Servants Unite Update

This article is written about the woman who has become the head harvester for Christ in Bayou La Batre. She has devoted what may be the rest of her life to rebuilding this community to soften hearts and win souls. She is under heavy spiritual attack, on her health, her ministry, her spirit, and her faith, though none have wavered. Please pray for Daphne, the work she and we are doing there, and the new Christians who are joining the flock almost daily that they may be disciples and have a true and active faith and relationship with our Savior.

Servants Unite is sending half the volunteers who are scheduled to work in Bayou La Batre during the Hilltop summer work camp. The goals for those 6 weeks of work is to perform reconstruction for 20 families that will utilize $50,000 worth of building supplies. We will be effective without extra funding to cover building materials, but not nearly as productive resolving the worst needs such as roofs, drywall, plumbing, and electrical work that is required for people to inhabit safe homes.

This cost is not usually the burden of this organization and Hilltop has taken it on for this project. But, if you or your church can make a special donation just for building materials for our trip July 7-July 15, please contact me immediately at my cell phone, or email address published on the blog.

Other weeks have availability through the end of July and two teams are scheduled into New Orleans after the Hilltop camp closes. You can still participate in any of them by contacting me as well.

If you are available the week of August 1st, we need help breaking down the Hilltop camp in Bayou La Batre for storage. We will drive down and probably spend the week packing it up and transporting it to an as-yet-to-be-named location to wait for the next response.

I will be speaking at GracePoint church in Lewis Center (northern burb of Columbus) Sunday June 17 on Servants Unite and missions. If you are a member, I hope to see you Sunday and if not, I encourage any to visit that day to share the story of your mission experience in disaster relief at the Servants Unite booth. Please let me know if I should expect you.

John McGuire

BLB camp setup Wednesday update

Here are todays pictures

I'm heading home in the morning, but Corky, Rick, and Chrissy are continuing the remaining camp setup. We've learned a lot about setting up the first response camp. We have the design and parts together after many trips to Lowes and Marshall Marine. Consensus among us is that we need approximately 10 people to set the camp up and I'm looking for good volunteers to be those first responders. This will require a lot of lifting and long days in not so ideal conditions after we roll it all in behind the next storm. Let me know if you are interested.

The water is on tonight! Actually it was on this afternoon, but we had a couple (8) leaks that required a little glue and some clamps. The sewer hookup is running too so we have running water, showers, sink in the kitchen tent, porta potties, a dumpster and tents to sleep in. There are cots to sleep on and tables and chairs for the common tent. There are grills to cook on and we have the ice maker, but not plumbed yet.

Two more tents remain to be erected. Frankly, the 4 of us who were here all week are just flat sick of lacing tent sections together and being out in the sun to do it. Setup really requires more people to make it work. More cots must be retrieved from Slidel tomorrow. The walkins are coming a day or two later than planned. The 35000 KW propane generator will be in tomorrow as well as there is no word back from the electric company. Hopefully that'll still come through. Keep praying!

Also pray for hearts to be touched through the work here this summer, for the staff to come and holdup under the heat and rigor of running the camp, and for safe travels for all, including me driving home 13 hours tomorrow ;-)

Satellite Internet with wireless access will be up and running in the camp for volunteers and staff next Friday.

Tuesday Setting Up the Hilltop Camp

Bayou La Batre is HOT in the summer. I heard back home in Columbus it'll be down to 40 tonight, but it's still in the 80s here at 11:00 central. Made working slow during the afternoon when the predicted rain didn't come. I'll take wet yesterday working to hot today.

We still got a lot more done today. Here's the pictures I took. The kitchen tent is up and mostly stocked with the Hilltop and Bayou Recovery Project stuff. We tapped into the park water supply and ran the line through a short trench and back to the camp. Half the plumbing in the camp (water and sewer) are done and will be completed tomorrow. Another sleeping tent went up and another framed. Walk-in freezer and fridge arrive tomorrow and hopefully large propane generators.

Pray for a link to the power grid for the camp. That'll be a lot cheaper and more convenient than the generators, but is nearly the last piece of the puzzle to fall into place.

The first volunteers arrive tomorrow! A couple groups wanted to come work with Bayou Recovery before the Hilltop camp opened, officially and by the weekend there will be 80 volunteers in camp!

No conversions today, like Sunday and Monday, but I had a great conversation with a seeker last night. Please pray for those to happen too and that they would have ears to hear.

I'll try to put up an update tomorrow before heading for home, but may be pressed for time and put it off a day. Keep checking though, as lots of things are happening fast and this is the easiest way to keep you all up to date.

May God bless you and your families as you consider service with Servants Unite, or any other effort.

John McGuire

Hilltop Camp Setup - Monday

Here are the pictures from today

Mostly this is self explanatory. The tents were finally delivered and they are GREAT! We got to play soldier of God all day setting up camp. We also got final approval for the water line to the camp from the park. Tomorrow Tim Hines is bringing the walk-in refrigerator and freezer from New Orleans and Crossroads is loaning us their large propane generators for power though we are still pursuing a local utility connection.

The first tent took 8 of us 4 hours to set up and it still needs to be "fixed". The second took a little more than 2. The third which is the common tent/dining hall, almost twice as big took 4 of us about an hour and a half. While we are sore, we are getting much better at assembly! This will take quite a while to pack out for an evacuation, but should be doable and something we can put back together at a new site in a couple days depending on the number of people helping.

