Columbus Mission to Mandeville, Katrina Relief

At 2:25pm Saturday, Team 4 had just crossed the Ohio River. Look for them at the church around 4:00, assuming no more stops.

As this first phase of this project ends, let me offer a sincere thanks to everyone who supported those of us who have gone down to serve. Thanks to our families, contributors, employers, coworkers, churches, friends, and all those who have made this mission possible. Thanks especially, to those organizers and handlers who have been closest to this effort, donating many hours of their time.

Talked with Troy at 11:30 and they were on the road. They'll be staying in Nashville tonight and returning tomorrow afternoon.

As this trip ends, it's time to start planning our renewed effort, both personally and collectively for the gulf coast area. There are now several weeks till we expect to have a team going again. Please consider the following:

• Tammany Oaks has recommitted this week to organizing cleanup efforts for the foreseeable future in the entire Lake Pontchartrain and surrounding area.
• Residents were just allowed into most parts of New Orleans Wednesday to examine their homes and businesses. People are just now finding how much work there is to do.
• 56,000 (FEMA estimate) are still in shelters
• FEMA opened its first trailer park near Baton Rouge yesterday which should hold 2,000, but only an aggressive few have found their way there.
• While we have ripped out a lot of moldering materials, walls, insulation, flooring, carpeting, and furniture must still be replaced in the houses that have been cleaned out.
• Insurance companies and FEMA are not prepared to pay out replacement costs to homeowners except in what appears to be rare cases until the court cases are settled.
• People like one we discussed last week, will continue to be displaced from their environment by rising rent and redistribution of the population into lesser damaged or undamaged areas.

Satan still has a lot of work to do in this area so as front line soldiers, we do as well. Please be in prayerful consideration of how you can continue supporting this effort for people who's lives have been wiped away with nothing other than us to fall back on. We have to continue to let God use us to support them to the best of our ability.

This is VERY good stuff:
http://www.time.com/time/photoessays/kadir_katrina/

Thought I had some pretty good shots till I went through this. In particular, notice the message in number 15. We've seen many examples of this phenomenon in the disaster zone.

Hey all:

Today was a beautiful day. We had quite a procession. All of our team, Over 40 people, 7 cars, a Bobcat, a pressure washer, all kinds of other stuff. We went to the Carrollton Church of Christ. The church has put out a plea for help. When the water inside the church receded the church pews literally exploded into a twisted mess of wood. The building was in terrible shape.






The picture of the suits show temporary HAZMAT suits for working in the terrible moldy conditions in a lot of areas. We had many wearing them and carrying out all kinds of stuff. We also put a group next door and 8 down the street to a duplex. The duplex only had to have the bottom four feet of drywall removed and no ceilings. It made the work easier until the hardwood floors had to be removed. It got done but it was very hard work for the team.

We had a great meal tonight and everyone is bonding well after a hard day’s work all together. We are sitting in the hallway now as we speak and everyone is exhausted but feeling so good. It was nice helping the church today, but yesterday’s work with Dee still is so powerful in my mind.

I want to encourage all of you reading this to consider coming here with as much of your family as can be here who can be productive and safe. It has been so wonderful working with my wife and daughter in this work for the Lord. Most of you know that Amy and I are active in many ministries at the Church but truly I have been blessed by seeing Jesus in her and Whitney’s hands and feet.

It is time for bed as we have a big day of finishing the church tomorrow and I hear we are taking on two more projects as well. This week has been an experience we will remember as long as we are alive and able. Please know I consider it a privilege to have been here to sweat, hurt my back, ache in my shoulders and receive some of the best hugs I have ever had.

I look forward to returning and begin planning future trips.

Brad

I’ll remember this week forever and it’s not just the massive destruction that was seen but also the bonding of fellow Christians in a common effort to serve those desperately in need. Nobody turned down the offer to pray with them.

On one street hit hard in Slidell- Moonracker Drive which was the second street in from the beach, there was a “man of the world” (he admitted he lived a wild life) who was helping a neighbor clean out his house to the ceiling. It was a house our team showed up to help. His appearance was that of a pirate. We named him Dave The Pirate (we don’t know his last name).

He was a hard worker and as we worked side by side he asked our team that if we had time, the single mom next store could use some help. Later that afternoon we went over to tear out the drywall/installation/flooring to the 4’ level that remained to be done in her house. During the removal of the drywall we found termite damage in a small area. Dave came over and told Mary the owner that he would replace the studs for her. One of our team told Dave that if she ever had a disaster hit her neighborhood she hoped she had a neighbor like him around.

