We're Here!!!

And it feels great to be back. This nice lady, Sandy, and the other gals at University Church of Christ in Tuscaloosa REALLY took good care of us last night with a great hot meal and the church hosted us sleeping and showering. Thank you so much!
We attended the services this morning and headed for Louisiana around 9:45.


We rolled into Tammany Oaks around 2:30 CST. It's 70 something, sunny, Football's on, and it's the lull before the GitRDone storm.
The warehouse looks a lot more like a church (after Sunday service), but there is a lot of stuff behind the partitions and outside.
Football didn't last long till we were rebuilding the men's showers that were blown down last night.
Our mission tomorrow is to drywall a house from 4 foot down and drywall 1 side of all walls in the new warehouse leaving them open for inspection. There's a lot of kids here from other places. Will report on that later.

Thanks for your prayers, support, and efforts that have gotten us here. We'll be working hard all week to make it worthwhile!

Team 7 in Tuscaloosa

The Dayton contingent made it all the way to Tammany Oaks by 8:00 CST this evening. The rest of us who were a couple of hours behind, after a GREAT meal, decided on a good nights sleep in Tuscaloosa rather than a short night to start our week.
We've been using our mantools (only one female in the Columbus group)
We've been fighting intolerance
We're having a pretty good time
and here's where we are right now
More news from Louisiana tomorrow!

Team 7 is on the way

A group of 23 people left the Columbus area this morning a little after 8 (each week we get closer to leaving on time!). Some were "old timers" returning to Mandeville for a second time and some were "newbes" getting their first taste of what being the hands and feet of Jesus in Louisianna really is. They were all very excited and eager to get underway. One person was so excited that he left his car in the middle of the driveway at Spring Road Church. Our group will be once again be staying at University Church of Christ in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. We are happy to report that not only is University Church being a gracious host, but they are also helping the relief effort by donating $2000 worth of electric heaters for us to load up and take down with us. We are so grateful for their generous hearts. Please pray for the safety of our group as they are making their way down to Mandeville on this windy, cold day.

A last minute gift of warmth...

It looks like we are going to have some extra cargo space available for our trip down to Louisiana Saturday. If you would like to help meet the needs of people Tammany Oaks is serving, you can bring donations to the Spring Road Church of Christ 74 North Spring Road, Westerville, Ohio after 5:00pm tomorrow, Friday January 13 or before 8:00 Saturday, our departure time. Their #1 request is for electric space heaters to heat homes where there is no gas due to flooding. Believe it or not, it gets cold down there at night in the winter. There is also the usual list of items on http://whereisawjesus.blogspot.com.

Please do not leave donations in the church, but place them in the red trailer in the parking lot. If logistics fall through and it’s not there, put them in the bed of my truck, the blue Dodge RAM with a cap.

Be sure to read our blog daily this week to follow our work at http://servantsunite.blogspot.com.

The last request I have for you is an easy one. Write a couple of sentences of encouragement to the folks at Tammany Oaks who have been fighting this fight non stop for more than 4 months. Satan is whispering discouragements in their ear and the weight of the task and responsibility that they have taken on is getting tough. Use the email address to post to their blog, whereisawjesus@gmail.com. Be sure to put your name and city on your note. If you prefer I deliver it directly to them and not post it on their blog let me know. Also, please pray for strength for them and others like them who are working so diligently to be a beacon in the darkness and gloom that has settled there.

I pray for blessings on all of you for your hard work and persistence helping in this effort.

John McGuire
Servants Unite!

New Orleans Rebuilding Plan Unveiled

I found more rhetoric in the news yesterday and this morning than I did facts. Found the City Planning Final Report at the Bring New Orleans Back site. Since we are actually playing a part in that effort (Isn't that kewl!) I wanted to pass it along.

There is also an article at the Times Picayune page.

Check out our Neighbors

Churches of Christ Disaster Response Team in Somerset, Ohio.

They also have a blog of their work.

I find the note on Biloxi in their current blog posting highly disturbing...

