Monday on da Bayou

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

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

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

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

Mike Robinson
Lima, New York

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

TJ Burns
University at Buffalo Student
Alfred, NY

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

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

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

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

Team 21 Update for Sunday

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

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

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

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

Team 21, University at Buffalo Has Arrived

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

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

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

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

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

Team 21, University at Buffalo Underway!!

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


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

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

John McGuire

Help and tools needed for spring break trips

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thank you for your continued assistance and generosity.

Big News for Servants Unite!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Plan for Expansion

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Missouri Relief Request

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

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

Missouri Relief Request:

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

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

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

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

Thank you very much!
Andy Vance

Update on Ella and Brian

Many volunteers have kept in touch with storm victims they've worked for. If you have updates from any of them, please share them with us by emailing them to john@servantsunite.org.

Last January, one of the team 7 projects was Ella and Brian's house in Slidell. This was the first reconstruction we'd done since Katrina, installing drywall and finishing plus some kitchen cabinets. Another team this past summer cleaned up some paint problems and they were back in their house for Christmas this year!

Ella sent me the following note and pictures now that they are back; one small battle won.

Hi John and the Gang, Thought you might like to see that we finally got the house put back together. We had a Blessed Thanksgiving and Christmas. We couldn't have been home this soon without the help of all of you. God Bless You All, Ella and Brian

Doug Swayne's Experience

Before the trip, I was concerned that I did not have any experience installing drywall. During our trip, God provided all the strength, ability, instruction and friends needed to accomplish His goals. Homeowners and caretakers were truly appreciative of the time we spent working on their homes. I believe the Servants Unite organization helps people impacted by hurricane Katrina realize they are not forgotten and shows God's love in action.

I John 4:12, Philippians 4:13

Chris Cole's Posting

When I volunteered in July, we worked for three days before we got to spend an evening in New Orleans. On the trip back to Hilltop Rescue, somebody asked me if they could borrow something of mine. I said "when we get home, I'll let you borrow it." Earlier in the week, I had always referred to that place as "Camp Rowley," "Hilltop Rescue," or just "Hilltop."

When I said "home," I realized that my home is supposed to be in Columbus, Ohio where I live, and not Chalmette Louisiana. But somehow the word "home" fit, even though I knew we were going to work one more day and then come back to Ohio.

I was calling Hilltop Rescue "home"--It was a place with shower stalls, minimal privacy, uncomfortably hot work days doing mucking, bad smells, aches, pains, noises, and difficult draining work. What surprised me was that I was perfectly comfortable with calling that place "home."

I've realized that "Home" is wherever God takes us in life, doing whatever He calls us to do, living each day in His presence. The strength I found for getting through all the work we did--I found in Him.

Philippians 4:12-13
-------------------
God bless you,

-Chris

Pat Hazlett's Thoughts

What I gained by participating in the Katrina relief mission trip was watching the Holy Spirit work in my life and the lives of others. I also learned that it only takes a listening ear, a hug, or a touch of your hand to help heal the hurts of those affected by the floods. Ministry begins outside the walls of a church.

Pat Hazlett, Team 20

Team 20 ONN Coverage

Ohio News Network interviewed Chris Cole of Team 20 on his repeat trip; the 3rd since July for Chris. That segment will be on the evening news tonight.


Stephanie Mennecke also interviewed Dave Adair and I for a segment to air several times tomorrow morning. Keep an eye on ONN for those stories.
Special thanks to Stephanie and ONN for continuing to cover our relief operations. This helps us build our volunteer base, both for our current effort in New Orleans and others in the future.

Last week's trip was amazing! Amazing is overused and made the yearly list of words that should be outlawed, but I don't mean that in the trite way it is overused. We had volunteers from 11 to 68, men and women, from seven different churches. Yet, everyone worked very well together, led when leadership was called for and followed when they needed to follow.

I saw the lady who asked me before the trip if we didn't have any work for women spend the week painting just finished walls and ministering to homeowners. I saw people who have never "done-it-themselves" lay laminate flooring, operate cutoff saws, finish drywall, and help install kitchen cabinets. I saw generation Y put down their game controllers for a week to install doors, muck out a nasty house, and sleep where half the outlets don't work.

The Holy Spirit guided the unskilled and placed the skilled where they were needed. I haven't installed kitchen cabinets for 16 years, but completed two houses with some good help. Rick Peszlen had minimal experience with wood flooring, but was training others to install it his 2nd day and his team completed two homes and part of another. Jarrod Rossiter put a new face on flooded house, just by removing the splintered, pealing front door and replacing it with a new one. 12 year old Emily Peszlen, who had never painted before helped paint two complete homes, herself, and her teammates ;-) All the rest of the team did work, they didn't know they could do and had opportunities to minister to people they never suspected they'd have or that they were prepared for.

