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

Alicia and Brett's Wedding Pics

...are on the Tammany Oaks WhereISawJesus blog in this posting

LA needs you now!!!!!!

You have responded before and again we have the opportunity to show LA that they are not forgotten.

I received a call today from Master Provisions which is the group that has been helping us with so much of our shipping. They had been trying to collect toys for the kids in LA who would not have any this year. Because they have previously served in this mission field as a deliverer of goods and services they did not get the response they hoped for…………………….. This is good news for us!!!!!!!!!

We need you to reach down and let God touch our hearts yet another time for these people who have suffered so much. Master Provisions will have a truck at the Spring Road Church of Christ on Monday December 19th with room for up to 1\2 of a semi load of toys. That’s a lot of toys for the kids of LA, but let me assure you there are lots of kids in LA who need our love. Just to give it some perspective, we just sent 750 book bags down to LA and when I called to be sure they were needed they told me they had already handed out some 20,000 but there were three more schools getting ready to open after the holidays and the book bags would indeed be needed.

So the question is can we do it. In this time of hustle and bustle for ourselves and our loved ones, can we take a few moments, a few dollars, and a lot of prayers and do this for these people. For those of you who watched Extreme Makeover Home Addition on Sunday night you saw what the area was still like just over a month ago. Well after crying though out the “pay it forward” theme of the show my wife looks over at me and says what are we gonna do about how we are feeling!!!!!!!! She is and continues to be one of the key inspirations in my life!!!!

Well here we are with our opportunity in Extreme Makeover Soul Addition our chance to pay it forward once again to those in need. And I know you find it how I do, I receive so much more by just taking the time and doing it than I could ever give to anyone. Join me and let’s fill that truck.

For ideas on gifts you can go to whereisawjesus.blogspot.com and in the current needs section, click more details and there is a whole list of ideas. Remember you don’t have to make this hard on yourselves; these gifts are going to children who most likely will receive nothing else for Christmas.

Once you have your gifts here is what we would like you to do:

• Select your gift or gifts
• Select a gift bag appropriate for the gift or gifts – do not put the gift in the bag, they will prepare the bags in Mandeville. This will keep us from having to write out what each gift is etc.
• Bring both to the Spring Road building, 74 S Spring Road Westerville, sorted by age group 1-12 or 12 to 18 and by boy or girl by 5:00 PM on Sunday Evening.
• We will have designated areas set up at the church for the 4 categories. Just drop your gift and we will take care of it

Don’t kill yourself trying to find a gift bag, if one is not available we will take care of it. I am going by the Dollar store today and buying what they have for any that come in without.

For those of you who wish to help and can not get free to buy a gift and get it over to Spring Road simply let me know your purchase or monetary desires and we will have volunteers purchase and prepare your gifts.

So come take a moment and “Lets fill that truck”!!!!!!!!

For the 6 of you who have responded to me already, thank you and God bless you. For those of you still considering your gift, thank you for your kind thoughts and hopefully we can make it into your schedules for these kids.

The email went to 650 people, please know and understand that we are aware that there are many efforts going on in many areas for many different people. We do not judge or track who responds to our plea and who doesn’t, we simply appreciate when God moves anyone to action for the needs we are trying to fill.

May the God of peace and love greatly bless you and your families this Holiday Season

Brad

Servants Unite in 2006 and beyond

As Brad mentioned in his last email, there are two more trips planned being sponsored by Spring Road, Church of Christ, December 26-January 1 or 2 and January 14-22. With the help of some professionals in our volunteer ranks, we are working to set up an independent non-profit organization to carry the Christian disaster relief banner after that time. There are both long range and short-range goals for this organization:

• Continue to support relief and recovery efforts from hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
• Plan and prepare for the next disaster where we are needed.

The primary scope of the short-term goal remains the same. Send volunteers and needed supplies through Tammany Oaks relief effort in Louisiana. These will continue to be scheduled the first of each month with special trips for spring break or as needed. Additional functions for those who can’t travel may include sponsoring hurricane victims who have relocated to our area and working with Habitat for Humanity to build houses for those families here and components for assembly down there.

The long-term goal will also be important. I believe that by coordinating a large number of church congregations from our area, we can build a fast, comprehensive, and efficient response to future disasters. A coalition of church families organized through Servants Unite communications channels would be a fully loaded broadside waiting for the order to fire. By further combining our organization with other startup and long-standing Christian disaster relief organizations around the country, we can build a much more efficient, but yet loosely organized and independent mutual aid network.

