Upcoming Trips and Projects

Our assistance will continue to be needed in Northern Ohio for some time, specifically in Bucyrus, but may expand to other areas as needed. Volunteer opportunities are available most weekends and during the week and accommodations are available for those traveling some distance to work there.

November 11-November 17, Team 29 will be working in Chalmette, near New Orleans. We will leave after church Sunday from Westerville Christian. An organizational meeting will be held there as well next Tuesday, October 16 at 6:30pm. Here is where to find us:

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Christmas time trips have been very popular the last two years of Katrina relief work. I am planning two tentative trips for the week before Christmas and the week between Christmas and New Years. One would leave around Saturday, December 15 and return Saturday, December 22. The other would leave Wednesday morning, December 26 and return on January 1 as we did last year.

Spring Break can be amazing this year! All these Columbus area schools, maybe more, are off the same week in 2008, March 22-30:

Columbus, Hilliard, Dublin, Worthington, Olentangy, Westerville, Big Walnut, Gahanna, South Western, Grandview Heights, Hamilton, Groveport, Canal Winchester, Pickerington, Bexley, Whitehall, and Tree of Life.

Only 3 districts adjoining Columbus are not off this week:

• Upper Arlington is off the week before.
• New Albany-Plain is the following week.
• Reynoldsburg is April 5-13.

I’d like to plan a massive youth oriented trip to New Orleans or Bayou La Batre for that week. We could conceivably send hundreds of volunteers! The work would be reconstruction of houses, community centers, and other efforts to support churches and rehabitation of houses in the area still recovering from Katrina.

Special challenges for youth trips like this involve:

• Getting enough youth sponsors to go.
• Having enough skilled adults to keep the kids productive.
• Coordinating transportation.

To put such a trip together, I’ll need help from you to publicize and staff the trip. We’ll also need to be recruiting adults with construction skills and tools to help make this trip productive for the kids.

Please prayerfully consider how you can arrange your schedule to support any of these activities.

To inquire about, or join any of these trips, please call me or email me at the link on the right of the blog.

Cajun Dinner Fundraiser

So if you're missing the food of the gulf coast, have a hankering for fellowship, and want to support our next trip, you've gotta come to Westerville Christian Church, Friday Nov 2 at 6:30 pm in the FLC for Cajun Fest. Our address is 471 College Avenue, Westerville, Ohio 43081.

View Larger Map

Proceeds from this dinner will help to cover the expenses for Team 29 who will leave November 11 and return November 17. Please see the posting on Upcoming Trips for more information.

You can print a sign to put up at your church, work, or around your community and you can print a bulletin insert that you can find here.

Hope you can join us!

My Status Update

I am so pleased God continues to let me work on this project. It is unbelievably fulfilling serving Him, all of you, and the storm victims we've been helping the last two years. Our successes are all His and any good we do is only a reflection of Christ working through us, but I am so grateful He chooses to let me take part. I have met the most amazing, yet common people I never knew existed within the faith community or anywhere else.

As most reading this know, I began adjusting my life to focus full time on Servants Unite and part time IT consulting last February. I am not drawing compensation from the organization, but soliciting regular donations to help cover my family's expenses. The complete story is on this blog posting.

Since then, I have been receiving monthly funding from one church and two individuals. This funding with the addition of an amount from another church is covering only 25% of our expenses. I have made some of the other 75% consulting and Melinda has contributed substantially from her part time job, but we have still invested over $25,000 in personal savings to meet our daily needs. With spring break and summer relief work completed and Bucyrus work stabilizing into an ongoing operation, I am focusing more on consulting, but that takes away from the time I can spend on building Servants Unite and organizing or ongoing efforts.

I know what we can accomplish and have a vision of what this organization can be. Every little investment we have made has yielded enormous kingdom dividends. Those of you who know me personally know of the passion I have for getting us there. I am constantly reminded, however, that I can't do it alone. Right now we need a couple dozen people to help expand this ministry and I could really use that other 75% to cover my expenses and begin replenishing my reserves.

Your business helps me as well. I and others I work with through Franklin Computer Services can handle any Information Technology needs that your company or church may have. By utilizing my professional services, you are supporting my ability to focus on building this mission.

It is my prayer and hope that more of you can step forward to fill leadership positions in Servants Unite, help in fundraising, and personally contribute to help me focus even more on this job.

For more information on funding my efforts or helping to grow Servants Unite, please email me.

Thanks for your support.

Non Profit Status Approved!!!

We received a letter from the IRS yesterday stating that they have approved our request for non-profit status under section 501(c)3 of the internal revenue code! This is really a major triumph. Though it may seem basic and expected, the implications are huge for the growth of our organization. It qualifies us for more funding and stretches our funding further.