The next day the team again stopped by with bibles to present to the families with our names signed in the front. When we gave Dave his bible addressed to “Dave The Pirate” he almost started to cry. It is our hope that God used us to touch this man’s heart and everybody else we came in contact with while in the area.

Greg

Did all of the prayers sent up cause the major degredation of Hurricane Rita before it made landfall? Scientifically, there hasn't been a good explanation for why the storm didn't do what was expected, weakening, rather than strengthening, impacting lesser populated areas rather than high population cities. I'll choose to believe our petition to God was answered in this way.

Here's another one to pray about. Tropical Storm Tammy has formed off the Florida coast. There is not a reliable prediction for its movement or strength as it is moving parallel to shore like Ophelia did, heading up the east coast. Lets all pray for this storm to weaken and head out to sea.

Many of us are suffering personal storms. The people impacted by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita are, as many of us have seen first hand. Also, everyone who was in our team last week that I have talked to since returning is suffering a personal storm about returning to our day to day lives rather than continuing to focus on work in God's kingdom. Even someone I consider my rock of rationality and responsiblilty has felt drawn to seriously consider going "full time" out of this. Finally as we've seen with our new friends, Mr. Alexander and the Robinson family, there were storms before Katrina added her insults.

Paul says, in Ephesians 6:18 at the end of my life verses on the full armor of God, "Pray at all times and on every occasion in the power of the Holy Spirit. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all Christians everywhere." (NLT)

It's easy for me to forget this. I felt drawn to remind us all of the power of our prayers and the Holy Spirit in our lives and how much they can impact the lives of others. Please pray now for those of us who are feeling called so strongly to mission work to find an outlet or the peace to be patient for God to reveal the path to us. Or, as frequently happens, to find what He has behind door number 3 that we can't even concieve of. Please pray for the people we've been helping. And please pray for all of God's people to continue to come together through these efforts without avarice to execute His plans here on earth.

John McGuire

There is so much to say about what God did last week and what God is doing in my life since the trip. One thing that happened last week that I would like to share is that on Thursday I witnessed the Robinson family receive their van that one of the Ohio volunteers brought to give away. As you know, the family had been living at a shelter and maybe out of their car some since Katrina. They were brought to the church building to be fed and for us to take them back to their home with a clean up crew. After they ate, Mike took them out to the parking lot and showed them the van that they got to take home. They were absolutely ecstatic. I had to walk away because I became very emotional just watching the excitement in the children and their parents' faces.

Once we made it to their home, it was awesome the way everyone went to work to clean their house so they could call it home again. When we were leaving, Ray Robinson told us that his kids didn't want us to leave. It was an awesome day.

Since i've been home, God has been speaking to me very loudly. It's a little fuzzy, but I know that God is moving me from West Virginia(what I have always called home) and probably somewhere south. My first thought when I walked into Tammany Oaks Church was, "I wish this were closer to WV; I'd be here all the time." Since I've been home, the Lord has been slowly been revealing his plan to me. I began sorting through my things Sunday and I began packing yesterday evening.

I have always been afraid of moving and even the idea of some kind of full time mission work; but now, I'm not afraid and I am crying out, Here I am Lord; send me!!

Alicia

This is worth reading and responding to so I wanted to make sure the readers here have seen it.

http://toccrecovery.blogspot.com/

We also need to keep in mind that at some point, Tammany Oaks' new "church" will need to become that again rather than the warehouse, dorm, urgent care, and cafeteria it is now. For those who don't know, they only had this building for three weeks when the storm hit. Sunday church services are being held among the boxes. Some things are still not complete. The carpet and tile they had installed have been trashed by the usage God had for the building. These will need to be replaced and walls and doors repaired and repainted. Please be praying and thinking ahead to how we can help them when the time comes for that task.

John McGuire

Monday, October 3 pm - Wow, wow. I don't know what I expected but it was not this. As we drove our last four hours today we began to notice some signs of Katrina. Tarped roofs broken trees. As we got closer I felt a little relieved maybe a little disappointed as I thought it would be much worse. You could hear in everyone's comments that they were gonna be OK and this would not be too bad.

Then wham, we arrived at the church and within 15 minutes I met Janet Hines and had an assignment. We got an address, some shovels, and 9 team members and off we went. No pep talk, no prep, just go and if this person is not home go find another home in the neighborhood. What we saw on the way brought sounds and moans from the people in the car, Oh my gosh, what are they gonna do, this is 4 weeks later, were the comments being heard. We turned into a neighborhood and all we could do was stare. The entire street was full of appliances insulation furniture everything from every house. I have never seen anything like it.

