Friday, September 30, 2005
Week 3 Thursday
Thursday was the culmination of several week of work for the team and for me in particular. Several people developed "special projects" to followup on. For the McGiffin's and their adhock crew it was getting 79 year old Mr. Alexander off his moldering couch and onto a new cot, cleaning up his house to the extent possible and hanging a flag for him from when his brother was in WWII. They were directed his way on Tuesday by some concerned neighbors when they were out delivering water. He had lain on his couch through the storm, floated up with it when his house flooded, and was still laying on it when they knocked on his door Tuesday. He was an old man thinking his time had come, but it didn't. He thought nobody cared about him with his wife gone and kids and grandkids living away, but Mark, Becky, and the crew loved on him Tuesday and Thursday and he'd been in a better humor when they left him. This is the kind of ministry we are doing there.
Aimee Fox from Reynoldsburg CofC and the girls found a new project for next week's crew. It's on the GetRDone Board. A whole neighborhood that was very needy and very bad off.
God has something special planned for the Robinson family we met this week. They've been several people's special project. Some have heard part of the story about the donated minivan, but here's the whole thing, from the source.
Renice and Ray Robinson, and 5 of their 7 kids, Sugar, Jackie, Smokey, Holly, and Magic (didn't meet Sunny or Shakay) fled the storm in their 1981 Olds Cutlas 4 door and were living out of it when they were found by someone from the community at the Mandeville post office. Renice was crying because she didn't know what to do. The woman asked what was wrong and took her to Tammany Oaks for help. Janet Hines talked with her and got them set up in the Red Cross shelter in the community Center in Folsom.
The Denny's from Dayton who were in our team had sent Brad a couple of emails about donating an Astro conversion van they had and he'd sent an email to Janet. She found it when she returned to her desk after talking with Renice. I met the family on Monday when I took clothes to them at the shelter while making my food run and she told me then she was the lady getting the van. It was a real pleasure to meet them after the story I already knew, but the real treat came on Thursday.
We picked up the Robinsons from the shelter and brought them to the church to eat breakfast before taking them home to Algiers. The Denny's pulled in from a short work detail and got to meet them and give them the van. While Ray drove their car home and led us to their house, I got the honor of driving Renice and the kids home in their van (she doesn't drive).
We cleared a tree top from their yard and cleaned it up. We also set up a trampoline that was upside down in the yard. Ray trimmed everything.
My heroes, the ladies with us, cleaned out the kitchen. Brett cleared out the refrigerator and deep freeze and we bleached these out. They can't afford to replace them. After that treatment, there was only very little smell left and it was not the noxious indescribable aroma that others have described. Better yet, nobody barfed in the process ;-) Eugene tarped their roof where the storm had ripped off shingles and let rain in.
You wouldn't believe the change in them coming home. They do not live in a neighborhood most of us would feel comfortable in. The house next door was falling in before the hurricane. But, they were so happy to be home and the kids were so happy to see the few friends that were there. They were telling us stories and taking pictures with my camera. They were home.
Robin took a crew down to Waveland Mississippi to drywall and spackle a house he'd been trying to sync up on all week. The Dayton contingent went back out Friday morning, leaving late to come home, in order to finish roofing a house they had started on Thursday.
Friday morning the rest of us headed out before 10:00. We all commented that it would be hard to leave so much work undone and to work on our normal "work" that was so much less important. Please pray with us for all those we met and helped this week and for the hundreds of thousands we did not who are hurt by this disaster. We're passing the torch to Team 4 till we can return.
Aimee Fox from Reynoldsburg CofC and the girls found a new project for next week's crew. It's on the GetRDone Board. A whole neighborhood that was very needy and very bad off.
God has something special planned for the Robinson family we met this week. They've been several people's special project. Some have heard part of the story about the donated minivan, but here's the whole thing, from the source.
Renice and Ray Robinson, and 5 of their 7 kids, Sugar, Jackie, Smokey, Holly, and Magic (didn't meet Sunny or Shakay) fled the storm in their 1981 Olds Cutlas 4 door and were living out of it when they were found by someone from the community at the Mandeville post office. Renice was crying because she didn't know what to do. The woman asked what was wrong and took her to Tammany Oaks for help. Janet Hines talked with her and got them set up in the Red Cross shelter in the community Center in Folsom.The Denny's from Dayton who were in our team had sent Brad a couple of emails about donating an Astro conversion van they had and he'd sent an email to Janet. She found it when she returned to her desk after talking with Renice. I met the family on Monday when I took clothes to them at the shelter while making my food run and she told me then she was the lady getting the van. It was a real pleasure to meet them after the story I already knew, but the real treat came on Thursday.
We picked up the Robinsons from the shelter and brought them to the church to eat breakfast before taking them home to Algiers. The Denny's pulled in from a short work detail and got to meet them and give them the van. While Ray drove their car home and led us to their house, I got the honor of driving Renice and the kids home in their van (she doesn't drive).
We cleared a tree top from their yard and cleaned it up. We also set up a trampoline that was upside down in the yard. Ray trimmed everything.
