Thursday/Friday Update for Team 21

Sorry I missed last night. Late in the week it gets harder to get everything done.

I'm writing from Hendersonville Church of Christ just north of Nashville tonight where we are staying on our way home.

We had another productive day yesterday and this morning, though not as intensively as earlier in the week. We got park cleanup and building cleanup of the community center done, more fireplugs, and finished the work on the new baby's house. It's a girl! 7lbs 6oz on Wednesday and all are doing fine.

Lewis, the roomate who just got out of the Army asks for prayers for his sick girlfriend and his grandfather who got through open heart surgery yesterday. I've seen a big change in him during the week we worked on the house and feel him seeking God. He came by the building today for his day off. Said he was bored, but was looking for more of what he'd had with us all week I believe. We'll be following up on that.

Really appreciated having the opportunity to give my testimony to one of the team members who is seeking God on our trip home today too. She doesn't know how close she is to faith. Don't want to name names, but if you will pray a quickie for her right now for God to reveal himself to her as she asks him to he'll know who you mean. He is God after all and He is Good!

Another great story about the effects of our work by Lijo Abraham: As we were working on Monday, March 12th at Mrs. Mosely's house, some of the neighbors saw what we were doing and what we were about. They were so happy to see the shining light of Christ through our heart to help out at this wonderful town.

During the devotion on Monday, one of Mrs. Mosley's relative, JC, sat with us and shared his thoughts about the Word of God and the passage we were discussing. It was so awesome because he not only joined us but he also encouraged us with his struggles in life and how he overcame it.

At the end of the day, another one of Mrs. Mosely's relatives saw us and asked whether he can get some help with his house as well. So, we gave Daphne's phone number (the coordinator of BLB, Alabama) to him so that he can call her and set up a date with the helpers. And before we knew it, we were blessed to work on his the next day.

His name was Mr. Banks; a very kind person who appreciated everything that we did. At the end of the day, the coolest thing about both of these people were their happy faces and them glorifying our Father in heaven by saying, "we are blessed from what y'all are doing down here." Isn't our Father happy to hear that? That is just amazing. To sum up, whether we go out and work for someone or whether we go out and talk with someone, at the end if our Father in heaven is glorified, then it's all worth it and that's what this trip was about.

I can't say more than Lijo so I'll end there, but following are some pictures that help tell the story of our week. Complete sets that I have collected from team members will be available online soon.

Wednesday Update for Team 21 (UB)

The work doesn't change, but the stories remain heartwrenching. We showed up to fix the roof and a plumbing leak at a house today for a lady who has been helping to cook for volunteers here. Her health hasn't allowed her to lately and we found she had just returned home from 4 days in the hospital for heart trouble and will probably require surgery. Lots of people in her family rely on her for support and her absence was obvious.

We fixed the several plumbing leaks that forced them to keep their water turned off and tore into a leaky contract roofing job where nails were exposed and poking up through the shingles. Unfortunately we had to leave the tarp through the rain this afternoon as shingles that match may take two weeks to special order.

Several of the crew cleaned up the kitchen and laundry that was backed up and caught up for her lost time away, but please pray for Linda Gilderman and her health. She's keeping several grandkids, one who is autistic. Pray also for her family and for other volunteers to help care for them.

The fire plug crew spent the day painting more hydrants and as cheesy as that job sounds, the results are showing. The firechief was unable to find the hydrants on runs because they were covered in brush and blended into the surroundings. The newly painted ones stand out as you saw in yesteday's photos, but we really noticed them today driving around.

I spent all day driving. Getting plumbing parts and roofing parts and other parts. This organization could use long term help as Daphne is trying to do a lot of this with only a couple helpers. Fortunately there are extra this week with so many students here. We need to be sure to be prepared to spec our jobs and have one person get materials while others in a team work on the project. Lots of rebuilding operations are likely to be like this.

Tonight we had a talent show! It was really kewl and the only pictures I took today.

Marilyn Sloan won for "most artistic" for her interpretive dance to a Christian song.

No joking she's really good and her performance was really moving. Got her a standing ovation!

A couple people from Marquette organized the talent competition when they came in Sunday night. It was really a lot of fun.

Adam, Nate, TJ, and Rich all grossed us out with their skit and won the Nasty Buzzard award.




Some of Daphne's girls sang Amazing Grace and then Heather, the third from left, sang it solo. She has an incredible voice!

A group from Marquette did a kewl cup game REALLY fast

The for nasty buzzards won also for their "le batre boys" parody of the backstreet boys.

