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.

Still Going and Going And going .................

Hey team we are still at it and God is at work. He is so faithful.

Yesterday I received a call from a church in Springfield Oh who has 750 filled book bags for kids. They said if we can get them to LA we can have them. I am going over tomorrow to pick up as many as I can get in the trailer I have and we will see about the rest from there.

Praise God for all He does and how he supplies.

We currently have 4 people signed up and about 4 or 5 thinking about the December 3 trip. If you are interested in going then please get with me.

There is a lot happening in Mandeville and God is at work.

Check out this new blog http://whereisawjesus.blogspot.com/ (more on how to post to that later). It is our hope that God will provide the time and information to keep it filled with current activities and praises.

I know you are all in prayer. We love you for all you have done and ask that you continue to remember our brothers and sisters in LA, MS and Fl. Pass on the DVD’s and spread the word. We continue to pick up new interest in working in the area and know God will use us.

Also for those who want to be a part of a single massive effort check out http://www.eightdaysofhope.com.

Pray for us and we continue to be thankful and in prayer for you.

Brad Hayes

Message on Missions - Dr. David M. Faust

David Faust, President of Cincinnati Christian University, spoke at Westerville Christian this morning for Missions Sunday. He taught from Mathew 9:35-38 that we've found applies so well to our effort. For reference, that is:

The Workers Are Few 35Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. 36When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field."

He presented this lesson so well that I asked his permissions to share it with members of this relief effort and he happily agreed. You can find the MP3s of his talk on the picture site in this folder: http://www.therenos.com/katrinaPictures/David%20Faust/

Now everyone gets their own message from any given sermon. Mine was that the calling God has put on my heart is real and will be fulfilled. Many others of you have told me you have the same motivation to spend more time or full time in missions and ministry. While you won't hear it three services in a row running presentation graphics like I did ;-) I think you'll find Dave's talk inspirational too.

Faith Based Relief - Times Picayune

I don't know what you all thought you were signing up for when we first got into this, but I imagine, like me, you never considered the long term implications. This article is a front page item in the Times Picayune today. I hope you can all take the time to read it, though it is rather long. Some important quotes:

"We feel changed. We'll go back different than we were going in. We've gained much more than we've given," Hoffman said.

For the present, however, "It's impossible to describe waves of compassion that swept through the Gulf region after Katrina," said Jim Towey, [President's Office of Faith Based Initiatives] director. He called the work "historic and heroic."

The Salvation Army has purchased a warehouse in LaPlace to store food for its massive distribution program. "That's a three-year commitment," spokeswoman Capt. Deb Osborn said.

"This is a major, major catastrophic disaster, and it's going to take five years, minimum, maybe a decade, to get people back into shape," said Gordon Knuckey, an official with the United Methodist Committee on Relief. "I know we're settling in for at least five years."

Thirteen Southern Baptist mobile kitchens working in southeast Louisiana are about to reach a landmark of 10 million meals, four times the previous records, set in the Sept. 11 recovery and after last year's cluster of Florida hurricanes, said Robert Reccord of Southern Baptist Disaster Relief.

Kathy Powers, a staff member at Aurora [Methodist Church] who receives the volunteers, had similar sentiments. "Most people speak of feeling a real compelling call," Powers said. "It's a feeling that this is what God wants me to do, and many say it's so strong they simply cannot say no."

In order to keep answering, our mission requires one thing... More volunteers. Those of us who have gone and many who for very good reasons could not go have felt and continue to hear this call. Absolutely every person who has volunteered that I have talked to since our return has been anxious to go back and heartsick to not be there now.

Life on this planet is practical, however. We can't all up and leave. We have families to support, jobs and employees who count on us, and ministry work locally.

The solution to both problems is to share this experience that we have had. Go when we can, but continually pray for and offer the opportunity to others. This call from God that we are all hearing is to be recruiters and not just doers. If you need any asisstance presenting what we have been doing, seeing, and feeling, where you don't feel you can do so yourselves please contact Brad, Troy, Robin, or I.

Shout it from the mountain tops. God is good! _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _!

Amen.