This site is so great, right on the water with a great breeze blowing all day. If you've been trying to decide whether to come, please do. You will be very blessed to be here working with the people here. There are volunteers scheduled every week, but space is still available for all weeks except July 7-15 when 126 people are scheduled from Servants Unite already. There is also space in Chalmette and New Orleans with IRC and Crossroads throughout the summer to go stay there and work where so much is still needed.

Keep praying for our success and obstacles to be removed from our path.

Hilltop Camp Setup - Sunday Report

Here's the pictures from today.

I am not a plumber... but I'll be putting all the pipe together for drains from the shower trailers and campers in the morning. Had an enormous amount of quality time with Corky at Lowes picking through bins for the PVC parts we needed for drain and water supply lines.

Our tents that were to be delivered between 8:30 and 9:00 via semi this morning weren't. Thought that specific a time for delivery of anything must be too precise to be realistic. Shoot, the cable guy can't say which day of the week he'll actually show up. Anyway, the truck broke down in South Carolina. The part isn't available till tomorrow, but they should still be delivered tomorrow they say.

The pressure is on. We're still awaiting the final approval of the water, cooperation from the satellite Internet service company (I'm getting certified to be an installer so we can have mobile Internet), and working to get a power supply to the camp other than generators... noisy generators. The first team is actually going to be in June 7 now.

Correction (and a reminder on how fast things change). At 9:30pm I got a call from Corky that the truck driver is at our exit and wants to know if we can unload him... He's getting a hotel till 9:00 tomorrow so it looks like we'll be putting up tents all day and I get to drive home Tuesday!

We had church with the Texans and local congregation who for the first time met in the fellowship hall of the new building! Carol and Royce Ogle from Whites Ferry Road were there with their associate minister who gave the lesson (after Royce led singing). One of Daphne's 11 year old protégés, Devon, came forward with her grandma to be baptized at the end of service. We all went out to the park where the camp is with her and she was baptized in the ocean... The Lord is alive and working diligently here and in these people! Prayer's are requested against the opposition who is working hard to the contrary.

Robert Madchen will be here with us tomorrow to set up the tents and get the camp finished and I'll get more pics out then.

Check back tomorrow!

Hilltop Camp Setup - Saturday Report

Things are really moving down here. A complete set of the pictures I took today are here.

Chrissy joined Corky and I last night and Rick White flew in this afternoon.

You'll find pictures of the first few pieces of equipment we moved over from Slidel today - Chrissy's grill and camper, the red shower trailer built this winter, two vans and a trailer. We also set up Corky's trailer on the site and moved the BBC shower trailer over from Sweet Bethel church where the camp was supposed to originally reside.A crew from Texas spent their 2nd day working on the fellowship hall at the new church building. They have drywall up and mudded and have expanded the size of the kitchen adding a nice pass through. We'll be there for church in the morning so more pictures of that tomorrow.

We joined them and some church members for Mr. Rosevelt's "trash in da pot" and great conversation among all.


The last couple of shots are after we got generators up and running at the camp and the sun was for practical purposes gone for the evening. The bugs were horrible without bug spray, but not a problem with.
And so ends the first night of the Hilltop Bayou La Batre camp.

Pray for the power issues to be resolved. Hopefully we can get lines run in rather than depending on generators for the length of the camp. While we want to be prepared with generators and a power management plan for first response, it isn't the most practical in this environment where full services are available.

More people are signing up for more trips into August! The response from volunteers wishing to be hands and feet and from the recipients of our help continue to bless my life and reafirm we are doing His will and working in His kingdom.

Thank you for all you do! Check back for more updates tomorrow.

John McGuire

Tomorrow morning the tents come in

Today in Bayou La Batre

Even though Tropical Storm Barry is heading for Tampa (my friend Barry Raymond must be so proud :-) to start off the hurricane season, the weather was beautiful in Bayou La Batre today. I'll be a certified Wild Blue satellite Internet installer before we are through... I've been working on setting up the unit from the Machen's in Slidell here and for our next response.

Corky and I spent much of the day shopping for parts and staking out the locations of trailers and tents in the park we are inhabiting for a couple months this summer. The pics of the work on the new church building and the location for the camp are here.

Check back for more updates tomorrow!

Hurricane Season Starts

And to celebrate, I'm in Bayou La Batre setting up camp for the summer with Hilltop, testing our disaster response plan, and getting some red cross training. I'll get you pictures and more information later today on the blog.

We have 126 people presently scheduled from Ohio to work in Bayou La Batre the week of July 7-15! That's 26 over capacity, but we'll find room for everyone. Other weeks between June 15 and July 27 are still open if you want to come join in. We'll also be scheduling trips into August and beyond.

June 8, North Canton Church of Christ will be in Chalmette working as will Linworth UMC the week of July 27. Each team numbers approximately 30.

The first day of the season with two storms named so far, one in the Atlantic and one in the Pacific, plus the much larger response we have this summer make me wonder what God has in store for us. Teams scheduled during season are our first responders if a new storm comes in. Once a hosting organization has a camp set up, the area is safe, and there is work to do on the ground, we'll redirect our scheduled teams and other first response crew into the area.

Thanks for your servant hearts and spirit as this effort continues and we prepare for the next one.