These dudes are talented! They sing in different a capella groups at school and do some really good gospel songs.

Tomorrow's weather forecast is for heavy storms that will probably keep us from our work mostly. Pretty much all the work we have left is outside work. We'll have to see how it goes. Rain this afternoon slowed us down and made for a short day for many, but we were able to clean up around the community center where we stay and everyone has more energy.

Basketball was finally broken up just now @ 11:15 central and 20 people moved out to the foyer to play Mafia, a survivor like role playing game where towns people try to eradicate the crime syndicate and the hit men kill off people until they are the only ones left. I love good Christian fellowship! It's a lot of fun though.

More tomorrow!

John McGuire

Shrimp Boil Recipe

I can't get this off my mind so I'm sharing the secret ;-)

First you boil a huge pot of water with old bay, primo local sausage, whole onions, halfed lemons, and large chunks of celery.

When the onions are soft, throw in as much shrimp as will fit. We had 25 pounds of these last night who had been swimming in the ocean the night before.

Watch them boil


and watch them boil some more


and some more

and you end up with food you can't stop eating till they take it away which is what happened to me last night!

Thanks to Mr. Rosevelt, Robert and Billy for cooking us up some real Bayou chow.

Tuesday Update

I've decided the 2nd day in the field is the hardest. We were all looking kind of beat this morning. By afternoon though, I think everyone was in their stride.

More of the same work today. Cleaning up yards, finishing house rebuilds, demolishing house trailers to make way for new houses. I have pictures coming of that process, but they aren't digital so I'll have to wait till I can scan the pics and post them if I can't find an alternative this week. The only injury so far was one nail in the arm and a trip for a tetanus shot.

If you are coming down, please have a booster shot if you haven't in the last 8 years. I said 10 previously and for this one it had been at 10 years...

I have some pictures from Paul of the fort at the Dauphin beach to share with you tonight. Need to get more people's pics, but they don't slow down enough. Most of the team is right now at Sonic getting icecream or at the beach enjoying nighttime there.




There are a log of homes here that weren't in great shape before the storm and were made completely unlivable after Katrina.


Her crew has been working repainting the "fireplugs" in town. This is the before...
...and the After



The best part of the day was Mr. Rosevelt's shrimp boil he calls trash in a can.

We had two of those large white coolers full of shrimp, corn, potatoes, and some awsome local sausage. The best I've ever had!

Well, I'm done for the night. I'll get you more tomorrow on our Bayou vacation getaway!

Monday on da Bayou

We had a great day working. 8 different work sites so I can't get you details on all. 10 tore down half a flooded house trailer
7 cleared a yard still cluttered with flotsam from Katrina's storm surge
4 helped a plumber from Minnesota on a bathroom
10 cleaned and painted fire "plugs" (hydrants) for the city as part of the restoration of fire protection
4 pressure washed a house
10 (including me ;-) cleaned up after a dodgy contractor at a house where several people are living
Roy (bottom right) lives in a room of this home with his wife who is having that baby tomorrow! He works with the homeowner's daughter and she's letting them live in the house. His buddy behind them is a ranger who just got out of the Army 3 weeks ago.

The neighboring house and half the rest of the houses on the street have been condemned. They are designated with a Red X. While the apple tree is blombing and beautiful, this relic of the storm has half the roof removed.We pressure washed mildew off the outside of the house
We removed the poorly installed ceiling tiles and put them up with enough staples to hold them up. This job will be finished tomorrow with the tiles we bought tonight.
We cleaned out the edges of a floor and removed trim to cover where the tile didn't extend to the wall.
We also nailed down a lot of buckling paneling (cheap easy wall covering), cleared out some more tile problems, installed some crown molding and other tasks. We're all going back tomorrow to finish the job, but really that baby is being induced at 6:00 tomorrow night! We prayed over mother, baby, and family before going to a park on the shore for lunch and our noon devo. Please add your prayers. These kids need all the help they can get.

The park is down along the docs from the house we worked on. There are rows and rows of fishing boats. Seafood smell fills the air. There are piles of shucked oyster shells.
This morning at breakfast I handed Miss Daphne a saw donated by Don in Columbus the day before we left. We also used donated funds to purchase a cordless drill and jigsaw, compound miter saw, sledge hammers, drywall squares, level, wire cutters, tin snips, and some other odd tools required for work tomorrow.
I caught Lisa making breakfast and liked this shot, so... here I am sharing.
This kids from UB are great. Not just saying that either. No complaining about any inconvenience. Smart (lots of engineering majors), and very hard workers. I see why Bill Neiss had so much fun with them last year.