My heroes, the ladies with us, cleaned out the kitchen. Brett cleared out the refrigerator and deep freeze and we bleached these out. They can't afford to replace them. After that treatment, there was only very little smell left and it was not the noxious indescribable aroma that others have described. Better yet, nobody barfed in the process ;-) Eugene tarped their roof where the storm had ripped off shingles and let rain in.
You wouldn't believe the change in them coming home. They do not live in a neighborhood most of us would feel comfortable in. The house next door was falling in before the hurricane. But, they were so happy to be home and the kids were so happy to see the few friends that were there. They were telling us stories and taking pictures with my camera. They were home.Robin took a crew down to Waveland Mississippi to drywall and spackle a house he'd been trying to sync up on all week. The Dayton contingent went back out Friday morning, leaving late to come home, in order to finish roofing a house they had started on Thursday.
Friday morning the rest of us headed out before 10:00. We all commented that it would be hard to leave so much work undone and to work on our normal "work" that was so much less important. Please pray with us for all those we met and helped this week and for the hundreds of thousands we did not who are hurt by this disaster. We're passing the torch to Team 4 till we can return.
Thursday, September 29, 2005
Week 3 Wednesday Pics (Reloaded)
Remember also that these are taken after 4 weeks of recovery effort.
Here are some pics taken in the area highlighted on the map above them:
This is a pile of donated clothes
Trash piles contain anything you may find in a home or business
The water and wave action stripped the siding, drywall, and contents away and left only the 2x4s and other wall supports
Residents in Slidell have been in and able to clean up for several weeks
The debris here is the awning from the Shell station
The Baptist Church has piles of donated clothes under tents to keep them out of the weather
This view through the windshield gives a better idea of the extent of the piles and wasted "stuff"
The next set of pictures is moving out into what appears to have been an affluent neighborhood on the lake.
Houses on the swamps around the lake were built on stilts and many of them are now gone, or jumbled up with boats.
I took the next set of pictures in St.Bernard Parish on the way to Chalmette to deliver crutches and walkers to the make shift medical clinic.
This sign and crucifix are at the checkpoint for entry into St. Bernard Parish
The temporary medical clinic that had been run by some docs from the local hospital was replaced by the FEMA DMAT (MASH unit) in the endzone of the high school football stadium. They were moving the supplies they had to a new location where they were needed.
Across the street from the DMAT was a good example of things being out of place in the flooded areas.
If you didn't see this in the middle of the boulevard on E Judge Perez Drive, you'd think it was a...
The local Chase bank branch. Between here and the boat was a house that had floated into the road and been chopped away to allow traffic flow.
The mud is everywhere.
Just outside of St. Bernard Parish, there were boats where there should be cars and vice versa.
This boat "sank" in what appears to be a natural gas relay station.
There were three car lots on this stretch of I-10 into New Orleans that had been flooded. Each had better than a thousand cars at a glance.
Here are some pics taken in the area highlighted on the map above them:
This is a pile of donated clothes
Trash piles contain anything you may find in a home or business
The water and wave action stripped the siding, drywall, and contents away and left only the 2x4s and other wall supports
Residents in Slidell have been in and able to clean up for several weeks
The debris here is the awning from the Shell station
The Baptist Church has piles of donated clothes under tents to keep them out of the weather
This view through the windshield gives a better idea of the extent of the piles and wasted "stuff"
The next set of pictures is moving out into what appears to have been an affluent neighborhood on the lake.
Houses on the swamps around the lake were built on stilts and many of them are now gone, or jumbled up with boats.
I took the next set of pictures in St.Bernard Parish on the way to Chalmette to deliver crutches and walkers to the make shift medical clinic.
This sign and crucifix are at the checkpoint for entry into St. Bernard Parish
The temporary medical clinic that had been run by some docs from the local hospital was replaced by the FEMA DMAT (MASH unit) in the endzone of the high school football stadium. They were moving the supplies they had to a new location where they were needed.
Across the street from the DMAT was a good example of things being out of place in the flooded areas.
If you didn't see this in the middle of the boulevard on E Judge Perez Drive, you'd think it was a...
The local Chase bank branch. Between here and the boat was a house that had floated into the road and been chopped away to allow traffic flow.
The mud is everywhere.
Just outside of St. Bernard Parish, there were boats where there should be cars and vice versa.
This boat "sank" in what appears to be a natural gas relay station.
There were three car lots on this stretch of I-10 into New Orleans that had been flooded. Each had better than a thousand cars at a glance.Brad's Update, Thursday Week 3
Alright Team. Here we go. We need your help today and tomorrow. I have 1\2 of a semi truck stopping by the Spring Road Church of Christ building tomorrow late in the afternoon to pick up whatever supplies we can have. We need you to go right now and do what you can to help. We have arranged this truck at a cost of only $500 and we need to take advantage of it. The following are the current needs in order of our understanding of the demand and importance. Please do not be ambivalent. Please do not sit back and leave this for someone else. Please do not think someone else will do this. FEMA is not doing it, the state government is not doing it but we must. God can be glorified by our continuous rising up to meet the needs and challenges of his people in LA. Thank you in advance for your response. Take you lunch hour and go to Sam's Kroger's or wherever and bring you stuff by 74 S. Spring Road in Westerville.