John McGuire

Habitat Opportunity for Saturday 6/2

We need 5 volunteers (on a first come basis) this Saturday, June 2nd on a construction site.

Volunteers assist us in mainly framing 2nd floor walls on Saturday from 8:30am to 4:00pm. No prior skills required, leadership provided.

Volunteers need to wear comfortable clothing that they don’t mind getting dirty. Volunteers must wear hard-soled shoes (work boots preferred) or tennis shoes. Absolutely no sandals or open toed/open heeled shoes allowed on site. Bring a water bottle and lunch. Hats and sunscreen are always a great addition to your work day.

If you have your own tools (i.e. hammer, pencil tape measure, nail apron/tool belt, utility knife, and speed square), please bring them, but label and keep track of tools. If you do not have your own tools, tools will be available on site.

If you are available and interested, please email me for details.

Thanks for all you do!

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

Hilltop Newsletter for May 2007

The current Hilltop Rescue newsletter is posted here

From June White of Hilltop Rescue:

Dear Friends,

So much has been happening since we sent out our last newsletter. Sadly, we had to close down our facility in Chalmette in order to turn the school building back over to the parish. We saw the hand of God moving throughout our time in Chalmette and are very thankful that we were able to serve there.

But as the old saying goes, the more things change the more they stay the same. We have spent the last few months working on how to make Hilltop Rescue a mobile organization capable of responding to a disaster in any area. This has brought us back around to where we started. We will be setting up a tent camp for volunteers in Bayou La Batre, Alabama this summer, and Corky will be running the camp. Working under the direction of the Bayou Recovery Project, we will be doing a wide variety of work and are very excited about the opportunities we will have to help there. Read about it in the attached newsletter, and please be in touch if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

June White
Director of Communications
www.hilltoprescue.org

Summer Planning

Couple events to pass along to you all. I'm writing from Slidel, Louisiana at the Madchen's where we are planning on the summer camp with Hilltop and Bayou Recovery Project. We visited Bayou La Batre again today, had great food, and great fellowship with Miss Daphne and Billy.

This is the site where we are setting up tents to host volunteers from June 15-July 30.

We also ran across several of the Marquette students who the Buffalo group and I worked with in March. They came right back down after finals. Josiah, swimming barefoot cut his foot up on oysters and is hobbling around unhappy. Working relief injured isn't nearly as much fun.

Remember our friends the love bugs from right after Katrina? They come out in May too!

Thursday night was a parent's meeting for the Westerville South IB and Central group. We had a good information session and questions and answers. This team along with Sunbury United Methodist, South Dayton Church of Christ, and New Life Canal Winchester make up a team of over 100 from Ohio working at the camp July 7-15. This week is closed, but others will be available as we go forward and there is interest.

Keep posted for info on Kansas. I may be taking a team the Tuesday after Memorial Day. May not though. Most of the word back is that there really is nothing to rebuild/clean up. Still monitoring though and I'll keep you all posted.

Please pray for those afflicted in Kansas, the gulf coast, and this fallen world. Also pray for a productive Hilltop meeting, strengthened relationships, and the funding we need to pull off all the work we have before us this summer.

John McGuire

Habitat Opportunity for Saturday 5/19

We need 6 volunteers (on a first come basis) this Saturday, May 19th on a construction site.

Volunteers assist us in building/installing the sub floor and deck on Saturday from 8:30am to 4:00pm. No prior skills required, leadership provided.

Volunteers need to wear comfortable clothing that they don’t mind getting dirty. Volunteers must wear hard-soled shoes (work boots preferred) or tennis shoes. Absolutely no sandals or open toed/open heeled shoes allowed on site. Bring a lunch and a water bottle. Hats and sunscreen are always a great addition to your work day.

Tools will be provided, but volunteers are welcome to bring their own tools if preferred. Please label and keep track of tools.

If you are available and interested, please email me for details.

Thanks for all you do!

Deb Light
Volunteer Director
Habitat for Humanity-Greater Columbus

3140 Westerville Rd
Columbus, OH 43224
Office 614-364-7020 (direct line)
Cell: 614-332-9192
Fax: 614-414-0432

Check out our NEW online registration system on our website: www.habitat-columbus.org for upcoming Volunteer Opportunities. Check often!

Greensburg Kansas - Before and After

Weather Channel has a video segment with satellite images of the town before and after here

Kansas Update

I'm sure you've all been watching the news stories like this one. Greensburg Kansas is pretty much wiped out. I had the pleasure (in serving the Lord) today to help get a 30 foot trailer and supplies ready to roll out. This would have been impossible without Tim Shivers (Team 7) of New Life in Gahanna loaning out his new Diesel GMC 2500.

Thanks Tim!

Churches of Christ Disaster Response Team is ran by Laura and Mark Cremeans. They are from Ohio originally, but are relocating to a new base of operations in Gainsville Florida. After 10 years of part time first response when Hurricane Charlie came through, they sold their construction business and went full time. This trailer will join a kitchen trailer, shower trailer, RV, and tool trailer that will all be on-site between tomorrow and the weekend. They'll let us know about volunteer requirements over the next week. If you are feeling called to go help, be making some very tentative plans and I'll get the word out if I'm taking a team out. We may well be joining them in the next couple of weeks.