We are allowed to work under the assumption that this approval would come and have been doing so. I can now tell you for certain though now that your charitable donations, both monetary and in-kind, made directly to Servants Unite are deductible from your taxes. I can also tell you that this makes us accountable to the IRS as well as you when we allocate resources.

This is especially critical as our general funds are near $0 after our summer trips and the Bucyrus response.

This means we can accept corporate donations. Most corporations will only give to a 501(c)3 approved organization. You can help promote donations to Servants Unite from your employer.

We can accept employee donations and corporate matching funds through payroll deduction at your employer. Several volunteers have been waiting on this approval to donate through their employer. Please check with your Human Resources department. If you have payroll deducted donations to charitable organizations presently with your employer, you should be able to redirect some or all of this giving to Servants Unite. The process is not complicated in most organizations. Generally our tax ID number and some information about the organization (www.servantsunite.org) are all that is required.

This status also makes it more attractive to churches, mission groups, and other non-profits to support us financially. Please help make your church leadership and mission organizations aware of this update. We can use steady funding as we have functioned to date on one time gifts and special collections. We also need to get commitments from churches for special collections or reserve funds to finance our next response.

You can always give to us personally. Again, your monetary or in-kind (stuff) donation is tax deductible. You'll be getting calls from lots of unknown solicitors from now through Christmas. Please keep in mind that these phone solicitors frequently keep 80-90% of your donation. Donating to Servants Unite will assure that 100% of your donation goes to a worthy cause. You can donate through the Paypal link on the web (which will eat 2% of your donation), or mail a check.

As we've seen we can get a lot more mileage out of donations than the traditional and much larger recipients of corporate funding who have enormous overhead. Nearly 100% of funds donated to Servants Unite go directly to our mission with very small administrative costs and no salaries.

Finally, our tax exempt status saves us money when we buy materials and equipment for use in our work. I'll work on getting the appropriate information to vendors we purchase from.

Thanks for your continued support!

Servants Unite!

Bucyrus Work Proceeding

We're ready for volunteers and project work in Bucyrus again. Here's the update from Crawford County EMA I received today.

Great success this past week. The call center made some 250 calls the last few nights, FEMA has over 300 cases that they are in process of handing over or contacting individuals. A large cleanup was completed last weekend by a Lutheran group out of New York. The paper just hit today with the front page reading residents are to call with damages. The article was not clear on who should call so we will be taking more calls for Case Workers over the next few days.

Case Workers have even been closing a handful of cases this week with simple purchases like a freezer of washer. It appears we will do another weekend of cleanup not sure how many cases we have at the moment. When you know you have people wanting to come give me a heads up and I will see what cases are open at the time for you. Deb McCoy is the Volunteer coordinator her home number 419-689-9799, she will be able to coordinate lodging and cases. We will have work orders by end of this week for which we will complete for each case and will be used to track progress of residents. It is fully working now just coordination of the work as it comes in. It does not appear that the cases will hit all at once as they just keep coming through steady like 5-8 a day.

Thanks,

Tim Flock
EMA Director
Crawford County

You can contact Deb McCoy directly if you choose, but I need to keep track of the volunteer hours we are spending there and I have resources available to reimburse you for any materials that are needed.

Housing is available at Camp Michael, near Bucyrus.

To volunteer or ask questions, please send me an email or call my cell at 614-404-8610.

Relevant Stories in Relevant Mag

I found two articles in the current issue significant to us. Unfortunately, unless you get the mag or know someone who does, you can't read them as articles are not available online. I do recommend the magazine. It is inexpensive and pertinent to youth, youth leaders, and post modernists. www.relevantmagazine.com

There is an article written by a college student, Adam Foldenauer, who worked with Nazarene Disaster Response Team in Chalmette and Gentilly (burbs of New Orleans). Adam writes a very reflective article on the impact to volunteers, homeowners, and the fact that it still looks like the hurricane happened yesterday. Most of us know it was much worse as incredible as that sounds. This article gives a great perspective on faith and tragedy as well as the work left to do. He writes:

I also saw Christ in many residents. A disaster like Katrina surely caused many to question God, but I noticed a divine determination in those who turned to God after the storm. Gloria, a friend fo our homeowner, stopped by the home where we were working to see the progress. She's eager for her friend to be able to return home. She told me, "God is going to bring something out of all this. I'm not sure what it is yet, but I think He wants to make our faith stronger."

The other article is pertinent to those 115 of us who drove down July 7 to work in Bayou La Batre. Remember the traffic in Nashville and all the people walking towards downtown? We thought it must be a concert or something. It obviously wasn't football in July.