Servants Unite Spins Up and Team 7 ready to hit the road

We had a great meeting last Thursday night. Sixteen people have committed to make Servants Unite a long-term personal ministry. Also, New Life Church from Gahanna is sending 11 people on the next trip and wants to continue to support Servants Unite with volunteers and funding so I'm very happy to welcome that congregation to our effort. If you've been involved in this effort so far, please get with your church leadership about working with this effort. For more information about the vision for Servants Unite and where you and your church fit in, visit the updated info at www.servantsunite.org.

Some of you are better at praying for others than, frankly, I am. For those of you, please include us in your prayers. I am so thankful for God putting these people together! Here is my current list of those working to build this organization.

Volunteer	Church
John McGuire	Westerville Christian
Brad Hayes	Spring Road Church of Christ
Robin Weir	Spring Road Church of Christ
Melinda McGuire	Westerville Christian
Amy Fox	Reynoldsburg Church of Christ
Beth Duffy	Northside Fellowship
Mark Morris	Northland Church of Christ
Glenn Bloom	Westerville Christian
Greg Ratterman	Southwestern Church of Christ
Shanda Chaney	Northside Fellowship
Mark McGiffin	Spring Road Church of Christ
Kim Skaggs	First Community Church Upper Arlington
Carolyn Canini	Southwestern Church of Christ
Troy Blair	Northland Church of Christ
Becky McGiffin	Spring Road Church of Christ
Kevin Dill	Westerville Church of the Nazarene

If I've missed you, or you want to add your name, please send me an email. There have been many people who have been involved in the trips so far that I haven't had a lot of contact with and I want to encourage you to continue to help us build Servants Unite. Actually there's a few Spring Road people I'm kinda expecting, but just haven't had a chance to talk with yet ;-)

Please also keep in your prayers, those who are traveling down to Louisiana Saturday to continue our work:

Volunteer	Church
John McGuire	Westerville Christian
Tom McClanahan	Spring Road Church of Christ
Sue Hayes
Brian Niess	Linworth United Methodist
Bill Niess	Linworth United Methodist
Glen Bloom	Westerville Christian
Gary Schubert	Westerville Christian
Jim Eder
Kyle Schneider	New Life Church
Steve Mohr	New Life Church
Robert Salyer	New Life Church
Enver Hoff	New Life Church
Kevin Ernst	New Life Church
Don Cordle	New Life Church
Gary Sargent	New Life Church
Paul Trasin	New Life Church
Cory Breidnbach	New Life Church
Tim Shivers	New Life Church
Todd Stark	New Life Church
Phil Manilla	Norway Avenue Church of Christ
Sharon Oakes	South Dayton Church of Christ
Tim Smallwood	South Dayton Church of Christ
Vicki Smallwood	South Dayton Church of Christ
Gary Eversole	South Dayton Church of Christ
Larry Long	South Dayton Church of Christ

This is a pretty large group from Columbus, Dayton, and Huntington, WV. Thanks to those who have been praying to the lord of the harvest for the workers are responding to his call!

Lord we pray for those working, cleaning, building, and sacrificing their time in Your name. We're thankful for their servant hearts and ask you to bless their efforts and every life they touch. We also thank you for all those who have supported us financially and behind the scenes; may you bless them for their generosity of spirit. Please keep all safe, swift, and strong and help us to always look to You for direction and with praise. In Jesus name we pray these things. Amen!

Crowder Road Church Cleanup

This is the Crowder Road Church of Christ building in 2003:





This is what it looked like when our team arrived to cleanup:




Gregory Hamilton, the church elder, surveys the results:

Thanks to all the volunteers

I just posted a letter from Janet Hines on the WhereISawJesus blog that you all should read.

Team 6 Returns, Team 7 Prepares

Welcome home to all our volunteers who've been away since last year ;-) A couple drove straight through and made it back to Westerville at 2:45am and the bus made it back around 5:30pm. Thanks to all the new volunteers on this trip and welcome to our mission. Now we all have to go out, tell our friends, fellow church members, coworkers, and fellow students about the need and how fulfilling this kind of work can be. You're all the ambassadors to our area for those in need on the gulf coast.