We are counting on you to send this to anyone you know, and everyone they know. We need to help restock the warehouse and keep the relief going. Corporate America is beginning to see the costs of these efforts and their help is slowing down, please lets not let our pocketbooks rule our hearts. Many have given so sacrificially already, so don't feel like you need to give again, just feel the need to pass this on, get the word out. Help us keep people aware.
Brad
- Bottled Water - preferably by the case - there is a desperate need as there is still no healthy drinking water available in the area
- Sport drinks
- Bed linens- new - all sizes- blankets sheets and pillows.
- Fruit cups, crackers, juice
- Diapers size 1,2 and 5
- Pasta and pasta sauces - canned is best for sauce
- Canned goods in general.
We are counting on you to send this to anyone you know, and everyone they know. We need to help restock the warehouse and keep the relief going. Corporate America is beginning to see the costs of these efforts and their help is slowing down, please lets not let our pocketbooks rule our hearts. Many have given so sacrificially already, so don't feel like you need to give again, just feel the need to pass this on, get the word out. Help us keep people aware.
Brad
I can’t show enough pictures or write enough to describe where we went today. Everyone sat around tonight well after others were (trying to be) asleep checking out each other's pics and vids. Much of it seemed the same, but mainly that's because there is so much of it.
Dana Skaggs and I took a pickup truck load of crutches and walkers to a makeshift medical clinic in St. Bernard Parish south of New Orleans. We went to Chalmette by way of Slidell where we picked up a doctor to go help in the clinic for the day. It took us two hours to get the few miles out of Slidell and onto the bridge across the southern tip of Lake Pontchartrain. Part of the wait was for a drawbridge, but a lot of it because sections of the I-10 bridge were taken out in the storm.
On the Slidell side of the lake, we saw mounds of stuff piled by the road. Stuff is the only way to describe what is there because in the mass of rubble ripped out of or off of peoples homes were trash cans, baby walkers, storage bins, shredded plywood, boats, cars, copiers, desks, paper... stuff. Certainly all of this is valuable stuff by itself, but is less than worthless now. Kinda like taking a nice $50.00 Filet Mignon, Caesar salad, and an imported wine, running it through a blender, and dumping it out on the edge of the table... In fact the scene was so unappetizing, we didn't eat our lunches we took.
This scene is several miles of State Route 11 from the bridge back into Slidell. It is everywhere you look in the populated areas within a mile or two from the lakeshore. There are also piles of donated clothes filling large sections of the parking lots of strip malls. A Baptist Church has two very large tents set up in their lawn with clothes piled 6' deep.
As bad as it was, the St. Bernard Parish side of the lake was worse. Some buildings are half collapsed from wind and tide and mud is everywhere drying into a fine dust with flakes of unknown composition and piles of sand. At first, it doesn't look as bad as Slidell because there isn't much that's been removed from the buildings. In fact we talked with an ambulance crew that was still working on a team that was removing bodies.
Dana only saw 1 door marked with a death, but on the way back home through New Orleans, we saw many houses and apartments that were not marked, or marked not entered or not checked. The ambulance crew who I so diligently asked what they had been doing, could barely tell me without breaking down and then only with the word "recovery" and this made me quite ashamed to have asked.
You really can't grasp the scale of this from our words or pictures. You can't see the vast neighborhoods that were all flooded and are uninhabitable from the vantage point of a highway overpass. You can't feel the dread as the highway drops down to ground level just past the Super Dome with its pealing roof. You can't experience the shock when route 11 descends into the flooded end of Slidell and you are all of the sudden confronted with the walls of debris on either side of the road. You can't feel the creaps as your foot sinks through the crust of that mud up to your ankle in a neighborhood where some of Katrina's victims still reside.
People have only been allowed back in there this week and only with a permit. The medical types are worried there will be a lot of injuries when people come back in, but the DMAT we visited (tight security for an end zone) wasn't getting many patients when we were there. Our supplies went to some local docs who had set up a temporary medical clinic in an office building in an oil refinery that was 1 of only 2 not flooded.
We left them with Lisa Ingargiola who had been working in the hospital the night of the hurricane. She came home and got some things when her shift was over and went to her father’s office to weather the storm. From there, she went by boat and has been there pretty much the whole time. She was happy to find her dog had survived 8 days in her house that had 5 feet of water.
Our other work crews made a major accomplishment today. The GitRDone Board was empty at 4:00. Now here are about 8 jobs posted for tomorrow thanks to Alisha's diligent telemarketing ;-) She followed up with some of the people who have been coming here for supplies and on needs they had listed on their intake forms to get specifics and basically spec the job.
Two 24' trucks left fully loaded at 5:00 this morning for Lake Charles Louisiana which was so badly hit hurricane Rita. They returned at 8:00 tonight. Dana Lewis reports conditions there are similar to what we have seen here. That area will need the same support of supplies and workers as this one does.