We’ve begun building additional communications tools to keep all in touch. I added you all to a new mailing list which is a more efficient way to send broadcast emails. These email newsletters will come out every week or so with summary information from blog postings. The blog, servantsunite.blogspot.com, will be updated in real time as things happen or need to be posted. The web site, www.servantsunite.org, will contain standard and comprehensive information most useful to those new to the organization including signup sheets, trip information, etc.

I thank God for the opportunity to work with all of you on this project and hope you will all continue to support Servants Unite. To make this work, we have two needs. More volunteers to spend a week at a time working in disaster areas and more volunteers in leadership roles to grow and support the administrative functions of the organization at home. I will be scheduling a meeting the week between Christmas and New Years to discuss ideas from interested people and will send details when a time and location has been determined. If you are interested in serving further in Servants Unite, please email me at john@servantsunite.org.

Till the next email, please be praying for the staff and long-term volunteers at Tammany Oaks and all those who are working to rebuild their lives and others from this disaster. Please also pray for our group and others like it that seek God’s wisdom and blessing to continue doing this work.

John McGuire

Team 5 - Report from the field

We arrived safely. We had a lovely evening at Victory Place. Peggy served us some chili, and cookies and bread. It was a nice surprise.

On Sunday we worked on sorting and wrapping Christmas presents for the children hit by Katrina. That was fun.

Monday, we organized the warehouse, so that they can start moving things to their new facility, and we also unloaded and sorted Christmas presents.

Do not tell any perspective women volunteers that the showers are out doors MASH style. It was very, very, very, Cold!!!!! We haven't been able to go out into the areas as yet, I really hope we get at least one chance to go out into the area and help some people directly. That's about all for now.

Gail

[Editor's Note: Sorry Gail, when the new building is done, the showers will be indoors and have hot water ;-) ]

Thursday's Truckload

With everything going on last week I forgot to post about the truckload of stuff we sent down. We met Jim from Master Provisions at 7:30 Thursday morning at Spring Road. We paletized the boxes of backpacks and other items from Springfield, the remaining supplies at Spring Road, some furniture, and a washer dryer set. Jim has a partial truckload of Christmas gifts he's delivering down there December 20, and is carting our stuff along with it.

Thanks Jim!

Five people showed up to do the loading: From left to right, Robin, Jim, Karl, Randy, Brad and yours truly behind the camera.



Some people worked harder than others ;-)

As far as supplies go, all this stuff and anything else we could send will be distributed on arrival to needy families down there. In order to continue doing this, we need a warehouse/dropoff facility more appropriate than the Spring Road building. Optimally, a business that would donate some warehouse space with a loading dock. Maybe a storage unit. Maybe some better idea we haven't even thought of. If you have connections for such a place, please email me.

Team 5 Arrives!

Gail and Carolyn arrived around lunch time (central). Spoke with Brett on the phone and he said it was really hopping down there today. Good thing our ladies are there as they are the only short term volunteers this week.

We really have to be sending more help, as a group, as a community, as a state, and as a country. If you have any interest in supporting this continuing effort, please take the time to find out more and help where you can whether that be joining one of the teams we send down, helping to organize logistics here, or funding trips. This is a very frugal operation; a completely volunteer effort. Every minute of time and dollar you put into this will directly help some greatly suffering people in the gulf coast.

Help for Katrina Victims in the Columbus Area

I've been in contact with a local agency who is matching displaced gulf coast residents in central Ohio with groups interested in sponsoring a start to their new lives here. Firstlink.org is an established social services agency in Columbus. They are working with other intake agencies to match recipients when they locate a donating group. Recipients have ranged from individuals and couples to families of 7. Seventy Five matches have been made in our area and Kim at Firstlink tells me there is always a recipient available when she has a donor group. I've also spoken with the disaster relief mission coordinator at Indian Run Methodist Church who has sponsored 9 families through this program with great success.

This becomes a more urgent need December 15. FEMA will stop paying for evacuees to stay in hotels in this area 10 days before Christmas. Agencies have been finding apartments for them, but they are in need of furniture and all household items as they have lost everything of this nature in Louisiana or Mississippi.