The Servants Unite organizational meeting will be Thursday evening @ 6:30 at the Westerville Christian Church on College Avenue in Westerville. We are forming a permanent relief organization to work with others nationwide and in our community. If you'd like to have input, take part, or are just curious to see what happens next, please come to that meeting or send an email to john@servantsunite.org if you can't make it but want to be involved. The formation and quick effectiveness of Servants Unite is essential for us as a group to continue to send help to Louisiana and prepare for future disasters.

We turn our focus now to the next mission leaving January 14th. More than 20 people are scheduled to go on that trip. According to the Tammany schedule, we'll have a lot of company (80) on Sunday and Monday, but will be the only group there for the rest of the week. It's not too late to join this trip. The more people we can send on a trip, the more efficient our efforts are and the more effective we can be. If you are interested, please contact us.

Under Servants Unite, we'll have the opportunity to offer spring break trips to Louisiana. To do this, we need people to focus on youth groups in specific school districts and universities as well as funding to cover transportation for chaperones and kids. This will be an additional topic for discussion Thursday but if you would like to take a role in this, again, please drop us a line.

Last note: I was able to update a lot of content on the web site www.servantsunite.org over the weekend. There will be a complete revamp of the site, but this will have to do for right now till I can break a webslinger free to set up a design. Please check that out and send in comments. What would you like to see? Find a typo? Whatever.

Thanks to all who are continuing to allow God into their hearts to make this happen!

John McGuire

They're Headed Home!

At 4:00 Eastern, the team was leaving Birmingham Alabama after stopping for lunch.

As proud as I am of my wife Melinda and her mom Nancy for being so selfless as to take this week between holidays to go serve others, I was very happy when she called to tell me they were on their way home. Our loved ones left St. Tammany Parish around 9:30 eastern time and are heading back towards us. We should be welcoming them home Sunday evening. Spare ribs and sour kraut will be for dinner at the McGuire house this year.

Lord we thank you for the generosity of spirit of these volunteers to go be your hands and feet. Please protect them on their return journey home, help them to have a pleasant trip home and help the time till we see them again pass quickly. Amen

Team 6 - Friday Update from Troy

Today was a unique day. We spent the day with a family in New Orleans East just east of the 9th ward gutting houses on a cul-de-sac. The family lost literally everything and they had already gutted their house and were coordinating the clean up efforts for all of their neighbors.

While we were gutting their houses one of the ladies came home and began going through her belongings on the front lawn. She says you don't know how trivial everything is until your entire life is in a pile in your front yard.
A quick story today that was so cool. This lady wanted to find a comforter that was from St. Croix that meant a lot to her. She looked for a little while and gave up. Ross and Justin found out that she was looking for something, the dove right in and started looking through this smelly pile of trash.

Ross kept picking things out and showing them to the lady and she would reply, "No honey, it's a comforter." a few minutes later, Ross emerges and asks, "What's a comforter"! And to add to it all, it was an ecru comforter, and a few seconds later, Justin emerges on the other side of the pile and asks, "What color is ecru."

It was a funny situation, but with a very deep meaning behind it. Too many times, we feel we need to have all the facts and information and then decide if we want to help. These two guys saw a need and literally dove right in. We NEED to have that attitude all of the time, not just in a time of crisis. Thank you for your prayers and pray for a safe trip home tomorrow and Sunday.

Love 'Em Like Jesus,
Troy Blair, Youth Minister
Northland Church of Christ
www.ncocfamily.org
tblair@ncocfamily.org

Where the team is working today

Here is a map of where our team has been working today. They left the remaining and still soaked portion of Crowder Road Church of Christ to dry out and have been working in a culdusac nearby, one block off of lake Pontchartrain in East New Orleans.

It's important to note that while power has been restored to most areas, most individual houses still are not on due to water damage even when there is power in the neighborhood.