I met William Watson, a social studies teacher here this evening. He's been helping out in the warehouse yesterday and today. His family has been away in Austin since the Hurricane and since school starts here again on Monday he's going to get them back this weekend. They were fortunate in only having a few lost shingles and piece of facia on their house, but many of his neighbors have a lot of damage. Out here away from the flooding by the lake it's mainly a pine forest with houses in it. Some of these trees are 2ft thick and hit very heavy when they fell doing most of the damage.
The school board is going to determine whether there will be layoffs after they see how many kids come to school in the district now. Some will have left and will leave as parents find new jobs out of the area. Others may come in from more damaged areas.
As is the way, there is a change taking place today that will effect those of you coming next week. The need for pickup of items at the church here is dwindling this week, and so to is the supply. Tammany will continue to take and distribute food, water, and other supplies, but will not need "customer service" or have packers to build food boxes or "MREs". MREs are food boxes that do not need cooking or preparation and are in easy to open packages. Each box feeds a family of 4 for a day.
The optimum support those of us in the world can give the people here is to ship food pre-boxed for delivery to a family like it is being repackaged here. This would be much more efficient and adjust the workload back to the sending community where it is much more convenient for people to volunteer.
A note on what not to donate is in order. I saw first hand today how clothes are distributed if at all. There is no easy distribution method for donated clothes, nor stuffed animals, or kids toys. We've seen some strange things donated this week: a bin of miscellaneous shoes, a bicycle, long sleeved flannel shirts, things that are really in the way of getting people fed, hydrated, and cleaned up. Donating a pack of Wal-Mart gift cards serves the same purpose, allows for choice, takes up significantly less space, and is much cheaper to ship.
So here's whats needed:
Dana Skaggs and I took a pickup truck load of crutches and walkers to a makeshift medical clinic in St. Bernard Parish south of New Orleans. We went to Chalmette by way of Slidell where we picked up a doctor to go help in the clinic for the day. It took us two hours to get the few miles out of Slidell and onto the bridge across the southern tip of Lake Pontchartrain. Part of the wait was for a drawbridge, but a lot of it because sections of the I-10 bridge were taken out in the storm.
On the Slidell side of the lake, we saw mounds of stuff piled by the road. Stuff is the only way to describe what is there because in the mass of rubble ripped out of or off of peoples homes were trash cans, baby walkers, storage bins, shredded plywood, boats, cars, copiers, desks, paper... stuff. Certainly all of this is valuable stuff by itself, but is less than worthless now. Kinda like taking a nice $50.00 Filet Mignon, Caesar salad, and an imported wine, running it through a blender, and dumping it out on the edge of the table... In fact the scene was so unappetizing, we didn't eat our lunches we took.
This scene is several miles of State Route 11 from the bridge back into Slidell. It is everywhere you look in the populated areas within a mile or two from the lakeshore. There are also piles of donated clothes filling large sections of the parking lots of strip malls. A Baptist Church has two very large tents set up in their lawn with clothes piled 6' deep.
As bad as it was, the St. Bernard Parish side of the lake was worse. Some buildings are half collapsed from wind and tide and mud is everywhere drying into a fine dust with flakes of unknown composition and piles of sand. At first, it doesn't look as bad as Slidell because there isn't much that's been removed from the buildings. In fact we talked with an ambulance crew that was still working on a team that was removing bodies.
Dana only saw 1 door marked with a death, but on the way back home through New Orleans, we saw many houses and apartments that were not marked, or marked not entered or not checked. The ambulance crew who I so diligently asked what they had been doing, could barely tell me without breaking down and then only with the word "recovery" and this made me quite ashamed to have asked.
You really can't grasp the scale of this from our words or pictures. You can't see the vast neighborhoods that were all flooded and are uninhabitable from the vantage point of a highway overpass. You can't feel the dread as the highway drops down to ground level just past the Super Dome with its pealing roof. You can't experience the shock when route 11 descends into the flooded end of Slidell and you are all of the sudden confronted with the walls of debris on either side of the road. You can't feel the creaps as your foot sinks through the crust of that mud up to your ankle in a neighborhood where some of Katrina's victims still reside.
People have only been allowed back in there this week and only with a permit. The medical types are worried there will be a lot of injuries when people come back in, but the DMAT we visited (tight security for an end zone) wasn't getting many patients when we were there. Our supplies went to some local docs who had set up a temporary medical clinic in an office building in an oil refinery that was 1 of only 2 not flooded.
We left them with Lisa Ingargiola who had been working in the hospital the night of the hurricane. She came home and got some things when her shift was over and went to her father’s office to weather the storm. From there, she went by boat and has been there pretty much the whole time. She was happy to find her dog had survived 8 days in her house that had 5 feet of water.
Our other work crews made a major accomplishment today. The GitRDone Board was empty at 4:00. Now here are about 8 jobs posted for tomorrow thanks to Alisha's diligent telemarketing ;-) She followed up with some of the people who have been coming here for supplies and on needs they had listed on their intake forms to get specifics and basically spec the job.