Here's what a couple of the gang had to say about their day and trip here. TJ is back from last year and Mike is a new participant.

Mike Robinson
Lima, New York

Working today was different than I thought it was going to be. When I agreed to go on this trip, I pictured myself helping families rebuild their houses. I also wanted to have that feeling that I was really helping people, but that wasn’t how things happened. We started to pick jobs, and there weren’t enough people who wanted to go paint fire hydrants, so I signed up. At first I felt like we had been given the busy work, almost like there wasn’t really enough work to go around, so they asked people what jobs some students could do. I stuck with the work and found it to be completely different than I expected. We had a great group to work with, and everybody did their part to make it fun. We set up a good system, and we were able to work well together. I think that everyone wants to do the jobs that get a lot of attention and gratitude, but it’s also important to be willing to do the less obvious jobs. That’s what being a servant is all about.

TJ Burns
University at Buffalo Student
Alfred, NY

Coming into this Spring break I was definitely really excited to come back down and help again with the relief efforts. Last year I was blessed with the opportunity to go to New Orleans to help de-muck houses with Hilltop rescue together with my InterVarsity chapter from UB. That experience was very eye opening and I believe God used us in many awesome ways to touch the lives of those devastated by Katrina.

This year when I found out we were going to Bayou La Batre I was pretty excited to be going to a new place to help. I was also quite excited about the opportunity to do reconstruction work and see the reconstruction process in a new level with new opportunities to share Christ’s Love.

Today, the first day of work, I went with a group of four guys to work on renovating a bathroom. I was interested in the job because it involved a little bit of demolition (which is what I did last year) and also some rebuilding work – a little bit of everything. It turned out to be a little different than what I expected. First, there was a pretty cool blessing that God brought this older guy Clarence out of nowhere to help with plumbing and such. The homeowner, Rosie, was a very friendly lady who seemed to have lots to share when you got her going. I ended up talking to her for a while right off the bat since four guys can’t really work in a 5x5 bathroom too well (at the same time at least ). That was definitely a blessing though and it was great to hear and talk with her about her experiences.

The cramped work, in addition to missing supplies by the end of the day when it came to rebuilding, gave me my first bit of frustration for the week though. I feel like today was a day God used to break down MY expectations about what I think I should be doing or what things should be like and get me thinking more along his lines. Overall I think it will be a very different sort of week, but after day one I think I’m ready to see where God takes me and hopefully not complain as much as I did today! – Tomorrow I’ll be destroying a trailer though which will be a reminder of last year so maybe it won’t be so different after all. I’m excited to serve!

Team 21 Update for Sunday

The kids all had a great day at the beach. Couple people got lost but now their found. Nobody blind who can now see, but maybe later in the week.

I got to spend the day with Rick White from Hilltop, Miss Daphne German who we are working for this week, Robert Baston who has a similar organization, and Janet Hines from Hilltop. We spent the day checking out sites and discussing how we can work together to set up a 6 week work camp here in BLB for the summer.

Miss Daphne is doing a lot of good work down here, but really needs help.

More on our work after we finish our first day Monday!

Team 21, University at Buffalo Has Arrived

We started rolling into BLB (Bayou La Batre) at 11:30 central time (not DST). The last of our 7 car train is almost in at nearly 1:00. We've had a safe and mainly uneventful trip.

We get to sleep in till 7ish tomorrow morning with breakfast at 8 and church at 9:30 or 10:00, the exact time is unclear ;-)

We're here with a team from Marquette University soon to be joined by 5 other teams of college kids. It'll be a busy week!

First we're doing our sight seeing tomorrow with a trip to Dauphin Island and the beach planned. Maybe some other tours.

Here's some pictures to give you an idea what our day was like. More tomorrow!

Team 21, University at Buffalo Underway!!

Loving the cellular Internet (thanks Brad)! We're cruising down I-71 headed for Cincinnati at 9:55am. Lots of rain, but this is an irrepressible group! Here's the picture from near midnight last night when most had arrived at Westerville Christian


We are driving straight through to Bayou La Batre, Alabama along this route and should arrive around 11:00 tonight.

Keep checking the blog. I'll load updates all the way down and have daily updates on our work during the week.

John McGuire

Help and tools needed for spring break trips

Please forward this request to distribute as widely as possible. We have two urgent needs to be resolved this week.