This is an excellent opportunity for those of you who have wanted to do something from here because you couldn't travel to Louisiana. Firstlink estimates it costs around $3,000 to set up housekeeping for singles or couples. Obviously this would be more for larger families. Firstlink has a list of items here on their Katrina relief site. Donor groups should collect the household items and install them in the new living quarters before the recipients move in.

Listen, I know donor fatigue is a very real thing. Many of us have contributed as much or more than we can comfortably handle this year. As this illustrates, though, the need is enormous and not going to moderate significantly in the near term.

If you organize a group of donors for this effort, please let me know, even if you wish to remain anonymous. If you would like to join a donor group, send an email and we'll help connect you with others.

To sponsor a family, email Kim Kallmeyer at Firstlink or call her at 221-6766 x117

Team 5 is off and Running!

Our December 3rd team is in Birmingham, their overnight stop for tonight. After a few last minute cancellations, this team is made up of Gail and Carolyn Canini from Westerville Christian. They are staying with Homewood Church of Christ tonight and heading on to Mandeville in the morning.

Please say a prayer for their successful and safe journey.

It is a slow week for volunteers at Tammany Oaks. Gail and Carolyn will be working with the staff and 7 long term volunteers who are there. I spoke with an Ag Science student at Ohio State yesterday though who is leading a team of 30+ down there next Saturday.

Brett White sent a newsletter to all volunteers that have left email addresses while at Tammany Oaks. There were 701 unique email addresses on that list out of 989 volunteers who were registered. That's a lot of volunteers! If you didn't get Brett's email, send a message to whereisawjesus@gmail.com with your name, address, and whether you volunteered at Tammany Oaks. I'll make sure we get you on the list for future updates.

Check back on this blog during the week. I'll post Gail and Carolyn's activities while in the field. They don't have a digital camera, but maybe I can get some new material from our friend Alicia.

John McGuire

Storm Victims Praise Churches

This article is on the Washington Times site today at http://www.washtimes.com/national/20051201-114736-6989r.htm

Noteables:

Louisiana residents gave churches higher marks than government agencies in responding to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

On a scale of one (not effective) to 10 (very effective), residents gave churches the highest mark of 8.1, and New Orleans city agencies and state agencies received the lowest rating of 4.6.

Hundreds of churches and synagogues stepped up to help when municipal, state and federal governments faltered in their early responses to the devastation wrought by the hurricanes. They fed, clothed and sheltered survivors and raised more than $100 million to do so.

The survey said 39 percent of Louisianans had a friend or family member stay in their homes, and 14 percent provided shelter to someone they did not know previously.

December 3 Trip

Well team once again we are sending off workers to assist in the hurricane devastated LA. This week three more have volunteered their time to go and labor in love as we have all been called to do.

I have been excited to learn that many who have attended our trips have gone back down on their own, organized trips of their own and gone, or encouraged others to go. I don’t know why I am always amazed at how the Lord works to get His jobs done but I am. Guess it’s a weakness in faith. If you have gone write and share your stories so we can share them with everyone.

God loves you and so do we. We thank you for all you have done to support His efforts. On 12\26 we will be sending an additional 20 or so down to LA to work and then we have a group of 10 or so plus a group gathering in Dayton to leave on 1\14\06. We, the Spring Road Church of Christ, want to let you know that the Jan. trip will be our final sponsored trip for now. We will continue to monitor the situation, our resources, and ways we can help and keep in touch with you. An independent organization, Servants Unite, is going to take up the mantel and continue to work and coordinate efforts to the region. I will be passing on email lists and information for those working in the effort to use to communicate with all of you. I will be assisting Servants Unite in any way I can and in many areas so don’t breath a sigh of relief, you are not rid of me yet!!!!!!!

Praise God for all He does and provides. Thank you for letting God work on your heart and being involved in this effort to help so many. I want to encourage you to keep the disaster relief staff at Tammany Oaks in your prayers. They are taxed, tested, and pushed every day. They would counter with they are blessed everyday, but seriously, they need our prayers and encouragement. Lift them up, lift those who have lost so much up, and just pray for the continued efforts. You can see more of their day-to-day efforts at http://whereisawjesus.blogspot.com

Please let me know if I can be of any assistance to any of you. You are in my prayers and in our hearts and we thank you. Just as an FYI tomorrow we are loading up a trailer that will make its way down to Tammany on Dec 20th. We are loading up 750 book bags filled with supplies, a couch, loveseat, and chair, a washer and dryer, and other items for victims of the hurricane. Thank you to all who contributed. We also plan on boxing and loading items that were not picked up from the church that were used in the efforts. If you need me to set something aside for you to pick up please email me or it will go down there and be put to good use. Again thanks so much for all you gave and have done.

