Columbus Mission to Mandeville, Katrina Relief

The first I posted the other day is the new URL for information: http://www.servantsunite.org

Second is the new blog site: http://servantsunite.blogspot.com I may only copy minimal information over from this blog to the new one, but will leave it as an archive of what I hope are only our initial efforts. Please note that you can post comments to blog postings for others to see. Look for the link at the end of the posting.

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

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

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

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

Hey Team:

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

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

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

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

Brad Hayes

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

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

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

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

Enjoy,
John C. (Pop)

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

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

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

John McGuire

Editor's Note: Janet is becoming legendary in this work. This letter is directed to the Bruce Willis Foundation, but is informative for all of us who have contributed to this effort and continue to. Pics and the supplies list she mentions are on the picture site: http://www.therenos.com/katrinaPictures/Janet/

There are times in our lives that God shows us how big our world is without making us feel small and insignificant. In our state of feeling perpetually frustrated and helpless, He constantly reveals Himself to us over and over again.

My name is Janet Hines and I am the director of the disaster relief program that we are conducting here at our church in Mandeville, LA. At our first meeting on the first Saturday after the storm, we decided that we were willing to take on the project of helping our community in a time of desperate need. We made it our goal to become a beacon of hope with Jesus as the source of our light to our neighbors.

At that time, none of us realized how God was going to use us in the way that He has. In the last month, we have housed over 800 volunteers here in our building. Let me explain that our building is really new. We had only met five times for worship prior to the storm August 29, 2005. Over 3,200 families have received relief supplies through our front doors. Services such as tree removal, yard cleaning, and house cleaning/gutting has been provided for over 200 households at no cost. This is ongoing in our projects daily.

We are no longer providing supplies to individuals directly from the warehouse as immediate needs in our community have been met. Our focus has shifted to serving the outlying communities with the items that they need. We are acting as a distribution center for incoming donations, which we sort, pack and distribute to areas in need.

Communities are still in crisis. Grocery stores are now open but often shelves stand empty. Schools have homeless teachers living in tents, without access to running water. These selfless professionals have returned to serve children without having their own basic personal needs met. Families who were blessed to experience no damage find themselves housing a dozen or more survivors.

Homes, which were flooded, stand stagnant with mold and toxic waste. These residences must be gutted. This process has been labeled “de-mucking”, and reduces a home to its skeletal framework. Often the elderly or the ill have no means to accomplish this daunting and emotional task. Shelters have been emptied forcing these individuals to return to unsafe living conditions.

Medical clinics and hospitals have been slow to return. Our program provided immediate medical services through a team of doctors, a nurse practitioner, a pharmacist and nurses who offered donated prescription medications and over the counter pharmaceutical items throughout the shelters and communities. Makeshift clinics were set up in fire halls. Nursing teams met before dawn to provide vaccines to the National Guard and other members of the armed forces before they entered New Orleans to search for survivors and victims.

We are so appreciative of your participation in the “Got Your Back” program sponsored by Nickelodeon. We are praying that you would be able to provide further assistance to facilitate our efforts here. Following this letter are photographs and categories and listings of items that are crucial to continuing the recovery. We thank you for considering further participation in our efforts as we continue serving our community.

God Bless You,


Janet Hines
Director

Several people have asked where to find news about relief/recovery in the storm damaged area since the national media has found other topics. Here are a few links that should help keep you informed. I'll also add them to the left bar of the blog.

The Times-Picayune news site is http://www.nola.com/t-p/
Think it says something when the paper's archives are divided between pre-katrina and post-katrina. There is a link to news in each parish that is handy.

WDSU is a local TV station at http://www.wdsu.com/news/index.html

The Sun-Herald covers the Biloxi, Gulfport area from http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/

Lake Charles is represented at http://www.americanpress.com/

The Mobile Register covers southern Alabama: http://www.al.com/mobileregister/

The Beaumont Texas/Port Arthur area are covered by the Beaumont Enterprise at http://www.southeasttexaslive.com/site/news.asp?brd=2287
and the Port Arthur News at http://www.panews.com/

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2005/katrina/green.family/index.html Something of what happened to many families has happened to this one. This is hard to read, but illustrates the long term and permanent pain this disaster has wrought.

Hurricane Wilma is the season's 21st named storm and is projected to be a hurricane tomorrow and make its way into the Gulf of Mexico after crossing the Yukatan later in the week.
Even if it doesn't hit the target area of our relief efforts, it is going into the area that Stan already soaked with rain causing mudslides, flooding, and many deaths in Mexico and Central America.

Pray hard and pray often!

<sup>Stumbled over this section of Romans 12 today

4</sup>Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, ⁵so it is with Christ's body. We are all parts of his one body, and each of us has different work to do. And since we are all one body in Christ, we belong to each other, and each of us needs all the others.

And isn't it amazing how the body of Christ has come together in this effort! Thank you Lord and Amen!

⁶God has given each of us the ability to do certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out when you have faith that God is speaking through you. ⁷If your gift is that of serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, do a good job of teaching. ⁸If your gift is to encourage others, do it! If you have money, share it generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly.

All of us who have worked on this project have continuing responsibilities listed in verses 6-8. Also important, not everyone is called to each task. Some of us are called to serve. Some are not, but are called to other functions in the body. Some have funding to give, while others do not. We have to keep this in mind when the accuser tempts us to judge others by our own calling.

⁹Don't just pretend that you love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Stand on the side of the good. ¹⁰Love each other with genuine affection,^[b] and take delight in honoring each other. ¹¹Never be lazy in your work, but serve the Lord enthusiastically.

Our emotions about this project, the people we have helped, and the people we have worked shoulder to shoulder with are God given. Revel in them and use them to show others the passion we have found in this work. It helps to illustrate the fulfillment they can find in devoting themselves to work in God's Kingdom.

As of this Sunday morning, there is no-one scheduled to participate in the next trip. We need to be working with our friends, coworkers, family, and churches to build groups going forward.