Two 24' trucks left fully loaded at 5:00 this morning for Lake Charles Louisiana which was so badly hit hurricane Rita. They returned at 8:00 tonight. Dana Lewis reports conditions there are similar to what we have seen here. That area will need the same support of supplies and workers as this one does.
I met William Watson, a social studies teacher here this evening. He's been helping out in the warehouse yesterday and today. His family has been away in Austin since the Hurricane and since school starts here again on Monday he's going to get them back this weekend. They were fortunate in only having a few lost shingles and piece of facia on their house, but many of his neighbors have a lot of damage. Out here away from the flooding by the lake it's mainly a pine forest with houses in it. Some of these trees are 2ft thick and hit very heavy when they fell doing most of the damage.
The school board is going to determine whether there will be layoffs after they see how many kids come to school in the district now. Some will have left and will leave as parents find new jobs out of the area. Others may come in from more damaged areas.
As is the way, there is a change taking place today that will effect those of you coming next week. The need for pickup of items at the church here is dwindling this week, and so to is the supply. Tammany will continue to take and distribute food, water, and other supplies, but will not need "customer service" or have packers to build food boxes or "MREs". MREs are food boxes that do not need cooking or preparation and are in easy to open packages. Each box feeds a family of 4 for a day.
The optimum support those of us in the world can give the people here is to ship food pre-boxed for delivery to a family like it is being repackaged here. This would be much more efficient and adjust the workload back to the sending community where it is much more convenient for people to volunteer.
A note on what not to donate is in order. I saw first hand today how clothes are distributed if at all. There is no easy distribution method for donated clothes, nor stuffed animals, or kids toys. We've seen some strange things donated this week: a bin of miscellaneous shoes, a bicycle, long sleeved flannel shirts, things that are really in the way of getting people fed, hydrated, and cleaned up. Donating a pack of Wal-Mart gift cards serves the same purpose, allows for choice, takes up significantly less space, and is much cheaper to ship.
So here's whats needed:
- Water
- Food (best if each box is packaged to provide meals to a family for a day)
- Personal care items (out of deodorant and shampoo)
- Clearing brush and small trees to the curb for removal
- Removing wet material from "mucking out" houses (crews have been largely made up of women ;-)
- Rebuilding houses (Plumbing, Electrical, Roofing, Drywall, etc.)
- Finding people in need (you'll hear about Mark McGiffin's project tomorrow)
- Finding neighborhoods in need (and about Amy Fox's)
- Cooking for volunteers
- Trucking supplies to where they are needed in the Penske rentals (my personal favorite)
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Notes from Team 3 - Tuesday
It's late, and unlike last night, I'm beat, so this will be short (I hope). Start the timer, it's now 12:13 Central. I have a few comments and then there are a couple of stories others have added that are all in this dispatch.
We still need basics - food and water. We are nearly out here at the building this evening. Shipments inbound have slowed dramatically this week. The only thing that came in today were two 24' Penske's of miscelanious, but needed items from Christ the King Church here who had extra.
I took a truck to Folsom again today, but could only give them two pallets of food, three short pallets of 2ltr bottled water, and a pallet of baby packages built by a CofC in Nashville. They had 2 gallon jugs left when I got there and were down to the food I trucked up there yesterday with no new inbound trucks other than ours.
We are once again a very large contingent of the volunteers here, roughly half. A few from Kentucky left last night and a couple from Talahassee are leaving in the morning. We still can occupy more than twice the volunteers here with GitRDone jobs and only had enough in the warehouse today because we didn't get enough in to package and stock fully for tomorrow.
Everyone here keeps talking about hundreds, literally, of stories about God things (where there is no other reasonable explanation). Dozens happen in this effort every day. We have to help build support for this effort and get some more food, drinks, people, and other essentials down here.
This church is supporting their locale and other relief groups in this area, like the church in Folsom, the National Guard, and the Red Cross who is sending people to us to help. They have two of the three 24' Penske trucks packed and leaving for Lake Charles, LA at 4:00 in the morning as it has just been opened up to aid after Hurricane Rita. They have unbroken pallets of food, water, several of our chain saws, fuel, and a 100 gallon tank of diesel as they don't expect they can refuel till they return. We still can't always get diesel here though we did today.
Our medicos all left with Tracey (manages the logistics, like what's coming, what's going, what's being packed up) this morning to administer 100 donated tetanus shots to FEMA contractors that were working down here without them. Not ideal conditions, but effective. Tracey is REALLY amazing. I don't understand how she keeps going. She's the one filling the syringe in the purple shirt. She left tonight around 9:00 after finally eating for the day when the Lake Charles trucks were packed.
To me, God's message that this is our task could not be clearer now that I've experienced the need and the worry that we won't be able to meet it tomorrow without something, a lot of something coming in. We really have to mobilize the massive assets in our churches to make sure they don't run out. Many people here are still and will continue to depend on us to eat, and have clean water, listen to their stories, and pray with them.
Our gang kept very busy today. One crew had cleared three yards by lunch time. Two crews were out with trailers of water in some very hard hit areas. A trailer park other residents directed them to had them close to tears. The falling trees had caused so much damage and people were without jobs and finances. They gobbled up the water and most of a second run.