One of the residents on the culdusac has been working with the Operation Nehemiah while living in Batton Rouge. He started bringing volunteers into the culdusac to clean up one Carrolton Avenue church member's house, then another from Crowder Boulevard CofC and someone else came home so they cleaned out that house. Our team was there to complete two that had been started and also cleaned out a third house.

Tim Hines who is one of those heading up the Tammany Oaks effort and building a permanent disaster relief organization down there told me today that of all the members of all the Churches of Christ in New Orleans, only 80 are still there, 65 of those at Carrolton Avenue where the housing was less damaged.

Team 6 - Thursday Update from Troy

Today was an extremely long day. The work is definitely starting to wear on us all. We are moving a little slower and moaning a little more. But it was a great day. We were at the Crowder Blvd CoC again today. The entire front of the building is now completely stripped and a majority of the back is free of furniture and debris.
As we were packing up to return to Tammany today, Gregory Hamilton, one of their elders came back and he and I walked through the building together. As he surveyed the front he was overjoyed. When we got to the back and saw the progress, I told him that we were a little disappointed that we did not get it all done today, he stopped in his steps, turned to me with tears in his eyes and said. "When you showed up without the bobcat, my heart sank because I felt that not much work would be done with this crew. As I stand here today, I never dreamed that even with the bobcat, that this much progress could be made in two days."

He has sent pictures to as many families as he had e-mail addresses for and he told me that there are three families now trying to make it back because of the renewed spirit they have from seeing their church home coming back! I reminded him that our God is able to do more than we can ever hope or imagine, he said "I Know". We prayed together and then went and prayed with the entire crew.

Today was Lee's birthday so we all went to the Cheesecake Bakery after devo tonight and had a great time. Also as a side note, we had the devo tonight and Kasey and Justin did a great job with the singing. (Paul was his usual great self with the ole power point.)

Tomorrow they have a circle of about 6 houses in the lower 9th ward that we get to gut out before leaving on Saturday morning. Continue to pray for the work here, and pray for Kasey as he leaves us via train to join his family in Colorado.

Love 'Em Like Jesus,
Troy Blair, Youth Minister
Northland Church of Christ
www.ncocfamily.org
tblair@ncocfamily.org

Team 6 - Wednesday Update from Troy

WOW! What a day this was. Our assignment for today and probably the rest of the week is at the Crowder Blvd. CoC. This is a church in the infamous 9th ward. The day began with a stop at the Carrolton Avenue CoC. That, as you will remember, is the church we demucked back in October when we were here last. They have the pews from Tiffin Road in Findlay in place and are having services on a regular basis now. It was exciting to see the progress being made. In fact they are now acting as a staging area for "The Nehemiah Project" the rebuilding of the churches in New Orleans.

We left Carrolton Avenue and headed for Crowder Blvd. As we exited the interstate I thought we had regressed to the days immediately following Katrina. No power on in the entire area (including street lights and traffic signals), people were very sparse, even animals seemed to be in hiding and all building deserted and in shambles. It was simply amazing. I guess I was lured into thinking that things were better than they were based on the media.

I met with Gregory Hamilton, a Crowder Blvd elder. He told me that out of a congregation of 150 members, only about eight have returned. He is committed to rebuilding God's house in the 9th ward regardless of the opposition he is faced with. We prayed with him and went straight to work.

The entire building has to be gutted. It was quite easy since the front of the building was glass, we simply removed the remaining glass and framework and the auditorium opened up to the street. Our team had the auditorium gutted in no time and began working on the rest of the building.

It was rewarding to see the face of this elder begin to glow as we demolished his building.




As the furniture and walls and the like were carried to the curb, he knew that God was at work preparing the way for a rebuilding, and he understood it all too well.

We also had opportunity to witness to a single mother and her 12 year old daughter as three of our crew spent two hours removing some large appliances from her home across the street and then praying with her and leaving her with water and food.