Because He lives,

Brad

Why all the strong storms this year?

This article is a good meteorological explaination in laymen's terms.

FYI, Tropical Storm Epsilon formed today in the central atlantic, 5 over the previous 1 year record. We've also seen the strongest storm on record and the most to reach hurricane strength this year.

Next year's forecast is for 15-20 like this year was. We went well over that.

Be thinking about the long term of Servants Unite and what role you would like to play. I'll be getting more information and questions out regarding that shortly.

John McGuire

Tammany Oaks Relief Article

This article was posted today on World Net Daily. This is an excellent "About Us" piece for the Tammany Oaks led effort. It describes the activities, the volunteer experience, and the successes that have been realized.

Of particular interest is the volume of support this mission has provided:

• Fed 3000 families.
• Distributed millions of dollars of supplies.
• Provided 500 volunteers; the equivalent of hundreds of thousands of dollars in free labor.

This makes it so easy for us to educate our family, friends, coworkers, and churches about this project. Can all of you loyal readers and members of our effort from Columbus take a few minutes to forward this article on to these people in your life?

Recommended Reading

OK, I have to confess, I haven't read these articles yet myself, but the beginning of the cover article of the current issue of Time that you can get on the web site without paying for access had me cheering. 'bout time the mainstream media started covering this more. Starting to feel like we are the only ones broadcasting the desperate situation that is going unabated. You can find more info here.

Warning: the following is preachy and begging and may turn you off if you don't understand my sincerity. Please take this as a heartfelt plea on behalf of people who are depending on us.

As a nationwide effort, we have fed thousands of people through our efforts. We have cleaned out hundreds of houses. We have been Christ's own tools to touch the hearts of souls who need so much to know that they are not forgotten and that we care. Yet with all we have accomplished, there is so much more still to do.

Some of our Columbus volunteers have made repeat trips on their own and some have committed to full time mission work in the area as a result of their involvement, but as a group, we have not contributed to the effort for nearly two months. On December 3, due to the loss of some volunteers this week, we have 5 people planning to go down. I'm afraid, like the national media and most others out of the area, that even our group is getting complacent.

Please, do not let the enemy assure you that the situation we have been working to overcome is less than dire.

The need is no less than our first month where we sent 160 people and 100,000 pounds of supplies into the area. In some respects, the need has only grown. I'm afraid the breath we stopped to take after the 4th consecutive week of volunteer teams has been mistaken for completion of our task.

We are committed to keep organizing this effort from here, and the organizers in Louisiana are committed to keep serving as well.

• The church in Mandeville is purchasing a building to use as a relief center.
• They continue to receive quite a bit of donated supplies and appliances.
• They are organizing efforts with other churches in the area.
• They continue to accept requests for help from the entire area around lake Pontchartrain and other areas east and west effected by the hurricanes.

Volunteers are still the #1 need. The tornado damage in Evansville Indiana recently was taken care of over 5 days by 600 volunteers a day from the area who were not effected by the storm. The damaged area in Louisiana and Mississippi is not like that. Everyone in the area is hurt. They cannot help eachother as everyone has been a victim of the storm's devastation to some degree. Volunteers from outside the area are the only hope for hundreds of thousands of families to get their lives back.

Even if you can't go personally, you can help regain our lost momentum. Some are making repeat trips. While this helps considerably, we all have families to support and jobs that depend on us. What our effort really needs is greater recruiting. We need to get more church congregations involved. You can help do this by working with leadership at your church or other churches that are not involved in a hurricane relief effort currently. You can work through your friends who are members of un-involved churches. If you have volunteered, you can tell friends and fellow parishioners of your experience... and the need... and the solace you were able to provide to people who's lives have been interrupted. You can reach out to coworkers and become a resource they know to go to for hurricane relief related questions and help they wish to provide.

We will help you if you ask. We have appeal DVDs published for volunteers and donations. We can help you build a talk. We will also speak in person to a group if you are uncomfortable doing so personally.

I have found 2 people in the last week, now scheduled for the January 14 trip who have been looking for a way to help since the storm. There are many out there who just need to know that our group exists.

Your testimony is powerful and will lead others to this work if you allow God to use you in this way. I pray that you will all respond by redoubling your personal efforts to bring attention to the continued need and be conduits for new volunteers.