Brett White's Video

Brett White, aka "hippie", aka "ministry hobo" build a movie of pics, many of them taken by people from Columbus. If you have broadband, you can find it here. Download will take several minutes. If you're on dialup, don't even try it ;-)

Got Stuff?

So many of you so kindly donated items to be used by our teams while in LA. We thank you for all you have done and for allowing us the use of these items. I know a lot of time and effort has gone into making these items available and in getting them to us. We pray that God will bless your family and expand your boundaries as a direct result of your faith.

The following items remain at the Spring Road Building and are available for pickup most days and during special arrangements:

2 Large Green Tarps
1 portable fold up camp table
12 fold up chairs different colors and sizes
6 folding lawn chairs different colors
8 small propane tanks (filled)
1 blue tent with metal poles
1 sleeping bag – blue outside and red white and blue plaid inside
2 sleeping bags with blue and yellow outsides
1 sleeping bag blue and green outside
1 sleeping bag black
1 green and black air mattress
3 blue air mattresses
1 taupe air mattress
1 small oscillating fan
2 extension cords
2 green and white tents with mosquito mesh sides
Several tools including hammers, crow-bars, and small sledge
1 green and gray cooler on wheels
1 Coleman 1\2 gal cooler

Please make arrangements to come by and pick your items up. Again we appreciate you help.

I also need to inform you that we will be canceling our volunteer trip for Nov 5. We simply had no one sign up for it. We have 3 so far for the first week in December, 6 over Christmas break and several committed for the Jan 14 trip. Please be in prayer about your availability to go and help and spread the word to friends and associates about our work. There is still much to do in LA and MS and they need us. It is our prayer that the DVD’s will help get the word out to some new people to help in our work and in what we are trying to do in our service to our Lord.

He is still at work and He still has a plan …………… we just need to figure out if we are part of it!!!!

Because He first loved us,

Brad

Uncommonly Personal Reporting

Was somehow pleased to hear a professional, hard nosed reporter with the impression we have come away with:

Article

Seeing it in person, I can't seem to wrap my head around it. Even as I read over my notes, I can't believe it.

Maybe it'll get easier.

Somehow I doubt it.

Daniel Sieberg

Florida - Thursday UPDATED @ 11:00PM

UPDATE: I talked this evening with someone from Hialeah Church of Christ on the north side of Miami Florida who had been to Tammany Oaks two weeks ago. While he says it's nothing like Louisiana and Mississippi have been, they are none-the-less short on ICE, Propane for grills, and water. Their biggest resource shortage is gas, but not much we can do about that. Destruction is spotty and some are quite needy while others are just fine. We still need to help the needy ones.

We're going to try to mobilize some supplies to them, but that may be one of two forms. We can collect a lot of stuff here and ship it like we have been, but we are checking to see if it is not faster, more economical, and efficient to purchase bulk supplies from a national supply company and have them dropped at the church.

Other ideas are welcome. You can email me, call at 614-523-3996, or call Brad at the numbers to the right.

Check back for futher updates Friday and look for an email when the plan is solidified.

For up to date news from the area:

The Miami Herald has a blog up that seems to be very current and informative at http://blogs.herald.com/herald_hurricane_reports/. The main site is http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/.

Napels news is here: http://stormedition.naplesnews.com/.

The keys are covered by: http://www.keysnews.com/hurricaneedition/

First Pics from Lake Charles, Louisiana area

Take a look at this slide show that came from our client in Lake Charles Louisiana.

Brad

Promo Video available

Dear Relief Supporters:

Just wanted to let you know that we have created some DVD'’s designed to assist a group in taking a special collection for the ongoing efforts in LA (remember we need an additional $50K), and one to assist in recruiting volunteers to go to LA on one of our work weeks. Both videos are on one DVD and there are both a cappella and instrumental background song version available.

The purpose is to use in the collection of money or the recruitment of new workers. Our efforts are losing momentum but as those of you who have been there know the work is still great. Please, if you can get these in front of some new audiences send me your request complete with your name and address for sending.

Thank you

Brad Hayes

New Communications

Congratulations, you've found the new blog site! Please note that you can post comments to blog postings for others to see. Look for the link at the end of the posting.