I spent a considerable amount of time with Tim who is the principle of a private pre-K to 8th grade school down the street. He was principle for all of 9 days when the hurricane hit. Out of 897 students who were enrolled, he is opening back up this Monday with only 212 students who are back. He was overjoyed to be able to stop working for a few minutes and simply share what he has been through with someone who wanted to listen to him and shared a passion for children. We prayed and he walked back to his school.

It was a very tiring day, but a very rewarding day. Our crew is exhausted but looking forward to going back tomorrow. Today we got a glimpse of how in our weakness, He is strong.

Love 'Em Like Jesus,
Troy Blair, Youth Minister
Northland Church of Christ
www.ncocfamily.org
tblair@ncocfamily.org

Team 6 - Wednesday's Work Report

Tammany Oaks hosted a total of 80 people last night including our team. Others were from Kokomo Indiana, Huntsville, Alabama, Missouri, Virginia and other locales. 20 more joined from Colorado tonight with more expected from New Jersey.

Some of our team worked laying the 2nd floor decking in the new building and cutting trees, but most of them are working to muck out the flooded Crowder Boulevard Church of Christ in the Upper 9th Ward seen here, before the storm.

Cement pillars and a brick wall inside the church were pushed into the auditorium. The crew removed all the debris, pews, etc from the auditorium and 5 classrooms today with 15 more classrooms to go.

They are working with Gregory Hamilton, an elder at the church that had a membership of 150 before the storm. Only 8 of their people, including kids and elderly, are able to live in the New Orleans area currently so he was very happy to have so much outside help with the church building. He's also working to clean up his house that got 5 feet of water.

Fortunately the Northland church bus has already had it's can't miss visit to the mechanic. This trip it was just a couple of rebar holes in the back tires that have been patched. Should be good to go for the rest of the trip!

Melinda McGuire

Team 6 - Wednesday Update

Greeting from warm Mandeville, LA. We arrived around noon today without incident. As usual, we had a warm and wonderful reception from the gang at the University CoC in Tuscaloosa and got a great rest last night. We left Tuscaloosa about 8:15 this am and as we came closer to our destination, I was filled with a turmoil of emotion. I was recognizing some familiar sites, but things were a little different. Some signs of progress can be seen.
The sides of the roadway are pretty much cleared, but as we got close to the cities, the ever-familiar blue roofs remained. They were everywhere. The highway signs were practically all repaired, but homes and businesses were still just as I left them in October. It is as if nothing had been done. I guess I was expecting more.

Caiti Morris reminded me that possibly the reason so many businesses were in disrepair still was quite possibly due to the fact that people were too busy trying to get their homes repaired that their work places suffered. She is probably right. As we went to a few stores to get some supplies, signs abounded that they were still operating on skeleton crews and limited supply STILL!!

The greater New Orleans area is an area of about 4 million people and it is estimated that only about 300,000 people have returned to their homes. The continued need is quite overwhelming.

We are going into N.O. tomorrow to begin de-mucking operations at another inner city church building. This will probably be our assignment for the remainder of the week.

As I reflected on my emotions today, I was taken to how God must feel with my life. He has given me everything I need for life and Godliness, however, I sometimes get preoccupied on my own agendas and the real work suffers. As a result he looks at me sometimes I am sure and says, "I was expecting more by now". But He just loves on me and helps me up where I am. I am so grateful for His love, His grace, His mercy and His salvation!

Thank you for your support and continued prayer.
Love 'Em Like Jesus,
Troy Blair,
Youth Minister
Northland Church of Christ
www.ncocfamily.org
tblair@ncocfamily.org

Katrina Team 6 in Tuscaloosa

Team 6 arrived in their overnight stop at University Church of Christ in Tuscaloosa, Alabama at around 8:00 central (9:00 in Ohio). All those feeling ill this morning are feeling better and they're all bedding down for the night.