We'll continue sending volunteers to do this work for a long time to come. The homes we have nearly completed are the first on their street. There are many others waiting to be done. The homeowners we are helping to rebuild have received less than $20k from insurance and government grants to restore $140k (pre-katrina) homes. They are on fixed incomes and have increased expenses due to health problems since the storm. Some are older widowed women. All of them desperately need your help to get them out of their FEMA trailers and into their homes again.

If you have minimal construction experience of any kind, you are an expert in this effort and your skills will be used by the Spirit to get this work done. If you have no experience, you'll find the work you are drawn into will be easy to learn. This is the nature of Kingdom work. This is very fulfilling, contributes to you spiritual growth, and you'll have a lot of fun working with new friends; brothers and sisters in Christ.

Spring break teams are forming, but we can schedule groups through January and February with interest. If you would like to know more, please see the web site or give me a call.

Servants Unite!

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

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

Team 20 is home!!!

More later, but we got in at 5:30 tonight after a wonderful week. Near to flawless as any have been. More tomorrow!

John

Team 20 Day 4

Today was our last day of work here. We had to say goodbye to the people we've been working for all week as well as Zack and Liz who are running St. Bernard Project.
There's still a lot of work to do on their job board and more homes will be added as soon as some of these are complete.
Everybody's tired and beat though. Ready to head home. Some of us didn't even make it till dinner without a nap.
Dale's earned the rest. He and the rest of the drywall crew finished all the drywall in the house they had to work on this week.

Johnny Justice (Johnny Law to his friends) and I set another set of kitchen cabinets after clearing out remaining tools and extra materials from another house. Another very thankful homeowner who was just so nice to work for. Everyone has been. This is an amazingly friendly place, but it's almost surreal how much we become hooked into their lives.

The flooring crew laid two full houses of hardwood flooring this week while training others to do it in other houses. They got in after everyone else had dinner tonight so that they could finish their last house. The laminate flooring is the most cost effective solution to drop down on the slabs these houses rest on and looks really nice.

The painting crew finished their 2nd house today for the week as well. They completed one average and one large house from finished drywall, through primer, and 2nd coats all around.

We have the Cure's so close to ready to move in, but stubborn pluming and bathroom finishing problems kept us from finishing. They have a gas stove and sink with cabinets finished in the kitchen and doors hung. They need only the drywall finished, a tub surround, and the vanity connected in a bathroom to move back to their house.

We didn't have anyone mucking today, but I got a couple of pictures from Amanda from yesterday. This the cleaned out house they worked on:
And a crew picture with the homeowners and June White's group from Virginia who are down:
That house was scheduled to be condemned because it hadn't been cleaned, but they swooped in and saved the day. You see the yellow signs with the red X mostly on buildings that were structurally damaged by the storm, but some homes like this one are also scheduled.
I think we're all ready to head home to our families, but I know the inevitable crash will come when we get back. There is still so much good work waiting (on Zack and Liz's board) that is in urgent need of attention. We'll be getting job assignments from them for teams after the first of the year. It looks like our teams will be staying in trailers, but where hasn't yet been determined. Till that is ready I have gained a couple other contacts here in addition to the church in Pascagula who will host teams for work there.

We need construction leads badly. If you have any trade, or you church can sponsor a professional contractor for a week or a month down here to organize unskilled volunteers their time would be amplified many times over. Our biggest problem is the people we have must learn how to lay floor or finish drywall, or mount cabinets before they can do it and then their skills are lost when they leave and more volunteers come in. A couple pros a week would really give a boost to the effort to return people to their homes.

Please be in prayer for God to send those people here and continue sending those without the skills on faith that they will accomplish their number 1 mission, showing people they are not forgotten, by us or their creator. Where else can you do manual labor and be treated with the hospitality Christ himself may receive. It feels good being his hands and feet this week and I know we are all looking forward to a chance to return.

Our schedule for Sunday and Monday is as follows:
Sunday @ 10:30 Church down the road a few blocks
Sunday @ Lunch Lunch, probably in the French Quarter
Sunday @ 3:00 everyone showered and packed
Sunday @ 4:00 all loaded and head for Birmingham
Sunday @ 10:00 arrive at Homewood Church of Christ for overnight
Monday @ 8:00 pack and leave for home
Monday @ 5:00ish arrive at Westerville Christian Church

We're all anxious to see you and tell our stories and get back to our families. Please pray we have a safe and speedy trip.

Team 20 Day 3

More good work Day 3. People shuffled around. A couple kids went mucking with Amanda and June White who has worked diligently with Hilltop since the beginning. You may get the Hilltop newsletters via email from her. No pics from them though.