We had some good stories to tell tonight. I got a couple people to write theirs out, but won't get some till tomorrow.
From Alicia Shrewsbury – Norway Avenue Church of Christ
These past 2 days have been awesome! God is truly working here at Tammany Oaks Church of Christ. Today I worked around the warehouse doing various things. The Lord led me outside the church building loading boxes of water some time after 3pm. The hours at the church are 10-2pm for people to come and get things they need. A woman approached me from the parking lot and began asking me about the hours at the church and explaining things that she needed. Even though it was after hours, I invited her inside the building where others began ministering to her spiritual needs while I gathered baby supplies for her family. She truly needed to talk with others, share her story and know that there are people that care about her. Thousands of other things like this are going on here. Continue to pray about this week and what God may ask you to do to help.
Here's one of these God things...
From Tom McClanahan – Spring Road Church of Christ
When passing out water to some tree trimmers we found in one of the neighborhoods we ran across a group of tree trimmers clearing trees for the power company. We had happened to put a pallet of boots on the truck to deliver some place else the following day. We asked the men if they needed a pair of work boots and one worker said yes. We gave him his boots and went on our way. As we were turning the corner the group started yelling for us to come back. Robin went around the block and returned to the area and a new group of men on another truck called from a cell phone started to yell out there sizes and we handed them out one after another. The men were very appreciative and a lot of smiling faces (click picture to enlarge). God does work in mysterious ways. Who would have thought that we would take a load of work boots into a neighborhood while we were handing out food and water?
Kevin Dill - Westerville Nazarene added that they left cleaning supplies with a guy helping clean up at a relatives house. He was wearing a fire department search and rescue T-Shirt who's boots were coated inside and out with wet drywall dust. They'd been trashed working so he ended up with some upgrades too. He said a lot of guys at the department could use some as well so they bundled up a couple of pairs each of common sizes, a dozen or so in all for him to take.
Who'd have thought to send us boots and how in the world did they end up on the trailer with the water? 1 guess only!
I also made a delivery with pickup and trailer to a neighborhood two exits north/west. Tracey's friend Michelle sold her house yesterday after a pre-hurricane deal fell through. The new buyers, a couple caring for their 80ish old aunt while currently living in a tent have nothing left. They asked Michelle to leave anything she would throw out moving in case she could use it. We took a good load of supplies and houskeeping items and left them in Michelle's garage. When she moves out a crew will unpack all that stuff into the cabinets and drawers and closets of the house for them to discover when they move in. I'm telling you, the light of Christ people!
To end, if you've talked to anyone who's been here and read the blog, you've gotta wonder about these "love bugs". Well since nobody else did it, I've come all the way to Louisiana to study this not so elusive species. Here's what they are....and what they do. Out of all the unhappy endings on our vehicles, these two dodged a bullet and landed lightly on the side window of the Penske truck. Lets all wish them well.
There are three main messages in all of that. We are working hard, making some awsome relationships, and need more. The hurricane is nowhere near over here and nobody else is stepping up to take care of the problem. It's all ours. Lets roll!
John McGuire (1:22am... oh well)
We still need basics - food and water. We are nearly out here at the building this evening. Shipments inbound have slowed dramatically this week. The only thing that came in today were two 24' Penske's of miscelanious, but needed items from Christ the King Church here who had extra.
I took a truck to Folsom again today, but could only give them two pallets of food, three short pallets of 2ltr bottled water, and a pallet of baby packages built by a CofC in Nashville. They had 2 gallon jugs left when I got there and were down to the food I trucked up there yesterday with no new inbound trucks other than ours.We are once again a very large contingent of the volunteers here, roughly half. A few from Kentucky left last night and a couple from Talahassee are leaving in the morning. We still can occupy more than twice the volunteers here with GitRDone jobs and only had enough in the warehouse today because we didn't get enough in to package and stock fully for tomorrow.
Everyone here keeps talking about hundreds, literally, of stories about God things (where there is no other reasonable explanation). Dozens happen in this effort every day. We have to help build support for this effort and get some more food, drinks, people, and other essentials down here.
This church is supporting their locale and other relief groups in this area, like the church in Folsom, the National Guard, and the Red Cross who is sending people to us to help. They have two of the three 24' Penske trucks packed and leaving for Lake Charles, LA at 4:00 in the morning as it has just been opened up to aid after Hurricane Rita. They have unbroken pallets of food, water, several of our chain saws, fuel, and a 100 gallon tank of diesel as they don't expect they can refuel till they return. We still can't always get diesel here though we did today.
Our medicos all left with Tracey (manages the logistics, like what's coming, what's going, what's being packed up) this morning to administer 100 donated tetanus shots to FEMA contractors that were working down here without them. Not ideal conditions, but effective. Tracey is REALLY amazing. I don't understand how she keeps going. She's the one filling the syringe in the purple shirt. She left tonight around 9:00 after finally eating for the day when the Lake Charles trucks were packed.To me, God's message that this is our task could not be clearer now that I've experienced the need and the worry that we won't be able to meet it tomorrow without something, a lot of something coming in. We really have to mobilize the massive assets in our churches to make sure they don't run out. Many people here are still and will continue to depend on us to eat, and have clean water, listen to their stories, and pray with them.