The team left the Spring Road Church of Christ this morning at 8:30 in a mix of snow and drizzle. This is a partial team picture. The team, led by Troy Blair includes:
Lisa Blair
Tom McClanahan
Josh Fairchild
Melinda McGuire
Nancy Michael
Paul Ping
Jason Read
Kasey Dunkin
Justin Ping
Amanda Evans
Caiti Morris
Lauren McVicker
Dan Roades
Jessica Fino
Lord, please bless these volunteers. Make their trip safe, their bodies strong, their minds sharp, and their hearts open to the direction of your spirit. Please use them in turn to bless those they will work along side and those they help this week. It's in Jesus name we ask this blessing. Amen

2nd Servants Unite Meeting - by popular request

I originally scheduled the 12/27 meeting at Spring Road CofC based on assumed availability of more people between the holidays. That seems to have been an erroneous assumption as several who wish to be included can't make it, so we will have a 2nd meeting where we will cover the same agenda items and make a few basic decisions about the structure of the organization:
Thursday, January 5
6:30-8:00 pm
Westerville Christian Church
Room NW 4&5
471 East College in Westerville
Literally around the corner from Spring Road.

Agenda:

• Introduction of attendees with short bio (10 min)
• Report on God's accomplishments through this group and our current resources (5 min)
• Report on Tammany Oaks' status and needs (5 min)
• What is Servants Unite going to be? (60 min discussion)
• Mission
• Membership
• Organizational Structure
• Relationship to Tammany Oaks and other US groups
• Faith affiliation
• Decisions required for incorporation of non profit (10 min)

Please read through my thoughts as a starting point for discussion.

If you know of anyone interested who does not have email, please pass this on to them and let me know of anyone who should be added to the list.

John McGuire
614-523-3996 home
614-404-8610 cel

Mathew 9:37He said to his disciples, "The harvest is so great, but the workers are so few. 38So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send out more workers for his fields."

12/26 Trip and Update

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!!!!

This morning we loaded more than 500 toys and gifts on a truck to go to Mandeville, LA to be distributed to families, tent cities, and trailers over the next couple of days. The trailer will arrive in Mandeville sometime tomorrow and the dedicated staff there will begin sorting and preparing your awesome gifts for delivery. Thank you so much for responding in this way. God has blessed us so much with the opportunity to continue to work in this ministry and each of you has answered the call in so many ways. We really appreciate your giving and loving hearts. Combined with the toys collected by Master Provisions around 3000 toys will be handed out all from the Ohio and Indiana areas. Praise God for His great works of compassion!!!!!!!!

On December 26 we have a team of 14 workers headed down to Mandeville. I have attached our workers list so that any of you who need to can review it and let me know if I have made any errors.

These workers will leave the Spring Road Building at 74 S Spring Road Westerville Ohio on Monday December 26th at 8:00 AM. They will travel to the University Church of Christ in Tuscaloosa Al. arriving around 8:00 PM that night. The congregation there has been so hospitable to us all. We thank God for their willing hearts and supplying our teams with food and a much needed place to rest. On Sunday morning the team will attend the 8:30 worship with the church and then head out to Mandeville arriving sometime in the afternoon. Your time of work will begin immediately. The staff at Mandeville will check you in and begin to identify assignments for all of you.

On Saturday morning you will begin loading up sometime after breakfast and devo and be off to Hendersonville Church of Christ in Nashville TN where you will be hosted for the night. Sunday morning you will have breakfast, worship and be on your way home back in Westerville in the late afternoon timeframe.

THINGS WE STILL NEED FOR THE UPCOMING TRIP:

• We need two trucks – preferably 250’s or bigger. We need to tow a supply box trailer and a trailer with a bobcat on it.
• I need to know if any of you going has a CDL and would be available to drive the small Northland bus

Things for you to bring: Work clothes, sleeping bags, air mattress if you want to be sure to have one, some money for food to and from LA, and a great attitude for serving the Lord.

Please be in prayer for our friends at the Tammany Oaks Church of Christ. These volunteers have been working non-stop since the hurricane in August and need our support and prayers. Make sure you let them know how much we appreciate their efforts and that we love them.

God bless you all and again, thank you for responding to His call.

Because He first loved us,

Brad

Please call me with any questions 614-288-5825