The crew who has been finishing drywall all week has been dubbed the Ohio 7 by the caretaker of the lady they are working for. Here they are all together:

Dave (McGuire) and I got the cabinets done in the Cure's kitchen and Dave (Adair) put together the sink. Mrs. Cure got us Pizza and lemon meringue pie for lunch and had a bowl of chocolate waiting for us on the counter this morning. Jared joined me today and replaced the flood damaged front door. That gave the face of the house the done look. By that I mean, even though the interior is nearly ready for them to move in, the outside still looked like any other flooded house till the door was replaced.

I'm so excited about this project. If we can get some plumbing done by a pro (2 hr. max) we'll have them back in their home by the end of the week. Even with all the work going on, they'll be one of the first in the area and appear to be the first in their neighborhood to move out of their FEMA trailer and back into their home.

Chalmette Church of Christ is very near so I stopped by this evening. With the exception of one strip, the tar paper we put on as siding last January is still holding. Looks like we need to schedule a special crew to come down and put some siding on.

The inside though is finished and in service! Was impressed to see it all done with pews installed. May have to stop by there Sunday morning.


I have a few pics from last night that I couldn't get then. This one is Jackson square on a rainy evening. Fortunately it mostly held off for our walkabout.

Wanna really have some fun out with a group? Order a dozen raw oysters and egg people who've never tried them to do so. We had 5 newbies take the plunge last night, though Erin probably won't again ;-)










There are 420 kids here from Jonesboro Arkansas area for a service conference (best way I can think to put that. We have a record for this facility with them here with over 500 volunteers at one time. The shower trailers, though cold, have helped and there are people sleeping in the common room and some rooms downstairs which have tarps up over the studs. This is most of them, at Tim Hine's morning devo today:

Today was the kind of day we hope to have here. 70 something with beautiful weather, the last forecast for our stay. By the time we drove from St. Bernard back up to Chalmette this evening, the fog had rolled in and the wind is picking up and gusty. Stormy weather is forecast the next couple days.

We're leaving Sunday afternoon and staying at Homewood Church of Christ in Birmingham for New Years eve. We'll be back Monday evening for the kids to go back to school, but Tuesday I'll be sleeping in ;-)

More tomorrow night and I hope to have postings from our volunteers. Just have to set with them long enough to get the writeup done.

John

Team 20 Day 2

Man I love this! Being down here, the whole last 16 months (wow!) of this effort comes back. Walking through flooded neighborhoods. Driving by the lower 9th. And just that long ago I didn’t know anything about this place or any people here, and really had no reason to visit so probably wouldn’t have. Now it’s started to feel like a 2nd home to me that I need to rebuild and where I have family I care about.

By volunteering to come down here, we’ve all become part of this very tight community. People have stopped us on the street, strangers we’ve never met before, just to thank us for caring about them. “We love the God who sent us”, we tell them or something to that effect, but they really feel so blessed by our efforts. When you haven’t been for a while its easy to forget that; the sensation that you really are part of something important, even monumental.

If you can’t tell, I don’t have any pics for you tonight so I have to write  That’s OK though, I feel there’s something to say so let’s see what comes out…

“The Kingdom of Heaven is like yeast used by a woman making bread” (Matthew 13:33). “Even through she used a large amount of flour, the yeast permeated every part of the dough”. The little work we’ve done on a house here, or a house there; maybe a block over there has spread. Our work has multiplied and more “yeast” has grown to do more work. The people (flour) here know the work we have done and that we’ve done it in our Father’s name. Even those we haven’t helped directly.

The gospel is a monumental thing. That one can be reconciled to God through Christ is a monumental thing. That we are called in our commission generally, and for most of us more personally to do this work is a monumental thing. We’ve been drafted into the army and we’ve performed admirably. If our glory weren’t in heaven we’d be parading around with medals on our chests. But the people also see that we don’t. That we serve as our savior served. That we put others first. That we love them even though they may not feel deserving, like He did. And that is the most monumental thing; our witness.

We strive with and for them without expectation of earthly reward and can’t bear to accept their personal praise for coming to help them, but insist we had no choice… we had to come… we are called to help. We benefit more, “you have no idea”.

I am so proud to know all of you, all the people who have hosted our teams and all the storm victims I’ve met. Especially the “Pearl Merchants” (see Matthew 13:45) who have persevered unceasingly for all those months or many of them.

“These are my mother and brothers. Anyone who does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother!” (Matthew 12:49-50) We’re all family who have came to work here, from all over the country, and from many different churches. We’re all family with those storm victims we have worked for, met, cried with, and prayed with. We’re all brothers and sisters in and with Jesus because we’ve followed the will of our Father to do this.

Thank you family.