Whites Ferry Road will also be in Greensburg this weekend. Note the referenced appeal letter from Carol Ogle. We are not in competition, but are partner's in God's work in disaster relief. Servants Unite is a faith based operation, but not affiliated with any particular church. Church of Christ partners are who we have worked with for Katrina relief. If you know of other church organizations working in Kansas, please pass along the info.

We're all looking at fundraising and preparation for the upcoming spring storm and hurricane season. Servants Unite as well is down to a couple thousand dollars. We'll need approximately $10,000 to cover expenses for our teams through the end of July, though they are paying a lot of their own way. A very large response for a new hurricane causing the sort of damage Charlie, Ivan, Katrina, or Rita did will call for a $30,000 immediate outlay to cover shipping, transportation, and supplies.

This money may be pledged by churches for such a response or donated outright, but I need to start getting an accounting of what we can count on when the next emergency strikes.

Keep all those working in relief in your prayers as well as those who have lost so much in these disasters. Please pray they will see Christ in our work and seek him and be closer to him in their lives.

John McGuire

Habitat Opportunity for Saturday 5/5

We need a couple extra volunteers this Saturday, May 5th on a construction site.

We need 5 volunteers (on a first come basis) to assist us in building some first floor walls on Saturday from 8:30am to 4:00pm. No prior skills required, leadership provided.

Volunteers need to wear comfortable clothing that they don’t mind getting dirty. Volunteers must wear hard-soled shoes (work boots preferred) or tennis shoes. Absolutely no sandals or open toed/open heeled shoes allowed on site. Bring a lunch and a water bottle. Hats and sunscreen are always a great addition to your work day.

Tools will be provided, but volunteers are welcome to bring their own tools if preferred. Please label and keep track of tools.

If you are available and interested, please email me for details.

Thanks for all you do!

Deb Light
Volunteer Director
Habitat for Humanity-Greater Columbus
Office 614-364-7020

Ever wonder about the fruits of your labors?

Whites Ferry Road Church of Christ in Monroe Louisiana has sponsored a disaster relief effort for 25 years. They have provided most of the funding for Billy and Daphne's Bayou Recovery Project in Bayou La Batre where we spent some time this spring. Last week during a focused spiritual "revival" in town a lot of prayers came to fruition.

Please read Carol Ogle's report for the details.

Servants Unite Update

Topics for this update:

• Spring ServeFest
• Other Local Missions
• Prep for Next Response
• Spring Break Wrapup
• Summer Schedule

I haven’t gotten to organize special projects for the upcoming Servefest Saturday, but there are a couple options available. Getting to be short notice, but New Life has a couple projects working in Franklinton that need some more volunteers. Huber Ridge Middle School on Walnut at Spring Road in Westerville is planting flowers in some newly cleared beds. Also Ridgeview Park cleanup in Huber Ridge, on Buenes Aires just north of 161 is Saturday morning. With storms tonight your neighbors may have brush to be cleared or the widow lady down the street may need her porch painted or gutters repaired. I invite you to take Saturday as a day of service to our community through one of these activities.

The next ServeFest will be in October. We’ll have more rehab work lined up in Franklinton as we establish a supporting relationship with Lower Lights Ministry out of Bellows Avenue Nazarene and Rebuilding Together, Central Ohio, a local rehab charity. These organizations are much like Hilltop and Tammany Oaks’ relief ministry in scope and organization. Just the kind of effort we can support through volunteer hours.

I am looking for churches who are willing to donate their parking lots for a Friday and Saturday, volunteers, and $5,000 in expenses or any part of that to build a house to send into New Orleans. We can frame out walls and sheathing here in a Saturday and pack it on a truck to have the lot available for Sunday morning services. This is in cooperation with Crossroads Missions through Help Build Hope http://www.crossroadsmissions.com/helpbuildhope/. Construction of the houses will be completed in New Orleans Central City. It’d be really kewl to have a local crew start this here this summer and send a team to work with Crossroads in the fall to put them together to get the end to end.

I’m having a difficult time scheduling meetings with church leadership to plan our next response and formalize Servants Unite’s relationship. Your assistance in facilitating these meetings is going to be fundamental. It is urgent we determine what resources and locations are available for relief supply collection and packaging as well as finances to send in volunteers for our next response. We use frightfully little money in this mission, but reserves which have never exceeded $14,000 are nearing $0 and the funding for the organization is another issue I need to address. Priorities are involvement in current Katrina relief and local efforts, prep for next response, and funding in that order.

For Spring Break trips, we sent 101 man weeks of Labor to Bayou La Batre, Alabama and Chalmette (New Orleans) Louisiana. The cost of van rentals, gas, and board with our hosting organizations cost our organization approximately $8,000 plus the contributions of some of the teams I estimate around $7,000 more. I wish I could give you an inventory of the people we’ve helped, the spiritual growth among volunteers who are believers and those that aren’t, the new friendships that have formed between people from all over the country… but it’s an immeasurable quantity. Unfortunately, even blogging hasn’t been nearly adequate. Amazing people do this work. People who attract other people to them. Fishers of men. You’re all to be commended and I am so thankful to be blessed by working shoulder to shoulder with the majority of these volunteers this spring.