In case you don't have it, the new URL for information is: http://www.servantsunite.org

We've added another new communications feature, the Yahoo group or listserve. Click here to join servantsunite listserve. Clicking the link will take you to the yahoogroups site where you can log in or create a new account which is relatively simple and painless. There are three steps:

1. Enter your information and choose an ID and password
2. Click an additional link in the confirmation email that is sent to your email address
3. Login to yahoogroups to set up your preferences. Be sure to turn off all the advertising preferences.

If you've never used yahoogroups, it is a forum you can join and submit postings by email that are distributed to the other members. You can comment or reply to each other's postings and share files or pictures from the group. When setting up your preferences, you can choose to receive an email for each posting to the group, receive a daily batch of postings, or only check postings from the web interface.

The iMarketing term for all this is a "virtual community" and these three features along with bulk email have served this effort well in that regard. Please pray with me, "Lord continue to bless or efforts with the time, people, and other resources needed to do the work you have called us to. We thank you for the opportunity to serve and for inspiring in us the creativity to invent these tools we use, and the passion to answer your call. Please grant us wisdom and the inspiration of Your Holy Spirit as we endeavor to serve. We ask you to bless the multitude of recovery organizations helping to shine your light in the gulf coast and other places darkened by sin's evil touch and please bless those we are working to help who have suffered many personal tragedies. In Jesus name, Amen".

Update from Brad

Hey Team:

See below posting for pictures. It is the best I have seen to tell the story of the "de-mucking" with pictures. They are taken in a sequence that give you a good sense of the Totalness of the mess. Enjoy and realize that there is still much to do!!! These pictures were taken less than a week ago!

I am sad to tell you that to date we have no volunteers signed up for our Nov 5 trip. We need at least 8 people to send a crew. I realize vacation time is short, the holiday's are upon us, and there is much for everyone to do. Please consider you schedule and this opportunity for service. If you can participate on the November 5 trip please contact me before Weds. The 26th as we will have to make a determination regarding the first trip at that time.

Suggestion from John: Lets wear our red T-Shirts Sunday morning and ask about making a very quick appeal at our respective church services. I did get two volunteers for other trips at Westerville Christian last week with that small effort. More beneficial long term is to work with our church eldership/leaders to build their support, participation, and focus on this project. Let us know if we can help you with this.

Praise for the day is that Tammany will be positioning more than 200 volunteers in various works beginning today and through the weekend. Praise God for He is good and He is faithful.

Brad Hayes

John Carden Pics from Last Week's Demucking

As some of you are already aware, David and I went back to the Gulf coast to help in the relief effort again. I took a few pictures while we were down there and I have them ready for your viewing pleasure - if you are interested.

They can be viewed at http://home.comcast.net/~thecomputerdoctor/Katrina2

Note that he capital "K" is important - the server at Comcast is case sensitive. Also note that the Comcast server is somewhat slow.

I noticed that I had "fat fingered" the URL for the first set of pictures in my original message. In case some of you had a problem getting that set to load properly the correct URL is http://home.comcast.net/~jwcarden/Katrina

Enjoy,
John C. (Pop)

Servants Unite!

That's the name were using for this ongoing effort. Hope you like it 'cuz the new domain name is registered and the site is copied over to www.servantsunite.org ;-) Nothing new there yet today, but there will be soon. This name was chosen as we believed it to be both descriptive of our work and a call to action and cooperative effort from all of the body of Christ as well as those with a servants heart who haven't claimed Him yet.

We're watching hurricane Wilma as I'm sure you are. Be watching here, on your email, and on servantsunite.org for announcements. Best guess is that it will hit St. Petersburg or points south as a major hurricane. Be praying that away and at the same time prepare for the eventuality that we will need to respond quickly with water, ready to eat food, and that all important Gatorade. If we do, we'll need the supplies, trucks, and drivers on short notice this weekend or early next week.

Everyone involved in this effort has been so responsive, those who have funded trips, the first 160 people to go, those at home, who during the third week filled half a semi trailer on 24 hour notice... I am so personally impressed with the hundreds of people involved in this project who are letting God use them freely. May He bless all of you.

John McGuire

First Pics from Lake Charles, Louisiana area

Take a look at this slide show that came from our client in Lake Charles Louisiana

Brad