We need to collect tools or store gift cards to buy tools to send down with our first spring break team which leaves Saturday. We’re not picky, if you have two circular saws, get us your old one. As long as the tools are in operating order with a new blade. The list is below.

We are still in need of drivers 25 or over and construction team leads to accompany this group of college students. We have 44 students and the two “leads” who have volunteered. I’d like to have 2-5 more and will probably have to go down myself. Without these drivers, van rentals will cost us an additional $1,000 or more.

The first three teams are going to Bayou La Batre Alabama, to a church who is doing good work with the very few resources they’ve had. The next couple weeks are going to be a lot larger than they’ve had to support. There will be over a hundred volunteers. That'll be 15 work crews for reconstruction. Some will have their own tools, but many are college students and won't. I'd recommend they need to add the following list at a minimum to their inventory which can then be loaners to the community when there are less volunteers. We may not collect all of them, but I’m working on some other ways to help them out.

4 circular saws (cutting counter tops and other material)
4 sawsalls (general cutting)
9 electric or cordless drills (drywall and other screws)
1 jig saw (Mostly used for wood floor cutouts and countertops)
2 table saws
2 cutoff saws
4 drywall squares
Utility Knives
4 chalklines

Tools can be dropped at my house 5511 Copenhagen Drive, Westerville, Ohio 43081, preferably with some warning. I’ll also schedule a pickup day later in the week to come by with the truck to pick up tools if necessary.

If you would like to loan tools… you know the score. We can try, but can’t guarantee their return.

The safest bet would be to answer both needs listed above and then you can keep track of them yourself!

Thank you for your continued assistance and generosity.

Big News for Servants Unite!

God is Good! Man! I can’t put enough exclamation marks after that this week. Amazing things are happening and we’re in the middle of it! Our Lord lives and is moving among His people! I’ll keep this concise and put some of the stories behind it on the blog for you to read if you have time, but we do serve a mighty King in whom all things are possible.

Today we’re moving to the next level with Servants Unite, long delayed, but planned from the beginning. For the last year, we’ve been at status quo: Continuing to send teams to Louisiana with many volunteering more than once. The numbers you’ve likely seen by now: more than 600 man weeks of labor, 20 teams, thousands of uncountable families touched by Christ in their darkest hour through your willingness to serve. And our contribution is only a small part of the effort. We have comprised around 10% of the total volunteers at Tammany Oaks and Hilltop, two of dozens of organizations like them who sprung up to answer the call to serve in this crisis.

We have more of the same planned. Over 140 students and chaperones are scheduled for the 5 spring break trips and 8 more groups from Cleveland to Huntington WV are scheduling summer trips already. An even larger response than last year! Westerville South IB is making their third trip in June.

In addition, groups outside our planned geographic scope are asking for guidance on how to participate. New hosting organizations are opening with different needs. Other supply side organizations like ours are forming and need to be nurtured to provide mutual aid to one another. The work we are doing now, reconstruction, requires more training and more skilled volunteers that must be recruited.

Even with this success and increasing demands of our existing effort, there is so much more in our plan. I’ve been managing the teams, logistics, and communications, a 20 or more hour per week job, around my paying jobs which themselves have been quite demanding. I haven’t had the time to build or grow our membership or our services and can just keep moving teams through the process. Many times I’ve dropped the ball from lack of focus only to see God take up my slack.

This week this situation changes and I need all your help in small ways and big ones to make it work. I’m turning to Servants Unite as my full time job and consulting as my side job, something I’ve planned and prayed about from the beginning. I’m moving to a new job which is akin to independent IT consulting to give me more flexibility, time, and business hours to spend on Servants Unite. There are several points to this plan:

• Paul funded his ministry as a tentmaker in a world that needed tents. By trade, I’m an IT consultant and security professional in a world dependent on technology. Any work your business, church, or friends’ businesses or churches direct to me will directly benefit Servants Unite by allowing me to make this move.
• The more direct sponsorship I can raise from the individuals and churches who have been involved, the less time I must spend consulting and the more I can spend on Servants Unite. I hate asking for money, it’s the hardest part of missions, but my attitude is finally adjusted to this reality.
• I’m funding myself separately from Servants Unite which makes this even harder because it is even more personal. The benefit to this plan is to allow the organization to receive funding from sources that require 100% of their donations to go to the mission. It also removes any possible perception of shadiness that the accuser may use against our efforts.
• This has made me concerned as you and your churches have been the organization’s source of funding the past year. Funding is limited and my funding should not diminish the funding for SU. The growth of the organization I can drive over the next couple months to more churches, however, will increase our overall funding base.