As it turns out, it was "The Call" Nashville. This was the 2nd of what has become a series of prayer and fasting events. The first was in DC, September of 2000. In Nashville, 60,000 filled the Titans football stadium to pray, some having fasted for days! The next call is 08/08/08 in DC, but other events like Nashville will be held in stadiums across the country starting in October and leading up to the DC event. www.thecall.com
is the main web site. The closest stadium event for us in Ohio is in Cincinnati, January 12, at US Bank Arena (Riverfront Coliseum for us old timers). This is a link to the details of that event. Registration through that link is free, but required.

Habitat Help Needed Saturday 9/29

Hi all,

We have a last minute need for volunteers for Saturday, September 29 from 8:30 to 4:00. We could use 10-12 people and will register people on a first come, first serve basis. Tasks could involve framing, but will be determined by what gets accomplished between now and then by other volunteers.

If you are available, let me know, and I can send you more information.

Thanks!

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

Remember all those damaged family photos?

...that we hauled out of people's homes, or cut the moldy dissolved bottoms off of to leave for residents who had given up hope of getting them back? Found a relief organization who handles that part of the relief operation:

Operation Photo Rescue

Awsome Coverage of New Orleans 2 years after

This Yahoo News production is really amazing. Gives you a good idea of where recovery is at from residents. This is current, very representative, and very well produced.

Bucyrus Status Update

Thanks to all of you who have spent a day or more working in Bucyrus to help in the recovery up there. We’ve gotten a lot accomplished as you can see in the blog posting from Linn last week. I wanted to get you an update to keep you all in sync for where we are and what will still be needed.

We got most of the requests for mucking out taken care of by end of day Saturday, though I expect more will come in. Mostly we got a big peak of them a week ago and got a lot of them cleaned out. We also eliminated several dozen requests as unreasonable, due to dangerous or extremely uncomfortable conditions. There was still one resident who came in Saturday to complain her husband wouldn’t listen to the need to take out his drywall. She was suffering respiratory problems and had sores on her arms from the contamination in her house. A few stragglers like this may still require demucking as residents are forced to request help.

The first response operation we set up is disbanding Tuesday, and rolling responsibility over to a long term recovery committee. It will be made up of county and city officials and trained by the Ohio VOAD. They are hiring a couple caseworkers to qualify residents and will start that process tomorrow or Tuesday. In a couple weeks, they expect to have some of the midterm needs identified where we can start helping people rebuild and handle any new requests for muck out.

What this means is that we have a couple weeks of hiatus between the mucking work we’ve completed and the need for volunteers to participate in the reconstruction work. That works well as these places need time to dry out. I’m hearing moisture readings need to be between 15% and 20% in the studs to start rebuilding.

I’m dropping back to managing the resources we have available once people are identified for private aid and I’m hoping my new friend Linn who lives there is going to assist in that. We have money to buy some building materials for that process from some local companies, some local churches, and a couple of the national relief orgs. Another Ohio flood relief group from over by Wheeling is setting me up with places to get grants for a lot of this as well. We have the same locations for out of town volunteer accommodations for that phase.

Your continued support will be needed in coming months to help get people back in to permanent housing. 70+ destroyed housing units will need to be replaced so I expect to have some Habitat builds for us to work on. I’ll keep you all posted as things change and plans solidify.

Thanks again for your servants hearts and continued support of this effort.

John McGuire

Bucyrus Update from Linn

Hi Everyone!

Today we worked on consolidating, and getting things ready for Friday and Saturday. We are planning to have 10 jobs for tomorrow, and 7 jobs for Saturday. I have asked the Southern Baptist men if they would be willing to be crew leaders on Saturday for any new volunteers that may need some guidance. They are presenting it at a meeting tonight.

I believe we have 10 cases to do on Friday, and 7 more for Saturday. That does not include the ones the Southern Baptists have.

We are hoping that this will be the end of the clean up phase of this recovery process.The city will not pick up any more after the weekend.

There are still a few people who were able to deny any problems existed but have now been driven out of their homes by the stench today. Hopefully, there are no more people like this. We feel badly for these people and hope that you will continue to keep them in your prayers.

Tonight, I am thinking that we have enough volunteers for Saturday. If you are planning on bringing a crew, we will put you to work. I would like to know your group numbers so that I can be sure to have enough food ready for lunch on Saturday. Please remember to pick up your own respirators, or breathing masks. We do have some gloves. It would be helpful to bring your own tool kit, also.

Please- we still need volunteers to be thinking of ways that they can help. We will be doing painting and re-building in the very near future. JC Church and Deb Pinion are working with VOAD to begin case management, and start this next phase.