Our gang kept very busy today. One crew had cleared three yards by lunch time. Two crews were out with trailers of water in some very hard hit areas. A trailer park other residents directed them to had them close to tears. The falling trees had caused so much damage and people were without jobs and finances. They gobbled up the water and most of a second run.
We had some good stories to tell tonight. I got a couple people to write theirs out, but won't get some till tomorrow.
From Alicia Shrewsbury – Norway Avenue Church of Christ
These past 2 days have been awesome! God is truly working here at Tammany Oaks Church of Christ. Today I worked around the warehouse doing various things. The Lord led me outside the church building loading boxes of water some time after 3pm. The hours at the church are 10-2pm for people to come and get things they need. A woman approached me from the parking lot and began asking me about the hours at the church and explaining things that she needed. Even though it was after hours, I invited her inside the building where others began ministering to her spiritual needs while I gathered baby supplies for her family. She truly needed to talk with others, share her story and know that there are people that care about her. Thousands of other things like this are going on here. Continue to pray about this week and what God may ask you to do to help.
Here's one of these God things...
From Tom McClanahan – Spring Road Church of Christ When passing out water to some tree trimmers we found in one of the neighborhoods we ran across a group of tree trimmers clearing trees for the power company. We had happened to put a pallet of boots on the truck to deliver some place else the following day. We asked the men if they needed a pair of work boots and one worker said yes. We gave him his boots and went on our way. As we were turning the corner the group started yelling for us to come back. Robin went around the block and returned to the area and a new group of men on another truck called from a cell phone started to yell out there sizes and we handed them out one after another. The men were very appreciative and a lot of smiling faces (click picture to enlarge). God does work in mysterious ways. Who would have thought that we would take a load of work boots into a neighborhood while we were handing out food and water?
Kevin Dill - Westerville Nazarene added that they left cleaning supplies with a guy helping clean up at a relatives house. He was wearing a fire department search and rescue T-Shirt who's boots were coated inside and out with wet drywall dust. They'd been trashed working so he ended up with some upgrades too. He said a lot of guys at the department could use some as well so they bundled up a couple of pairs each of common sizes, a dozen or so in all for him to take.
Who'd have thought to send us boots and how in the world did they end up on the trailer with the water? 1 guess only!
I also made a delivery with pickup and trailer to a neighborhood two exits north/west. Tracey's friend Michelle sold her house yesterday after a pre-hurricane deal fell through. The new buyers, a couple caring for their 80ish old aunt while currently living in a tent have nothing left. They asked Michelle to leave anything she would throw out moving in case she could use it. We took a good load of supplies and houskeeping items and left them in Michelle's garage. When she moves out a crew will unpack all that stuff into the cabinets and drawers and closets of the house for them to discover when they move in. I'm telling you, the light of Christ people!
To end, if you've talked to anyone who's been here and read the blog, you've gotta wonder about these "love bugs". Well since nobody else did it, I've come all the way to Louisiana to study this not so elusive species. Here's what they are....and what they do. Out of all the unhappy endings on our vehicles, these two dodged a bullet and landed lightly on the side window of the Penske truck. Lets all wish them well.There are three main messages in all of that. We are working hard, making some awsome relationships, and need more. The hurricane is nowhere near over here and nobody else is stepping up to take care of the problem. It's all ours. Lets roll!
John McGuire (1:22am... oh well)
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Come Together...
I am cleaning the kitchen and put Third Day on. I listen to them all the
time and it hit me this morning how much this song spoke to what we are
doing in LA.
Melinda McGuire
time and it hit me this morning how much this song spoke to what we are
doing in LA.
Melinda McGuire
Come Together
Lyrics by Mac Powell /Music by Third Day
From the recording: Come Together, Track #1.
You can all call me crazy
For the things that I might say
You can laugh all you want to
I know there will come a day
When we all will come together
And learn to set aside our hate
If we could learn to love our neighbors
Just like we would love ourselves
We've got to come together
'Cause in the end we can make it - alright
We've got to brave the weather
Through all of the storms
We've got to come together
'Cause in the end we can make it - alright
We've got to learn to love
You can call me a dreamer
But these dreams will come true
Yes, I am a firm believer
In the things that we can do
If we would all just come together
And let the Lord lead our way
There is nothing that we can't do
There is nothing we can't face
I know that there will come a day
When the Lord will call His own away
To a place that He has made for all of us
But until the day of His return
There's a lesson that we've got to learn
We are brothers and we're sisters
We are one
Lyrics by Mac Powell /Music by Third Day
From the recording: Come Together, Track #1.