We found our house - no one home. We walked the street and found a lady and her brother working on her mom's house. They were about to quit when we stopped and offered help. We proceeded to gut the house, I mean gut, all the drywall, all the insulation, the light fixtures everything gone and taken out into the front lawn to complete the row of garbage on the street. It was unbelievable. We got to know our new friends Troy and his sister, we had fun laughed and prayed with them.

Tomorrow is a new day and lots to do. Teams going everywhere. I will write more when my daughter hasn't eaten my battery sending email,

Brad

How awsome it is to be back here again. Sorry no note last night, but the church network in Tuscaloosa was not Mac Compatable. It has been quite an eventful two days. We left nearly on time yesterday and were making great time through Ohio and Kentucky. When just somewhere near Bowling Green KY, one of the trailers blew a tire. We stopped for a short while, and it was decided that Brad and his vehicle would stay with the truck and trailer and the rest of us would continue to Tuscaloosa. About 15 minutes farther down the road an ambulance got on the freeway ahead of us running hot. They were about .2 miles ahead of us and suddenly traffic started to slow and the ambulance crossed the median.

As we approached, there was a car in the North lanes on it's top and multiple victims in the median. I radioed to Corey that we were stopping and for him to meet me in the median as he is a paramedic as well and there were only two technicians on the ambulance that had arrived. In the mean time, Lisa was explaining to the other passengers in the van that this was just how life with Troy was and not anything out of the ordinary.
Corey and I helped load two patients from the median into the ambulance that was there and sent them on their way while firemen cut two victims out of the car that was on it's top. As the first ambulance left, a second one arrived and we quickly got the remaining two victims from the median into the ambulance and off to the hospital after starting an IV on a young man.

The firemen had cut the driver out of the car but he was deceased and they were removing the other passenger who appeared to be a little unstable. They called for a helicopter for him. I finally had a minute to look around and saw that during this whole time, Lisa was directing traffic in the South lanes. (I guess you never loose it).

While we were waiting on the Helicopter, I was holding the IV bag (quite possibly being the largest IV pole in medical history) and decided to talk to the victim a little. As it turns out, his name is Mohammed and he along with his brothers and father were returning to Slidell, LA to see their home for the first time since Katrina hit. It was their father who died in the crash. I shared our mission with him and said a quick prayer with him and the Helicopter landed. Please pray for this family.

We then proceeded to the University CoC where we had an awesome reception and meal with them. We then had a small devotional and shared communion together as a team and off to bed.

We arrived without incident in Mandeville today and as usual went right to work. Our team was immediately given jobs to tend to and split up. I wish that I had another cool story to tell about the family we met, but they were not home, so we did the work and left.

Back at the church, we met the group from Providence Road and as it turns out, one of the members of their team is originally from Ashland, Ohio and I grew up playing football and going to NWOCYC with his sons. Small world. It has been three weeks since I have been here, but it seems like there is more than ever to do and never enough time or energy to do it all. I guess we just do what we can and God will take care of the rest. As I think about what a small dent we seem to be making, I am reminded of the little boy on the beach throwing starfish back into the ocean.

Keep praying, God is Good


Love 'Em Like Jesus,
Troy Blair, Youth Minister
Northland Church of Christ
www.ncocfamily.org
tblair@ncocfamily.org

If you've already seen them, take a sec to go over Wednesday's pics again. I added come commentary to them and cleaned up the formatting. Thursday's dispatches are now complete. Check out Mark McGiffin's account of his relationship with Mr. Alexander

John McGuire

Mr. Roy Alexander, is an eighty year old man, born Sept 1926 (guess that makes him 79). He told me he was going to live to be 500 yrs old. Kim Skaggs and I met him last Monday night, Sept 26th. He was laying on his couch. Not much of a couch though. There were no cushons, springs poking through what little material that was left. He had a small piece of plywood over the springs so he could keep his legs elevated. It appeared that both of his feet and ankles were swollen.

Kim and I spoke with him briefly, took him a box of food, and made sure had plenty of drinking water. Kim had asked him how he was doing and if he needed anything. He insisted that he had all he needed and wanted us to keep what we had to give to others who were in more need than he was. He told us about his heart surgery that he had about 2 years ago. Showed us his scars, and told us he had stents inserted along with a defibulator.