We appreciate the support that you have given us at Crawford Volunteer Flood Recovery Group. As your "founder", I deeply appreciate all of the help you have given to this effort. I do not have all of the details as to who or what the next group will be, where it will be headquartered, or even a phone number. However, I believe that our community leaders are working to make this an easy transition. More information will be coming to you soon.

Please stay in touch.

We will be here in this office through Tuesday, 9/11/07. Some of you donated the use of office furniture and supplies. Please come back in on Monday any time, and Tuesday morning to pick up what we have not used. It belongs to you, and we would like it to get back to you. Unfortunately, I do not have complete lists as to who gave what, so- I need you to come and get it yourselves. (Plus, Timken friends, there's NO way, I can move all of these desks back.)

Thanks to Ohio Mutual and Farmers Citizens also, I believe they were the primary donors of office supplies!

Ok, I will be taking tomorrow, Friday, off. I will be with my husband for his gall bladder surgery at BCH. Rachel Meade, is my right hand assistant here at HQ. Please direct inquiries to her and I will occasionally call in.

Thanks again for your prayers and support through this important work.

Linn Ash, Volunteer Coordinator

Bucyrus Current Needs as of 9-4-2007

We need relief supplies donated to the Bucyrus effort. We have caught up on demand for cleaning kits, bleach, and filter masks, but new items are now in short supply.

4 volunteer workers:

• Short handle coal shovels (flat edge)
• Brooms, Mops, and Squeegees
• Gloves
• Trash Bags

4 the relief center:

• copy machine
• toner
  
• paper
• telephones

4 victims:

• new underwear (all sizes)
  
• paper products
• diapers (all sizes)
• bedding (pillows, sheets, blankets)
  

I also need Servants Unite volunteers to survey and work in other areas affected by this flood. This is our time people. Our flood. Our neighbors. Our own back yard. If you've been on a relief trip, you are an expert and your experience is needed. Let the spirit use you to shine the light of Christ.

Other areas aren't getting the attention we've been giving to Bucyrus. I can't personally do more than what I've done here and need other experienced Servants Unite volunteers to take what we've built here to other affected areas as well as continuing to help organize here. FEMA reps stopped by our office Saturday and told Linn that they have not found a better organized volunteer operation in their experience. Linn and the local organizers have done an awesome job of beginning to care for their community.

Southern Baptist volunteers are in from Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia. Christian Appalachian Project is here from near Lexington, Kentucky. Other local residents are also working this week. Your help is desperately needed to continue cleaning out the 240 backlogged requests we have waiting this morning.

Servants Unite!

John McGuire

Labor (of love) Day

Yea, that’s pretty cheesy. Sorry about that, but I can’t think of anything cooler.

The tide has definitely shifted in Bucyrus since last weekend. We’ve gone from seeking work from residents to receiving repeated calls for immediate assistance. We have a large backlog of jobs (hundreds) and only 20 volunteers working in homes Saturday. Tuesday morning we had 4 calls backlogged. By evening it was up to 48. Wednesday evening, we had 250. What changed? Mold grew. Additionally, people are coming out of the shock of what happened to them and how desperate their situations really are.

Monday is Labor Day. Please consider bringing your family, friends, church members, coworkers, and others to help recover from this disaster that has hit all too close to home.

The volunteer center is at 1305 Mansfield Street, Bucyrus, Ohio 44280. The phone number there is 419-562-3777.

Call to let us know you are coming and how many are in you group and show up there to sign in and get work assignments.

Servants Unite!

Inside a flooded house

and pictures from the clothing distribution at the 7th day Adventist church. Marcellus who is the preacher at that church provided these. Check back in a day or so as he has more he'd like to share.

Volunteers still needed in Bucyrus

We've been running into some roadblocks that are a little frustrating. We know there are hundreds of homeowners who need our assistance. They don't seem to be performing all the remediation they need to and think they are done, but drywall and insulation aren't out and pressure washing and disinfecting still need done. Many people haven't accepted that there is really as big a problem as there is. But yesterday and today, the mold started really showing.

We ran a story in the paper that we were here to help and had the local radio station announce that we were here and business is taking off. Today we started with 4 backlogged requests for assistance. Right now (6:00pm) we have 47 backlogged and the pace is picking up. In fact, that number started out at 44 when I started typing the sentence before all the interruptions that put it back up to 47.

Help is still needed to continue the cleanup and I expect many more requests to come in tomorrow. Come and join the fun!

In addition. An effort was begun today among the local churches to find congregations to sponsor individual families who are now homeless. The goal is to handle the midterm housing needs where there seems to be a gap. Several hundred houses are unlivable, though people may be living in a nasty house.