John McGuire

December 3 trip info

Hey teams:

Hope you are all getting ready for a wonderful Thanksgiving. Please take a moment and lets remember our friends in LA who have suffered through so much for the last 3 months. I realize the media has left the area and this makes us let them wander from our minds, but stop. Consider the devastation and know the efforts are ongoing. You can see current news at http:\\whereisawjesus.blogspot.com.

The teams are still demucking houses, mostly down in New Orleans. There is ongoing tree and clean up work. Right now they have a real need for individuals who are willing to drive their Penske straight trucks who will be able to feel good about helping to get supplies and needs out to other centers. Everyone cannot be in the midst of the destruction. Drivers are needed and valued. No special license is required. (Editor's note, from personal experience, this is a very rewarding and high impact task)

The relief team has purchased a warehouse with significant opportunities and property. Their dream is to build a dorm for housing volunteers, a kitchen and then have a warehouse for housing supplies in this effort as well as other disaster efforts. To accomplish this they need licensed tradesmen from the construction, plumbing, and electrical fields. They take possession of the building the first of Dec so our team on 12/3 could be integral in getting a jump-start on this God provided opportunity to serve others. If you have these skills please make sure you email me immediately so I can let them know you are coming.

Items we need for our trip 12\3

• Trucks and Trailers - I need to know if you have a truck that can tow a trailer down to LA with our team. If you have a trailer (preferably closed in) I need to know the size, hitch size, and type of electrical hook up (4 pin flat or round). I need two of these for this trip please help.
• Funds - we are still in need of $20,000 for funding our 6 trips. Please approach your business associates, your churches and your friends with this need. Checks can be made out to Spring Road COC Katrina fund.
• Personal Hygiene items - deodorant, shampoo, and the like
• Sheet sets - full and twin
• Towels and Washcloths

Toy Drive - There is a real need for toys for many of the kids from displaced families. They have little time to consider gifts or Christmas, as they are lucky if they have the opportunity to focus on getting back into their homes. We need a volunteer to step up and help coordinate and organize a toy drive. For the 12/3 trip see the where I saw Jesus site for items, ideas etc.

Book bags - I picked up over 750 book bags filled with supplies in Springfield from a church who collected them and had no way of getting them down to LA. If we can secure the trailers these will be going with us and can serve the children who will be returning to school after the break.

Please review and consider the above needs. Take an hour out of your week and call some people and spread the word. We cannot do this without you and our faith demands that we not forget those in LA and MS who have been through so much.

I look forward to hearing from you as we continue our efforts!!

(For a current, realistic view of the need that remains, this is a great story to read or listen to: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5018068)

Licensed Construction Leads Needed Urgently!!

Like the larger more established relief organizations, Tammany Oaks is looking long term and expanding into some new space, a half finished building they are buying from another church. It is desperately needed to be a warehouse, dorm, kitchen and eating area, office, and indoor showers! Work must be completed by licensed tradesmen (checking on what that means in Louisiana and Mandeville) to pass inspection.

Obviously there are a lot of details to work out, but if there is any possibility that you would be able to help on this building during our Dec. 3, Dec. 26, or January 14 trips, please contact me about this special project. Contact info is on the right.

Here's the blog entry that speaks briefly about it. That entry also has a link to a powerpoint slideshow with more detail that explains what's happening and what's needed to get this thing operational in January.

John McGuire

Couple of Tidbits...

Those of us from Ohio, West Virginia, and North Carolina who've volunteered in Louisiana with this group have so many stories to tell and found so many places where we saw Christ working in the hurricane stricken area. You can share these with the greater population of volunteers who have been working through Tammany Oaks by mailing them to katrina_update.post@blogger.com. This blog has been available for a week or so at http://whereisawjesus.blogspot.com. WhereISawJesus is a great place to keep up on what is happening with the mission.

To further illustrate the need for volunteers, as stated in the news article I pointed out last week, large faith based groups are renting facilities planning a multiyear relief effort.

Some new pictures appeared on the sharing site this week (just found them today). These were taken by "Stacey" who I've inquired about further. I built a web gallery of her pics. There are two interesting subjects. They've been working in areas right by broken levies that really are apocalyptic scenes. Also, they've been distributing school and other supplies through schools. You can see an amazing flood of yellow shirts in this work. Her gallery (which says John McGuire at the top of the pages through some frustrating settings in Photoshop Elements) is at: http://www.therenos.com/katrinaPictures/stacey/Gallery/index.htm

More people are inquiring about going on trips. On December 3, just under three weeks away, we will see off the next group. Join us in praying for the Lord to send more harvesters to his field.