Summer is going to be bigger! Here are the trips presently scheduled:
6/8/07 North Canton Church of Christ 27 volunteers
7/3/07 New Life Church, Canal Winchester 15 volunteers
7/7/07 Westerville Schools 50 volunteers
Sunbury United Methodist 40 volunteers
South Dayton Church of Christ 10 volunteers
7/27/07 Linworth United Methodist 30 volunteers
?? Norway Avenue Church of Christ (Huntington, WV)

Teams from June 15 through July will go to Bayou La Batre, pending any new disasters that require our response. Teams before that camp and after will be working in Chalmette (New Orleans). Add your group to one of these, or pick your own date. There’s plenty of work left to do!

I will be focusing on getting everyone where they are going for these trips, setting up local mission opportunities, and continuing to grow the organization to more churches. You can help with that and in all we do. Even full time I need a lot of volunteers to help manage all these activities. Please get back to me with your interest and availability!

Servants Unite!

John McGuire

Habitat Opportunity for Saturday 4/21

We have a construction volunteer opportunity that just came up for this Saturday, April 21st.

We need 6 volunteers (on a first come basis) to assist us in putting on the subfloor/decking on one of our foundations on Saturday from 8:30am to 4:00pm. No prior skills required, leadership provided.

Volunteers need to wear comfortable clothing that they don’t mind getting dirty. Volunteers must wear hard-soled shoes (work boots preferred) or tennis shoes. Absolutely no sandals or open toed/open heeled shoes allowed on site. Bring a lunch and a water bottle. Hats and sunscreen are always a great addition to your work day.

Tools will be provided, but volunteers are welcome to bring their own tools if preferred. Please label and keep track of tools.

If you are available and interested, please email me for details.

Thanks for all you do!

Deb

Deb Light
Volunteer Director
Habitat for Humanity-Greater Columbus
3140 Westerville Rd
Columbus, OH 43224

Office 614-364-7020 (direct line)
Cell: 614-332-9192
Fax: 614-414-0432

Check out our NEW online registration system on our website: www.habitat-columbus.org for upcoming Volunteer Opportunities. Check often!

We must not, in trying to think about how we can make a big difference, ignore the small daily differences we can make, which, over time, add up to big differences that we often cannot foresee. -Marion Wright Edelman

Team 24 picture galleries are available!

Pictures are available at these links for the people who I was able to capture pictures from. Almost 1500 shots! So you'll see a lot of the same stuff, but still some good photogs in this group

Keturah who is back in Chalmette with Emily and her brother again this week!

Dawn

Sam

Stacy

John

team 24 pics

 

 

 

Team 24 Heads Home

Update: We made it to Hendersonville, TN at 10:30 Central time. Breakfast will be at 7:00am and we should be home around 4:00pm Eastern.


We left Chalmette at 2:00 central after visiting the Katrina victims memorial at shell beach on the MRGO and poboys at Tony's.
We should roll into Nashville for our overnight about 10:00 central tonight.

Team 24 Last Day in the Field

We hung and cut drywall. My favorite part was putting up the ceiling because I liked operating the jack. I helped hold up drywall while they put the screws in.
I like coming down here because it’s like a break from life. You concentrate on helping complete strangers and help them get their life back again. Then when you’re not helping you're hanging out with you new friends.

David McGuire


A bullet list of the week:
LONG drive
Women's Shelter
Jeff the general contractor
Concrete Saw 2 doors in cement block and brick!!! :-)
Removing rusty ceiling hangers
Hanging drywall
Magnetic sweeping
Floor Scraping (taking up tile)
Chiseling mortar
Installing windows
Engine hoist
Broken finger

Painting

Painting

Painting

House mucking
Oil
Drywall
Carpet
Roaches
Mice


Miss Gladys'
Hanging drywall
Drywall jack
Screw guns
Third time's the charm...

Scoping out more work for the next crew
Past St. Bernard is a whole lot of swamp...

82 year old Vietnamese budist monk and friends
rode in on the train
great food!!

Trip to the French Quarter
Cafe Du Monde
Cafe Au Lait
Beignets
Powdered Suger
Powdered Sugar
etc.
Sleeping hippies in store doorways
Hippy Puppets
Jackson Square
Margaritaville
Mississippi River

FEMA trailers
Neighborhoods by the levy still a jumble of destroyed homes and posessions
19 months
Christmas - 1 coffee shop, Easter - 8

Tony's Poboys
Gators...again

2 hours dozing in the clinic for a check of the broken finger and resulting hole...
When's Walmart going to open?
Only 1 Doctor now.
Finger should be fine in 3-4 weeks with a splint.

Devo with Joel on the guitar
Where I Saw Jesus
"You mean tomorrow's our last working day?"

Airsoft as middle school discipline/motivator ;-)

Fish fry thank you!!!

Trip to Home Depot strictly for the restroom $0
Drywall and tools - $334
Buying a Big Mack in Chalmette - Priceless

Mucking out the Red Cross office...
Irony...
19 months
Likely volunteer housing soon
More irony

Warehouse duty
Handing out... well nothing, but Chris was on duty

'Nother trip to the French Quarter
Alternatives - Watching Bat Man Begins, blogging, shower, hiding from Brendan in fear of his Airsoft gun at the sound of any diesel truck engine.
Nobody's been shot, it has yet to materialize, but sometimes the threat will keep a 13 year old in line :-)

Tomorrow
Pack
Clean
Lunch
Off to Nashville
Then home...
...to the snow....
...for Easter

Good Night!