At this link, you will find a bulleted list of the accomplishments and goals yet to reach so that you can get a picture of what I envision for the organization. Some of these require more volunteer work from you. Once plans are made for the next large response like Katrina, many of you will be required to be ready to serve, here or there, to collect and package supplies, and distribute them. Even working on this full time, I can’t do it on my own.

This organization’s name is Servants Unite. We’ve come together as one body from different churches or maybe no church to meet the worldly needs of disaster victims and we’ve shared in their pain. We’ve found places like Slidell, and Chalmette that now seem like second homes where we have brothers and sisters, friends and neighbors. Together, we’ve seen God do miraculous things in people’s lives and meet physical needs where no worldly explanation exists. Isn’t this so cool to be a part of?!

Because we live in a fallen world, we’ll meet more friends and neighbors, find more pain, witness more miracles, and live, a week or so at a time, in the Kingdom we were made for. To give more people this opportunity to serve, and to serve more victims of calamity, even in our own back yards, requires your increased financial support and willingness to take on roles here at home.

I thank the Lord for you all constantly. Thank you for all the encouragement you have given me personally, much of which you may not even have realized as you just served your part. And thank you in advance for your continued and increased support for this effort.

__________________________________________________________
1 Peter 4:10, Mark 12:30-31, Mathew 9:36-38, Romans 12:4-8

John McGuire
www.ServantsUnite.org
614-523-3996 home
614-404-8610 cel

Plan for Expansion

Servants Unite continues to work well as a volunteer run organization (20 hours per week):

• Continued the volunteer effort for Katrina relief
• Over 600 man weeks of labor sent into the disaster zone
• Organized 20 teams of volunteers
• Reached volunteers at over 60 churches and organizations
• Partnered with multiple hosting organizations
• Providing basic reporting and communications to members
• Occasional speaking on needs and opportunities

Servants Unite has the following outstanding work that requires full time focus (40 plus hours per week):

• Work more directly with volunteer groups and make more visits to the field
• Lead more teams
• Lead organizational meetings
• Speak to groups who have some interest

• Building the organization throughout Ohio and potentially beyond
• Setting up subgroups in major Ohio cities

• Building local mission opportunities
• Habitat
• Inner City
• ServeFest
• Others

• Planning the next first response
• Drop off locations
• Transportation
• Volunteers
• Lists
• Packaging

• Training volunteers for reconstruction work that requires more skill
• Flooring
• Drywall hanging and finishing
• Painting
• Installing windows, doors, cabinets, etc.

• Recruiting construction leads to mentor to unskilled volunteers
• General construction
• Plumbing
• Electrical

• Fundraising for response readiness
• Churches
• Civic organizations
• Grants

• Coordinating with Red Cross, Emergency Management, and other agencies locally and in likely disaster zones
• Developing web based applications and sites to aid in coordinating disparate groups in a disaster response
• Supply levels
• Work requests
• Mapping directions to work sites

• Continue to help build and foster similar mutual aid organizations in other regions of the country
• IDES
• Hilltop
• CrossRoads
• Others

Missouri Relief Request

I received this request 2nd hand today, but wanted to pass it along to you. If anyone goes along with Andy, please let me know how it goes. How to do winter storm relief has me baffled still.

Also, remember the spring break trips we have scheduled to New Orleans. People have signed up for 4 of the 5 weeks so far and I have three groups already planning summer trips.

Missouri Relief Request:

I attend the Vineyard in Grove City and we've worked with Samaritan's Purse (Franklin Graham's Organization) to assist with clean-up efforts in Mississippi and Louisiana. Samaritan's Purse recently contacted us, asking for some immediate assistance with clean-up efforts in Missouri, after the recent horrible ice storm.

Many people have been left stranded and without electricity because of fallen trees, overburdened with ice. So, Samaritan's Purse has coordinated chainsaw crews to deploy in areas needing cleared. I and one other from the Vineyard are heading to Missouri on Sunday (1/28) and returning Friday (2/2) or Saturday (2/3).

We would love to have additional help if you know of anyone that would be available for such work on short notice. Samaritan's Purse works with local Churches to provide food and housing for volunteers. They also coordinate work and provide all the necessary tools and protection. We just need to pack a sleeping bag, warm work clothes and head West.

If you know of anyone available or interested, please have them contact me at 806-1358 or e-mail me at avance1@columbus.rr.com.

Thank you very much!
Andy Vance