He mentioned that he had stayed right there on the couch all during Katrina and Rita. Kim asked how high the water had come into his house. He said it was about a foot high in his home and he road the storm out right there on the couch. It was the worst he had ever seen. He told us how the water came up through the floor boards and the whole time wondered how it was coming in. He looked out his window and saw a river rolling through his front yard. The entire time more and more trash and debris flowed past.


This man touched me in a way that no one ever had. I finally made it back to his house on Weds. and took my wife Becky, niece Ashley, and Connie (a nurse) to meet him. His house is a terrible mess. Black mold growing on the walls, ceiling in the bedroom falling in, the bathroom floor caving in, he had moved things from his house to the front porch (apparently trying to clean it up as best he could). Trees across the back of his house, the kitchen even more a mess than the bedroom or bathroom. He talks with us, tells us about his life there, he was in the Army, Korean War, heavy artillery. He has lived there all his life (with the exception of being deployed while in the Army). My niece Ashley asks to take his picture, she's very artistic and wants to paint his portrait. He tries to charge her $300 for taking his picture and laughs. What a character!

Connie checked him out to make sure he was ok. He showed her a wound on the back of his left calf and said a doctor had checked it out a couple weeks before. Thankfully no infection. I told him that I would be back later that afternoon to bring him some antibiotic cream for this leg. Connie told him to continue to take his heart medication.


On Thursday morning a group of us showed up to "straighten up" what little we could. I walked in the front door and his first words were "I took my medication". I told him I brought a few people to help clean up for him. In 3 hours, we made little more than a dent in what really need to happen. His house needs to be condemed. It's in an uninhabitable state. The"crew" talks with him as we clean up inside, and out. He tells us that there's a flag on the front porch and not to throw it out. It was his brother's "honor flag", and he wanted to hang it from the tree outside his house. Dana has her recorder and interviews him for a project she is working on. He wants to know if he'll be on Televison and agrees to the interview but it would cost her $300 a minute! Every time we turned around he was making slight jokes or pulling someones leg. He touched us all!

Of course, before we left we hung his flag for him, but not until I talked him into helping. I told him that the women there didnt know how to hang the flag, and that it was up to us "military men" to make sure it got hung properly. At that point he eagerly agreed.

Before leaving, around noon, I went to the front porch where he was sitting, put my arm around him and said that I'd be back to check on him later in the evening and for him to get plenty of rest. He reached up, grabbed my arm and said "your a good man". I felt as though I was going to choke. With a tight knot in my throat I said "I'll see ya later Granddad" and turned away with tears in my eyes. Thank God for the heat and sweat so no one would notice!

I showed up later that afternoon with Emery (a counselor). He tried to talk Mr. Alexander into leaving with us, telling him that his wife would not have wanted him to live in this condition (she died 5 years ago). His house is so bad that is not repairable. He's a stuborn old man!

GOD, I WISH THERE WAS MORE I COULD DO!!

"The Crew" in the write up I did, consists of:

Nick McGuire
Kevin Dill
Kim Skaggs
Dana Skaggs
Ginny Daugherty
Becky McGiffin
Ashley Anderson
myself
(my appologies if I missed anyone)

Please make an "honorable mention" of all these people who helped. I know Granddad appreciated everything they did. I saw more than one tear swell up in his eyes for what they did.

One last note. His bible had started to mold and I had to throw it out. I went to the book store and bought him a new one. I wrote a special note to him inside, thanking him for touching my life.


--mark (McGiffin)

CNN.com currently has this article posted. This is indicative of the government infighting, fingerpointing, and lack of action that is taking place down there.

The 1,170 mobile homes FEMA hopes to place in St. Tammany Parish will only be a drop in the bucket of need. I personaly saw hundreds of destroyed apartment units and thousands of houses have been made uninhabitable though may be occupied due to lack of alternatives.

John McGuire

Greetings All:

Well our first day on the road is complete and all are beginning to settle down for the night. We arrived at University Church of Christ in Tuscaloosa AL around 8:30. We had a meal of bbq chicken salads and desert. The food was excellent and the smiles welcoming. What a beautiful facility for this 700 member church to open up and share with us. We owe a debt of gratitude for their sweet hospitality.