Team24 day 3

We had another great day today! Hung drywall, mucked a house, made new friends from California who made us a great home cooked Vietnamese dinner! The painting crew finished their house too.

Our new friends are of Vietnamese origin. The Buddhist master with them is 82 and a very sweet man. He spent 13 years in a communist concentration camp and now runs youth programs in California.
We hung drywall in Miss Gladys' House.

Katura got a rare pic of Brendan, I think he's even smiling...
The trailer park we are staying in was once a city park
Joel plays guitar... in the street... got a lot of looks...
The painting power rangers!
...went to see the levy break after they finished work.

Team24 - day 2 conclusion

Christopher Cole:
Under the midday sun, I realize that the little aches and pains of working pale in comparison to what these people have gone through.
There are those who have questions to which I have no answer, like: “If God is good, why does he allow suffering?” It would be great to have a way to make sense of the things that happen to good people around us. Maybe we should keep the question without an answer, instead of messing it up with our desire to “make sense” of what happens. Maybe we should ask a second question after the first and maybe that could be our answer: “what can we do to ease the suffering of others?”

Keturah Schroeder

Dear Mom and Dad
We arrived safely after the fifteen hour drive. Surprisingly, it went quickly. Upon arrival, we moved into our FEMA trailers for the week. Monday morning dawned early and after breakfast we drove to our site. The group split up and half the team went on a painting job, the other half worked at rebuilding a women’s shelter. It’s overwhelming – all the destruction and all the work.

Some pictures of our work and touristing from today:

Team 24 Day 2

So My task today is to blog, spec a new job, and a few other admin tasks. I'll add to this entry during the day to keep everyone up to date with some current pics as it happens.

Kind of unsettling being here and reading this news story.

One task we are completing this morning is scraping decades old tile that was glued down well! The power stripper is a KEWL tool!

Team 24 Day 1

Short blog entry today. Broke finger... Search and peck is frustratingly slow typing. Prayers please ;-)

Team 24 is Underway!!

7:26 pm eastern (1 hour earlier here) We just left our dinner stop in Tuscaloosa Alabama and are fast approaching the Mississippi line. Making excellent progress. Looks to be another amazing group of people. That kind of work...

8:45 am eastern
The team left Grove City Christian school at Grove City Nazarene Church at 8:30 which is on time for practical purposes. In my rush to get out the door I didn't snap a pic, but will get one at our first rest stop and post. cellular Internet rocks!!

We have people here from that school, Alum Creek Church of Christ, Westerville Christian, and New Life-Gahanna. A good mix of churches, kids, and adults.

Please pray for a safe trip and check back for updates as we roll down the road.

John McGuire

Sunday Sermon?

I got this back from Don Yelton at Whites Ferry Road Church of Christ who has been involved in disaster relief for decades. It was part of his reply to some questions I had about the core of our mission and I thought well worth some focused contemplation for those of us who have served, are serving, and will serve.

6 "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?

7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe him,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness [a] will go before you,
and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.

9 Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
"If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,

10 and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.

STOP HERE and make your own conclusions before you continue. Spend at least 5 minutes...


...OK, I I'm guilty of reading 7 chapters of the purpose driven life in one setting myself, but really take a couple of minutes before you go to the official answer....



... the official answer being from the Tyndall Life Application Study Bible. Chapter 58 is on True and False Worship. To quote the Tyndall, (I hope properly without copywrite infringement here)

True worship was more than religious ritual, going to the temple every day, fasting, and listening to Scripture readings. These people missed the point of a living, vital relationship with God. He doesn't want us to act pious when we have unforgiven sin in our heart and continue our sinful life-style. More important, even than correct worship and doctrine is genuine compassion for the oppressed, the poor, and the helpless.

Specifically for this passage

We cannot be saved without faith in Christ, but our faith lacks sincerity if it doesn't reach out to others. Fasting can be beneficial spiritually and physically, but at its best fasting helps only the person doing it. God says he wants our fasting to go beyond our own personal growth to acts of kindness, charity, justice, and generosity. This truly is pleasing to God.

The lyrics of Audio Adrenaline's song "Dirty" off the WorldWide CD has become our theme song and echoes this:

Tired of being clean, sick of being proper
I wanna live among the beggars and dig out in the dirt
Step outside the walls we built to protect us
Don’t be afraid to get some mud on your face.

Come on, come on everybody.
Come on, come on and serve someone

Let's get dirty, let's get used
No matter where you come from
If you're beaten up or bruised
Let's get foolish, let's get free
Free to be the one thing
We were meant to be – let’s get dirty

Have we not all found amazing freedom in doing this work!? Angie G has. If you know her, please get me in touch 'cuz I can't track down where this quote came from. It was an email soon after the storm during our initial work in Mandeville, Louisiana. She supplied the quote I use on the blog, web site, tabletop display, and business cards.

"I don't want to go back to church and dress up and everything be nice and pretty. What we've been doing here is real church, it's getting dirty and helping people."

Servants Unite exists for 2 reasons. To serve victims of natural disasters and a fallen world. And to serve those without faith, or who are not experiencing the fullness of their faith.

In many of our churches, only 20% serve and don't realize what they are missing. People have joined our teams and served for a week who have never been on a mission trip before. My family included actually. In fact, I believe the majority of our volunteers were first time missionaries when they went to the Gulf their first time and many of those have since made return trips.