A thank you and request from one of our new friends

Editor's Note: Received this today from one of the team members from near Cleveland, Lee Stauffer

See below for an email from Danny and Luca to see where all the Spring Road donated appliances went. This is a picture of Kevin (Ohio), Danny (Slidell) and Lee (me Ohio) and Luca (Mandeville) in front of Danny's destroyed house in Slidell. In case you didn't know, Dan and Luca are the local men who took all the appliances.

We have an effort to accumulate more donated appliances, kitchen sets, boys and girls bedroom sets, as requested by Dan and Luca. We hope to coordinate our efforts with the Spring Road church efforts, for example, staging donations with you and working delivery through your planned trips in December, January and February

We are exploring the possibility of acquiring some low cost used autos, as the need described by Dan and Luca seems great.

October 11, 2005

Lee,

How is everything going. I tried to call you the day after we had showed you our side of town to see if you needed any help gutting houses. I got your company voice mail, so I figured I couldn’t reach you. We really appreciate the stuff you brought. I have distributed everything to various families in need. I will go through my neighborhood and get a list of things for you. Most have said that they liked the idea of us trying to coordinate the efforts to make a bigger difference.

Many were like I was when we were first talking only asking for clothes, because they do not want to seem selfish. I assured them you all really wanted to help and wanted to know the things that we really need and may be able to continue to use in the future. Furniture and appliances were things that were mentioned. Gift cards to home depot, Lowes, Sears and Wal-Mart also seem like really good ideas.

If this is not what you were expecting from me and I am being too pushy please tell me! I would like to make it easier for you to figure out how to help. I need things just like others, but I see an opportunity to help many with our connection. If you ever have any reservations about anything please let me know.

Just in making the trip down here and visiting with my cousins and I you made a difference. I wanted to let you know that 2 stoves went to a lady that not only lost her house but her rental house that was a form of income for her. One fridge went to my sister-in-law who was living out of an ice chest. One went to my mom who is just basically living with my cousin. One fridge and one stove went to a para from Slidell jr. that is living atop the concession stand at the local baseball field, and the other is going to a teacher who lived on that 1st road we brought you down with all the houses gone. The dishwasher went somewhere, but I don't really know where, because my wife gave it away while I was at work.

I just wanted you to get a small idea of how much you already helped. Tell your friends we thank them tremendously and if they do not mind I want them to send me some copies of the pictures. It takes good men to do what ya'll did and we will not forget it around here. I'll have to send you a mailing address for me, because I do not have one at the present time.

Thanks, you have no idea the difference you are making,

Danny Tullis

Update on tornado relief in Evansville Indiana

I spoke with Bill Bowley, a member of the ministry staff at Crossroads Christian Church in Evansville Indiana this evening with the goal of making plans for a long weekend relief trip. Instead I got a rather amazing waive off. As extraordinarily damaging as the storm was, they have had massive volunteer response and have handled the immediate need.

On Sunday they put out the call for volunteers expecting 50 or so, but 200 showed up. On Monday 400-600 came and worked, and around 600 more today. He has a map showing damaged areas that need attention marked in green and marks them off with red as they are covered. As of tonight, he has only 2 green areas left, individual streets in a couple of developments. WOW! And, the church has been functioning as a Red Cross shelter and relief center this week.

His expectation is that 600-700 will come tomorrow and finish off the immediate need. I'll be checking in over the next week as to their status and he has our contact info should they determine they need out of town help.

God is Good!

Harrowing Tales Emerging from Sunday's Storms

There are many new victims of another catastrophe for us to pray about and consider helping today. A major twister up to 3/4 of a mile wide destroyed 100 mobile homes damaging another 125, destroyed an apartment complex, and private residences near Evansville, Indiana very early Sunday morning. The path of the storm is over 20 miles long.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WEATHER/11/07/tornado/index.html

Local info in the Louisville paper here.

Like other stories that we have been following, the death toll, property destruction, and human suffering that has been wrought is still surfacing. A 22nd person has just been found to be a victim and over 200 have been treated for injuries.

Pray hard and pray often.

If you have connections in this area and can provide information about needs, please get me in contact with them.