Our ride was quite eventful. About 25 minutes into the trip one of the trailers dropped its loading gate at 60 miles an hours. No one hurt, nothing lost, all well and back on the road in ten minutes. Between Cinci and Louisville one of the trailers blew a tire. It tore the fender up pretty bad on the trailer. I decided to stay behind with the trailer and we sent the other 4 vehicles ahead. We had quite a time freeing the tire tread from the frame and then the lug nuts as well. During our struggle with the tire, Mike Benedetti looked up at me and said" I already lost one prayer for the day, Prayed for safety and the trailer to make it ok" I looked at him and said who knows what this spared us from. God has had a plan all through this and this may have resulted in God staying faithful to your first prayer. A little over an hour and we were ready to go. When we took off I called a head to let Troy know we were back on the road. He did not answer. I called Lisa. She answered and said there was a terrible accident that happened right in front of them. A car had crossed the median that was headed south and got into the northboud lane and a collision happened. Troy and Cory ( EMT's) stopped to help. Lisa warned me of the traffic and asked that we pray as a helicopter was just landing to med flight out one of the victims.
I thank God and prayed for the victims, Troy later told us one life was lost and at least one was critical. I am not sure what the 10 minute slowdown of Troy and the rest meant or us staying behind an hour to fix the flat but I know God had a plan.

We arrived at the University Church at different times to warm welcomes. After we ate we had a devotional and the group here had prepared communion for us. Some nice thoughts were shared, we sang, prayed and shared in the supper. After that all began to settle down for the night and here I am. Its off to sleep and then on the road again to our destination in Mandeville.

I encourage you to go to the website and pray for our team. Pray that God speak to them, direct them and keep them safe. Pray for their families who are without them this week. I am one of the lucky ones as I have 3 of my family with me, I only had to leave Jackson (10) behind. If you see him tell him his dad misses him and he told you so. Thank you to all of you who have worked to make this possible.

To Troy and Robin thank you for being brave and fearless leaders. To Kenny, Carl and Steve thank you for all the help keeping everything running and loading the heavy stuff. Thank you to all three of you for teaching me humbleness and servitude. To Steve and Michelle Fuchs, thanks for sacrificing so much time to insure that all the stuff made it, To Spring Road and Northland Elders thank you for stepping out in faith and letting the vehicles be used for this trip. To Randy and John thank you for being soldiers of the Lord. To J Haver, thank you for keeping our company together so I could focus on what the Lord wanted me to do.

To Providence Road, Centerville, Soma Church,Central Church, Westerville Christian, Northside Fellowship thank you for being so forthcoming with funds to support this effort and being right on time with your support and encouragement. To all the other churches who have sent people, money, resources, and items, thank you for working for Him. For all who have worked to make these things happen thank you for hearing God's urging and doing something about it.

And finally for my family for showing me love encouragement everyday. It was Amy who first showed me Gods love for her so that I could find it for myself.

Pray for us as we carry the light tomorrow.

Because He loves us

Brad

Praise the Lord, this thing is working! On 1 day notice, the Columbus area collected, palletized, and loaded 12 pallets of water, juice, food, shampoo, and other items headed to Tammany Oaks on the half semi trailer we found available. Let me tell you, these supplies are badly needed and are so greatly appreciated by those that receive them.

You can't understand, the three incredible things in this situation without seeing them yourself.

First, the amount and the area of destruction. As far as north of Hattiesburg, we drove miles of State Route 42 that looked like a wall of tornadoes had moved through.

Second, the success of working in the kingdom of God in this relief effort. No person is in charge. Really! Things just happen. Boots end up on a trailer of water heading to a neighborhood where people really need them. Crews hand out water to people in an affluent neighborhood next to a decimated trailer park and a family is so touched that they donate hundreds of thousands of dollars to the relief effort. The whole thing is managed and directed by God himself and executed by people willing to listen to the whisperings of the Holy Spirit.

Third, is the gratitude of people of the area for our help. We stopped for bus repairs in Meridian Mississippi and ate at a Western Sizzler (Great Mississippi Cooking!) A lady sitting at a table near ours saw our shirts and thanked us from the bottom of her heart for coming down to help. She said we couldn't understand how much it means to the people hurt by this storm.

Thanks to all of you who are backing those of us who have gone for the experience. This is so amazing.



This morning's contingent, week 4, left around 8:20 this morning. They are the biggest yet! This team includes 20 people from North Carolina who learned of our effort from the web sites and emails. So many people want to help further and only need a venue to do it. Please continue to pass word around about our rapidly expanding group. The disaster zone will need our assistance for months or years. The failings of official organizations and our successes without human organization are our assurance from God that this is our task he has put before us.

You have all been so effective at spreading the word, just keep up the good work. It's such a pleasure working with all of you executing God's plan.