You all have a part in reaching more people, storm victims, those without faith, but with big hearts, and your brothers and sisters who's faith may be warming a pew most Sundays. All of us together are making a huge difference and the more people you bless with your stories and exhortations to come along, the bigger this kingdom effort becomes.

Thank you Lord for all these volunteers who have given a week or more for Your work to answer Your call. Thank you for the opportunity you've given us to fight in your ranks, to serve as your ambassadors, to minister to the afflicted, to break the yoke of oppression, depression, and hopelessness. Thanks for allowing us with our limited skills, but the benefit of Your Spirit guiding us to feed the hungry and rebuild shelter for those made poor by this tragedy. Thanks for allowing us to reflect your noonday light.

Thank you for helping us to find this "real" faith, this "true" and compassionate faith you mean for us. Thank you for blessing us with your peace, the ability to do work in your name that we don't posess the skills for ourselves, and the cooperative effort this has been between people from all parts of Your body without the malicious talk we engage in when we are idle. Thank you Lord for this mission and may you continue to bless it, our work, and those who serve in Your name. Amen

John McGuire

Team 23 Returns, Team 24 Heads for New Orleans

Most of Team 23 returned from their week in Bayou La Batre at 4:30 this afternoon. One family flew home and a couple took a father son trip to Atlanta on their way home... kinda... no word on whether they got tickets, but we all now know that there will be a serious rematch Monday night! Here's the crew coming back to Marysville Church of Christ:
Also along were a few from Wooster Church of Christ. Welcome to the gang to Mike and company!

I'm taking Team 24 down to Chalmette tomorrow morning. Half are meeting up in Westerville at 7:15 and picking the rest up at Grove City Christian at 8:00. Pray for our safe trip and a productive week. Also pray for opportunities for us to share our faith. With this team, we are over 700 volunteer weeks of labor!

Team 25 will not be next week. We have 3 high school kids, but no adult leaders so our next team scheduled is North Canton Church of Christ, June 8.

Two more groups called last week to plan summer trips putting us over 250 more prospective volunteers for summer! If you'd like to schedule a group we'll find a place for you. If you don't have one and would like to join one, I'll be publishing existing dates as they solidify. Any time between June 15 and July 30, the work camp will be open in Bayou La Batre and all are welcome.

Watch the blog this week for more updates on our work in Chalmette and some pics of this past week's work once I have them.

John McGuire

Winter Storm Relief

Remember a couple months ago I forwarded a request from Andy Vance at Vinyard who was taking a team out to St. Louis for winter storm relief? I asked for and got an update from him on the work they did and wanted to share it with all.

Just 2 of us went from Ohio, but a group of 20 showed up in Missouri.
We stayed at a Baptist church in Miller, Missouri and worked just North of it in Everton.

Many were poor, elderly or ill. All were very grateful. Many commented that they had no idea how they were going to clean up the mess.

It honestly looked like someone took a huge weed-eater to the tops of every tree in the county. The limbs were all broken at the top. Some limbs were still attached and broken, but many became vertical projectiles once encased in ice and plummeted to earth. Tree limbs pierced roofs, cars and the ground. Fences were destroyed, and in cattle-country that's a big problem.

Our small group cleared over 150 homes in 5 days, with the help of 2 Bobcats. It was a blessing to be able to see so many lives impacted. We prayed with each family and presented each with a Bible from Samaritan's Purse.

we also re-located mid-week to Pierce City. So, 2 communities were helped, but the total homes cleared were over 150.

The weather didn't present any issues. The 5 to 15 degree weather (not including wind chill) actually didn't create any major challenges. We ended up losing a few layers of clothes after about 10 minutes of working.

One person was taken to the hospital for a chainsaw injury to the knee. He wasn't wearing the kevlar chaps that were provided. After that, everyone with a chainsaw had them. The roads were slippery and snow covered (it snowed while we were there) but we didn't have to travel far to the worksites and we were mostly in 4x4 vehicles.

Thanks.
Andy

Article on Team Buffalo in their campus paper

http://spectrum.buffalo.edu/article.php?id=31611 is the article that Erin wrote when she returned with contributors from the group.

Also, find the "La Batre Boys" mentioned in the article on YouTube here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWywaIpT7J4

See why I'm so impressed by them!

John McGuire

A note from Team 22

Hey John! So we made it home!!!!! I'm sorry again that we weren't able to email you while we were down there. We were in the boonies!!! lol Anyways, the trip was great! W we took off shingles and put on new shingles. It was so much fun and I only almost fell off once!! We also picked up debris from random places. Then one afternoon Jessica and I stayed at the church to hand out food, personal, infant etc. boxes out. By doing this we were able to meet people from the community that were affected the tornado. I'd have to say all together the trip went well.

The living arrangements were nice. Like I said we stayed at a church youth camp and we were blessed to stay in the nurses station which was a house so we lived very comfortably...although mission trips are not about being comfortable we were very blessed.

Melissa Gauder
New Life Church, Canal Winchester

Team 23 Monday Update

Team 23 had a productive day today. I spoke with Nate Holton, the youth leader from Marysville Church of Christ who makes up 3/4 of the team. They painted houses, set cabinets, and other tasks today.

Yesterday was the beach.

