

Regarding the impending storm, our team had planned to get away on a retreat this weekend. In fact, Mrs. Johnson came down to watch Everly at our house. So--we have accommodations reserved about 3 hours northwest of Chalmette, a bit past Baton Rouge.
What are we doing? We are praying. We are asking God to dissipate this storm and keep everyone from harm.

We are watching and gathering info- I feel like such a rookie here! I asked several neighbors what they were doing and we are obviously paying attention to the news, etc.

What are we not doing? We, as the Gathering team will not stay to weather the storm. We have not overstocked our cabinets, etc and etc. People were at Home Depot and the grocery buying, well, you can imagine. But rightfully so- we try to put ourselves in their shoes- I have to respect their experience and the grief they have-- is it ironic that tomorrow is the 3 yr anniversary of Katrina?? We are headed to a memorial breakfast in our community and then heading to the retreat facility.

So I hope I’ve answered your questions- Shauna and I put our patio stuff in our garage this afternoon. We’re trying to be wise and good stewards. We are getting together at 8pm central time tonight to discuss as a team and pray. I’ve heard folks in Indy will be joining us, which is 9 eastern. I will try to email any updates tonight or tomorrow.

Thanks, again, for asking and thinking of us. In all things, whether rebuilding homes, hosting Bible studies, or driving in heavy traffic out of here, may God be praised and receive any and all glory from our lives. Amen.

Aaron Johnson
The Gathering
Chalmette, LA
504 610 7779

From Daphne German

2008-08-28T20:49:00.002-04:00

We worked with Daphne in Bayou LaBatre last spring and summer. That small town is still recovering from the last several hurricanes and doesn't have room for this one.

"Remember us as the path looks the same and you know had bad we were hit. God bless
Daphne"

Letter from Brendan Hendrix

2008-08-28T20:47:00.001-04:00

OK my friends here we are at the 3 year anniversary of Katrina and it looks like she may have a brother heading our way. I am just asking that you all keep us in prayer. the New Orleans area really can't take another hit from a storm like that yet. I am presently located 45 minutes northwest of Mandeville/Slidell area where i would like to think I am in a safe area.

For those of you that know me yes I am making calls to see what kind of help will be set up in case of landfall. You know I cant get away from it! I will be communicating with john mcguire of Servants Unite. In the event we lose power or I get too busy, you can check out his web site for updates.

Thank you all for your help in the past and prayers now!

Brendan

Letter from Joy Fellowship

2008-08-28T20:39:00.003-04:00

I'm receiving pre-emptive requests for prayer and assistance if it turns out to be needed today. Also notes on here's what we are doing to prepare for the storm. I'll share them here as they come in.

Servants Unite Team 7 worked with Joy Fellowhip in January 2006. You can find blog entries here.

Joy Fellowship Church
1510 Lindberg Dr. Slidell, LA
985-781-9777

My Dear Friend,

It is hard to believe that it has been three years since Hurricane Katrina made its destructive way through Southeast Louisiana. And through all of the bad things that that storm brought, Leslie and I never cease to thank God for all of the wonderful friends such as yourself that the Lord brought our way as a result of the relief work that God himself anointed our little church to embark upon. We still minister to hundreds every week both here and at our church in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans.

Now we find ourselves in the position of coming to you again to be ready to help. As Hurricane Gustav churns in the Caribbean Sea, the Latest computer models as of this morning (8/28/08) shows this storm with a good probability of making landfall somewhere along the Southeastern Louisiana coastline as a category three at a minimum. Like California has its earthquakes, and Asia has its tsunamis, our Achilles heel is tropical storms. While we are wearing out the knees of our trousers praying that this thing will go somewhere harmless and die, we must also be ready to do what God called us to do; be a responder who carries the hope of God.
I have already been in touch with several international disaster organizations including the Salvation Army who have promised us their full support, but we also need you, the local church. Please begin to pray with us that we will have the finances and physical support to help those who cannot help themselves.

An immediate need that we will be having is that we have already been notified that a mandatory evacuation will be ordered for our area, thus forcing us to cancel our services for Sunday. Our church will have no income to operate for possibly a week or better. Couple that with the additional expense of evacuation that those in our body will incur and you can see that our church will be in a fix financially, right out the chutes. I am writing you now because should this system come close to us, our communications will be knocked out. If that happens, just assume we need help and organize teams. Please pray and seek the Lord for whatever you can do to assist us in this time. We will be thankful for whatever you can offer us.

Blessings be yours,

Pastor Larry Roques
Senior Pastor
Joy Fellowship church
Slidell/New Orleans

Senior Pastor Larry Roques: 985-768-8134
Youth Pastor Joe Badon: 504-287-5731
www.joyfellowshipchurch.com

And now there are two

2008-08-28T13:53:00.003-04:00

An area of development yesterday became tropical depression 8 overnight and is now tropical storm Hanna
It is forecast to remain a category 1 hurricane traveling east of Florida and into South Carolina over the next week.

Pray hard and often and remember the scout motto, "be prepared"! It might be a busy few weeks for us.

Trouble Brewing

2008-08-27T19:19:00.005-04:00

I've been holding off for a week on an update waiting to see what happens. First it was TS Fay which dumped tons of rain on most of Florida.

There hasn't been a relief effort set up in Florida that I've found needing out of state volunteers so I've been waiting to see what turns up.

I'm sure you are following along as it made the main stream news today, but in case you missed it, this thing is not going where we would hope.

You can track progress with me at the National Hurricane Center site. Gustav is expected by the majority of computer models to hit New Orleans as a major hurricane Monday night; just past the three year anniversary of Katrina on Friday. The gulf is hot and winds are light leading the the expected development after the storm passes Cuba.

Our first job here is prayers for our new friends we've been helping in New Orleans and along the gulf coast. We want to be fervently asking God to block this storm's progress and development and spare the severe suffering Katrina caused happening again. Please post a comment to this post if you've done so to let them know we are.

Our second job is to get prepared. Immediate storm relief will involve collecting the right stuff packed the right way and shipped cooperatively and efficiently into a receiving organization who can distribute it out of the truck. This will require churches and volunteers to act as central collection facilities and a couple people who are good at managing logistics to organize the shipping. Please email me immediately if you can fill this role. If collection is required I will publish inventory requests for food, personal care, baby care, and cleaning kits.

Our parallel task is to start making plans for volunteers to perform immediate relief. Services will be chainsaw, distribution of supplies, counseling, first aid, and flood cleanup. This will require volunteer team leads, vehicles, tools, and potentially camping gear.

Both stuff and people will cost $$$$$ to get where they are going. Please discuss with your church leaders the possibility of a special collection or one time missions gift to Servants Unite to cover these expenses so they will not be required of the volunteers and donors of supplies. Do that this Sunday if not before so we are as prepared as we can be.

Communications contacts for any effort like this will begin with John McGuire (614-404-8610) and Melinda McGuire (614-523-3996). As others end up managing portions of the operation their contact information will be distributed here and on a special web page for the new effort.

Since Katrina three years ago, we've provided 2500 man weeks of labor in Louisiana, Alabama, Ohio, and Iowa. 400 of those were in the first 4 trips to Mandeville. All of you have had an awesome heart to serve.

We may be called in the next few days to rise up again and put our hard earned experience to use making a new effort even more effective and glorifying our Lord even more than we have. Please be in prayer for what your role will be when that time comes.

Servants Unite!

John McGuire