You can all call me crazy
For the things that I might say
You can laugh all you want to
I know there will come a day
When we all will come together
And learn to set aside our hate
If we could learn to love our neighbors
Just like we would love ourselves
We've got to come together
'Cause in the end we can make it - alright
We've got to brave the weather
Through all of the storms
We've got to come together
'Cause in the end we can make it - alright
We've got to learn to love
You can call me a dreamer
But these dreams will come true
Yes, I am a firm believer
In the things that we can do
If we would all just come together
And let the Lord lead our way
There is nothing that we can't do
There is nothing we can't face
I know that there will come a day
When the Lord will call His own away
To a place that He has made for all of us
But until the day of His return
There's a lesson that we've got to learn
We are brothers and we're sisters
We are one
Downloadable Louisiana Video
You can download, ONLY if you have broadband, a quicktime version of a video Troy made for the Northland at http://therenos.com/katrina/. If you have dial-up, you won't live long enough ;-) The video is 27mb. We will have a smaller version available shortly.
Thanks Dave for hosting this for us.
Thanks Dave for hosting this for us.
Notes from Team 3 - Monday
Hurricane Rita was still playing the spoiler in our trip to Mandeville Sunday night. The downpours of rain were massive, especially while we were unloading luggage in Tuscaloosa at University CofC. The volunteers there were excellent hosts for our overnight stay. We had heard of reports of Tornados in their area while coming into Birmingham, but the warnings had all expired by the time we got there.
This morning was a different story, however. Aside form the heat and oppressive humidity, the only downpour we had was lovebugs stuck to the windshields and overheating 1 van by plugging the radiator.
The storm damage showed up in an obvious way as we crossed the Mississippi state line on the way into Meridian, but it's spotty, even here in Mandeville. The picture is of a heavily hit section of the median of I-59 in southern Mississippi. We saw houses on 5 acre or so lots on the way to Folsom that looked worse than this. There are large stands of trees down in some places. Heavily forested areas that are, but for a very few trees flattened, and there are other areas where you wouldn't know anything as extreme as Hurricane Katrina had happened.
Most highway signs have been blown down but appear to be built with breakaway's to allow them to fall with minimal damage to the sign. Some were trashed anyway. This picture taken by Alicia Shrewsburry also shows part of a large lot full of new house trailers and campers. Presumably this is one of the FEMA lots that haven't been distributed.Kevin, Nick, and I drove a 24' Hertz truck full of palletized "family food boxes" (enough food for a family of 4 for 1 day) to Folsom Baptist Church in the one stoplight town of Folsom Louisiana today. They have a feeding relief program going where people can get a hot meal, food to take home, and supplies, much like what Tammany is providing. Their warehouse is about the same size, but their demand has outstripped their supply. There have been days they have not had food to hand out and they were VERY thankful for what we took them today.
Tammany had been getting 5-6 semi truck loads per day, but that has slowed to 3 the last few days. I asked how they were getting that food, whether it was ordered or just turned up. Like so much in this effort where God is showing his work so blatantly, it just shows up.
Most mornings the National Guard stops in and loads up on supplies. They leave things with people who need them that they come by during the day. They can go places that we can't yet. We spoke to a couple of National Guardsmen from California who were assigned to a Red Cross shelter in the community center in Folsom. The shelter was a large gymnasium that was wall to wall cots.
A group of healthcare types is leaving at 5:15 in the morning to give vaccines someone donated this week to 100 ATF workers. Like we have posted for our volunteers, people working in this area need Hepatitis A and Tetanus. There are a lot of "official" relief workers who haven't been vaccinated. The water is still not safe here in Mandeville. The church has put up signs on fountains not to drink, and on bathroom doors, not to brush teath with the water. Fortunately this effort is well blessed for bottled water. It moves fast, but has been coming in ahead of demand.
We send trucks out into neighborhoods loaded with food boxes and people come out who need them. Robin took one of these out today, but was only out for about 3 hours. He emptied half a 24' truck. He said it was a nice neighborhood, but was just getting electric and other services reestablished.
Mark, Kim, and her daughter stopped in on an older gentleman this afternoon who was in questionable condition. He had a badley swollen leg and didn't really know how much water and food he had. They talked with him and prayed with him, but were very concerned about him tonight and want to check up on him tomorrow. Please pray for the victims and those who are meeting them for the strength, courage, and right words that only the Holy Spirit can provide.
Thought everyone would be impressed to see the map Tammany is keeping with a dot where volunteers have come in from. Most groups have been couples or small teams of four or so.
There is so much more work to do here than there are people to do it. They have a Git R Dun board that has a project sheet and map filled out with people in the community who need work done. These are cleanup of houses, clearing trees and brush, and other tasks. A group can form up and grab one of these to go work on. A lot of the guys did these today and came back absolutely drenched and exhausted. Their the ones who are snoring in the warehouse now while those of us who drove air conditioned Hertz trucks around in heavy traffic all afternoon are still up blogging ;-)
They also have a Bin Dun board that resides on the opposite side of the church secretary's door. So you have photographic evidence of how much more we could help people here.
Thought this was worth posting. This sign is in the hall between the "warehouse" sanctuary and the Git R Dun board and absolutely exemplifies the attitude of the local staff after 4 weeks of this nonstop, heartwrenching, work in Jesus' name.More Tomorrow!
John McGuire