Interesting wrinkle in their week. Be watching for the community center in the evening news Thursday. A dignitary will be visiting there requiring tight security. The team will be restricted in their access to the building for parking and meals, but Daphne's got the contingencies covered. It'll be interesting to see who they may meet :-)

Updates from the team are not forthcoming as the dodgy Internet access has them off the information highway. Nate promises to send out updates when he can find access.

More Team 21 pics

Erin from Buffalo posted a few pictures to her facebook that show the trailer demo work we did two weeks ago. I pulled copies of them to share here:

Why it happened...

An engineering study was released yesterday on the root of the Corp of Engineer's misconceptions that the levy system should withstand a Katrina like hurricane.

CNN has a good article here

Decades of mistakes -- some as basic as not knowing the elevation of New Orleans -- led the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to believe its levees and floodwalls would protect the city

Full documentation is on this site

A US Census report mentioned in the article speaks to the population return and the need for rehabbed housing, the work we are currently doing:

The latest Census Bureau estimates, to be released Thursday, say that 10 months after the hurricane, Orleans Parish in Louisiana had slightly less than half the people it did before the storm. Nearby St. Bernard Parish had less than a fourth of its pre-storm population.

Email Update with Correction

I inadvertently typed that many teams are scheduling for Spring Break when I meant to say Summer, one may be as large as 100. Thanks to my editor ;-)

Here's the rest of that update:

Team 21 pictures are below on the last update to the blog.

Team 22 is Melissa Gauder and Jessica Pugh, small but mighty and working in Enterprise Alabama roofing houses damaged by the massive tornado a couple weeks ago. Lack of Internet is preventing them from getting updates to us, but they are working hard and being productive.

Team 23 leaves Saturday! 33 people from Marysville Church of Christ youth group and Westerville Christian will spend the week back in Bayou La Batre to finish some of the work we started but needed parts for and pick up some more.

I’ll be taking Team 24 to Chalmette for reconstruction work, leaving April fools day. That’ll be 25 people from Westerville Christian and Grove City Christian School.

We have many teams scheduling for Summer. One made up of Westerville High School students may be as large as 100! The estimated volunteer load this summer may be 10 times last year. There will be plenty of opportunity to go if you missed spring break. Hilltop (www.hilltoprescue.org) is setting up to supplement the work in Bayou La Batre with a 6 week work camp from June 15-July 27.

All these trips are going to require funding. We’re hitting the bottom of the account after Spring Break and will be asking for donations. If you have fundraiser plans you’d like to implement for Servants Unite, please let me know.

As always, summer teams are on call for initial disaster relief should a new storm strike. In that case you’ll see the following happen:

• Our partners will set up base camps to host volunteers
• We will organize collection, packaging and shipping of food, water, and other supplies into the new disaster zone
• Our scheduled teams will redirect to that area for critical relief support
• We will collect our first responders and medical volunteers to send in right behind the storm

To do that, we need:

• Relationships and contingency plans with those partners – This I am continuing to build
• Churches to host dropoff locations – Need 4 in each large Ohio city and one or two in smaller locales
• Volunteers to collect and package food – 3 leads and 20 volunteers per location
• Packaging materials and logistic plans – I am developing these with partners
• Transportation for first response – similar to our current work + personal work vehicles and won’t need much adjustment
• First responders and medical types – If you have told me you would do this previously please re-up for this year and we need many more.

God continues to bless this organization and it continues to grow. I’m putting a full time effort into that task, but even with that, I can’t do it alone. Planning for and executing another first response effort that we are capable of takes a lot of people to help. These roles are the ones I need filled immediately. Please send me a note with your availability and ideas.

Thanks for your continued support!

Servants Unite!

Team 21 pictures

I have galleries loaded up for the pictures I collected from our team last week. You can right click the large image and save to your machine to get a print up to 4x6 made. If you want a larger print you will want to get a full resolution file form the photographer.

There may be some more added when I get some CDs back from the film camera's but for now here they are:

Rich

Chrissy

Paul

Jamie

John

Pui Yi

On This Week's Team...

This is an open letter to those who have raised the "kids" who participated in our trip to Bayou La Batre this week. I was convicted to write a little about them... at 1:00am... after a bit of sleep... waiting on my own high school freshman to return from a youth retreat. I hope and pray he and his brothers have parents, grandparents, extended family, youth leaders, and friends like these have. You have raised them well and should glory in the Lord that he has used you in this task.

Every high school youth group produces a few like these, but I had the honor of working shoulder to shoulder with an entire team of really amazing people. People who others crave to be with. People who are smart, talented, athletic, dedicated, and fun. They come from different countries, churches, and social backgrounds, many not knowing eachother before the trip, but they all gelled into fast friends and instant comrads at arms (Ephesians 6:10-18).

I heard about their problems and setbacks. I talked with them about their questions seeking faith. I witnessed their selfless giving, listening, praying, and serving. I was amazed at their, all of them, leadership ability AND ability to work together; traits that can cause conflict if not Spirit led. Their "adult" leaders, Lisa, Brian, and Marilyn are excellent new leaders in the body and all the participants on this trip, even some who are only now seeking faith in Christ, are going to be amazing leaders of the church. They are indescribable really, filled with the power of the Spirit, and inspiring.

Again, congratulations on a job well done and thank you! We all pray the Lord continues to bless and build up this generation and uses them in a mighty way. Amen

I look forward to working with them again and hearing of their walk.

John McGuire
Servants Unite!