_____________________________

So our work today was much the same as yesterday. We painted, we hung doors and set counter tops, we laid floor, we hung drywall and finished it (to the best of our ability). Some people’s spiritual gifts for the day were having skinny arms that can reach under a bathtub to start a drain connection. Others was laughter and the amount of paint their hair and face could hold ;-) Some on this team have these massive intense spirits and unbounded energy that inspires everyone else. Some people’s gifts were showing up late at night in a strange town, sleeping little, and spending the day working next to others from another state in another generation.

For everyone it was listening. This far after the storm, the most important thing for victims is to be remembered and to tell their story. We’ve all gotten them still. Was evacuated to a bank roof and spent 7 days there waiting for help. Was picked up in a boat and dropped off on a shrimper. Spent 8 days using tarps to collect rain water in barrels to drink, bathe, and wash clothes. Mother, Aunt, Grandmother, didn’t make it. Sons are flooded out too.

On the plus side, really, this is a place where people can live now. Estimate 1 in 30 businesses open, but essentials are there. McDonalds, Da Parish Coffe House, Popeye’s Chicken and Biscuits, and the stores I mentioned in earlier postings. Some people are living in their restored homes, but many many people are now living in trailers on their lot rebuilding their home, or, the lot having been cleared, planning their rebuild. Slab removal signs are up which seems weird, but you don’t remove the old slab unless you have a new home plan that needs a different foot print.

140k houses (pre storm) are now selling for 32k rather than the 5k they were getting a few months ago. The streets are busy. No traffic jams or anything, but plenty of traffic. We have helped this community come back from complete destruction. That’s monumental.

We took tonight for our run to the French Quarter. Had dinner at a great restaurant with Brendan and some frequent and longer term volunteers. He says hi by the way. Stopped by Café Dumont for beignets and coffee (which is why I’m still awake) and took in Jackson square with Christmas lights up.

I got to meet Mayor Nagin tonight! He was outside Café Dumont when we went in. Said hi, shook his hand… and left it at that. Well… what would you say or ask?

Anyway, we’re having the usual wonderful week. The newbies are suitably shocked by the situation and excited about the work and the old pros are showing their confidence and faith. Everyone’s glad we’re here, volunteers and locals alike. Wish I could do this all the time.

How ‘bout you? I’ll be scouting where to send volunteers to stay. There’s several opportunities there and St. Bernard Project (Zak and Liz) have good work to do. Plan some time in your schedule for the new year to come back, or come for the first time and tell you social network about the continued need, and successes we are having. This really is a monumental thing we have going. Gotta share that with everyone we know.

For those inclined to intercession, please continue praying for our volunteers and the people they are helping. The need is no less, nor less urgent.

Till tomorrow…

John McGuire

Team 20's first day photo diary

We had a busy day! 22 people and 5 house projects. It's so good to be rebuilding (mostly)
There were a few mud fights...

.... but the 6 on the drywall finishing crew covered a lot of ground...

...seams...

....screws.... etc for Joyce Sanders

We installed some kitchen cabinets for the Cure's in St. Bernard. Like more than half the residents, they are retired and have had lots of health problems since the storm.

Amanda, on her 5th trip is our old pro. Here, you see her modeling the latest in swamp mucking fashion on her way to paint with a crew ;-)

Another team spent the day laying flooring in a 4th home

The people here are still so beaten down by their ordeal. All the volunteers came back today with the stories of the people they are working for. Both from the storm and the problems and recovery they've struggled through since.

It is good to be getting people back into their homes again.

When 1/3 or so of residents on a street set up a trailer and begin rebuilding it's like a tipping point where most of the rest of the neighbors return.

The job sites we are working this week are the fruits of the St. Bernard Project. This organization was set up in October by Zak (here in front of their office) and Liz who like others, couldn't go back to their lives in DC with so much unfinished and desperately needed work left to do. They have a tool co-op for people fixing up their own homes, host a community center, and are offering the rebuilding services of volunteers like our team to those unable to rebuild on their own. More about this org as the week progresses.

There has been so much positive change since I was here last. You have to wait for a clear spot in traffic to pull out onto St Bernard Highway, or Judge Perez.

Houses are being rebuilt, or hauled away to make room for reconstruction (Habitat is expecting to start in a couple months on these vacant slabs).

Flowers are blooming in front of FEMA trailers.

Some trailers are well decorated for the holidays too.

While its no longer a ghost town here in Chalmette, there's still a lot to be done.

Heavy rainstorms last week left shallow, but wide spread flooding from mud filled storm drains and the crud is still all around.

It's nothing like the horror it was right after the storm now though. The general aroma is what you'd expect for a town anywhere and the houses we are rebuilding are clean and very habitable. Winn Dixie, Walgreens, some restaurants and other life is coming back. The overall impression this trip is very positive. We're helping people get their lives back who may have only gotten $20,000 or less from insurance and government assistance to do so.

This is getting dirty and helping people... real church.

John McGuire