Please ask your church if you can participate, even helping to sponsor a family in this effort. This is the most pressing need that seems to be without a government solution.

Thanks to Jim Fifield!

...of Westerville Christian Church for helping me finish the form for our 501c3 non-profit status. I am horrible at the paperwork side of this thing. Jim has taken on helping me handle the accounting and taxes.

He is a very efficient professional accountant. You can reach him at 614-263-0405. I encourage you to utilize his services.

Pictures from the first week in Bucyurus

Here's the pictures I've taken this week.

John's relief shots

Here are the pictures Linn Ash took during the flood.

Linn's flood pictures

First Day of Work in Bucyrus

I want to commend the volunteers from several churches with Servants Unite as well as local groups from around the area who pitched in today. As usual we plan how the first day of work is going to happen and find we didn't anticipate everything. The volunteers were eager to perform the tasks assigned and gracious with the frustrations that came up. They were 200% more efficient than even I expected! They all left hot, sweaty, dirty, and tired so I believe, by that measure, they had a good day's work :-) Nick pointed out that even people they checked on who didn't want help were comforted to know that someone cared enough to offer.

The Madison County EMA director was in Bucyrus the last two days and spent the day with the leadership of the fledgling volunteer effort today. I found this note from her on my email when I got home:

Thanks for all your help - Servants Unite is truly doing God's work! The group you had here today was amazing!!
God bless, Krista

Linn Ash, the county volunteer coordinator raved about our volunteers as well. We need more! We'll have more work for you to do beginning Monday.

The EMA directors I've met up there have been great to deal with. Several from nearby counties are in Crawford county to assist Tim and his team. They are sharp, show genuine concern for the people they are charged with protecting, and are constantly brainstorming for ways to do their job better. Not the government functionaries we have seen at the federal level.

None-the-less, they have a finite responsibility in this. Recovery will take a long time. Even if a federal declaration comes as most expect we know from our experience that it will be months or years before the local governments and residents see financial relief from federal grants.

Tonight, most flooded homes in Bucyrus have been cleared of their furniture and belongings. A couple exceptions waiting on insurance appraisals are all that we could find this afternoon. Others will inevitably materialize, but the majority have been cleared by residents, friends, and neighbors since Wednesday when the water receded.

Left to do in many of these homes:

• Remove wet drywall, cabinets, carpet, and insulation. Most don't realize this is required to stop mold growth.
• Pressure wash and treat water exposed wood with bleach solution.
• Shore up sagging floors and minor structural problems. Basement wall problems have condemned over 60 homes and state inspectors may have condemned more today, but I've witnessed that the most wavy floor won't get it that designation.
• Replace drywall, floor coverings, cabinets, paint, and wallpaper.
• Replace appliances. Furnaces, water heaters, stoves, refrigerators, freezers, washers, and dryers.
• Replace furniture.
• Replace personal belongings that are replaceable.

We are getting requests for appliances already as people who are displaced move into new places. Specifically today I have a request for a stove. I need people to help arrange Good used appliance donations and transport them to Bucyrus as well as a dropoff location. I can also accept gift cards to Lowes or Home Depot. I'll turn those over to the new Crawford County Flood Recovery Group for equitable disbursement to needy residents. These are a great way to donate to people in disasters. You can put a message with the card and be assured it is spent on things required to rebuild a household.

Servants Unite is also low on cash to perform relief operations. We need to purchase tools for volunteers to use for recovery, cover some transportation costs, and directly support needy storm victims in their recovery.

To donate to Servants Unite or send money, gift cards, or household appliances for storm victims, refer to the "Supplies Needed" link on the web site at www.servantsunite.org Please specify the intent of your donation to go to storm victims directly, volunteer operations, or as needed.

Volunteer operations will resume Monday. The Crawford County organizers are taking tomorrow to spec new jobs for the volunteers we have coming through next week. If you'd like to join them, let me know!

Here are a few pictures from today's work.

Bucyrus Volunteers Meet Here

We'll be in our volunteer coordination office at 7:30am in Bucyrus. I invite SU volunteers to show up around 9:00

1313 East Mansfield Street, Bucryus, Ohio 44820

View Larger Map
Look for the Dominos Pizza sign.


We had 80 people show up for the local church, civic, and community leaders meeting today! The local groups appear to be turning out well.


See you in Bucyrus tomorrow! Or when you can come up.

Bucyrus Needs for Donated Items

Bleach - to demold mucked houses. There is none available here
Diapers - will go to ODJFS to distribute. Victims are out of diapers
Mops
Buckets

Power Washers
Coolers