NEW URGENT NEEDS FOR BILOXI AREA

We are getting organized for our Biloxi location. Since their church building has to be tore down,
we have come across some additional needs so I'm hoping some of you can help or know of someone who can.
There is such a huge need in Biloxi. They seem to have become the "forgotten city". We will be setting up relief efforts in a park close to the Division St. Church of Christ. Just across the street from the park are families living outside their houses under tarps. They don't even have tents! They are cooking on small grills for entire neighborhoods. This is 4-1/2 months after the hurricane! If you can help with these items or funds to purchase them it is greatly appreciated!!

1. We are in need of at least 2 large commerical size tents in which to distribute supplies.

2. 1-2 additional semi trailers to store supplies.

3. RV's donated to house volunteers.

4. Mobile Kitchen Unit/s

5. (2) 24' - 30' enclosed trailers to build portable showers and laundry facilities.

6. 20' - 24' flatbed trailer (a very heavy duty one) to haul drywall and shingles.

And as always..........we are in desperate need of volunteers for all of our locations!

Mobile, Al.,
New Orleans, La.,
Slidell, La.,
Biloxi, Ms.

Which Location Would YOU Like To Work In??

We are blessed with more wonderful volunteers this week!! We have a delightful family from Bartlesville, Ok., a very determined and hardworking group who've returned from Sheffield, Al., we have a return group from Nashville coming in on Friday and a return group from Mid-County Church of Christ in Ohio coming in on Saturday. Notice how many groups are "return" groups?!? :) There's a reason for that......come see for yourself! :)

We have many new and exciting things happening around here!! Please come and be a part of this amazing ministry. Remember....whether it is for a day, a week, or longer you can be a wonderful part of this ministry. The following is a schedule of some of the events taking place.

Sunday - January 15 ---
Starting Disaster Relief Effort in Biloxi with the Division St. church of Christ.

Volunteers Needed:
Distribute supplies
Cook Meals
Make up "Packs of Love" Care Packs
Make up food boxes
Help community fill out forms for items/work needed.
Clean tools
Gut out houses
Yard work
Make phone calls
Send out mailings to recruit more volunteers/funding.

Items Needed:
Space heaters
Cleaning/laundry Supplies
Personal Care Items
Baby Items
Non-Perishable Food Items
Sheets/Blankets
Towels
New toys
Monetary Donations to purchase supplies needed.


Our staging at the Creekwood Church of Christ, Mobile, Al. will continue as well.

Volunteers Needed:
Skilled Drywall hangers and finishers
Skilled Roofers
Cook Meals
Painters
Cabinet Installers


Items Needed: Monetary donations for purchase of Building material.



Our Staging area in New Orleans continues also:

Volunteers Needed:
Distribute Supplies
Organizing of supplies as they come in.
Make "Packs of Love" Care Packs
Make Food Boxes
Gut out houses.
Skilled Drywall hangers and finishers.
Yard Work.

Items Needed:
Personal Care Items
Cleaning/laundry Supplies
Baby Items
Space Heaters
Non-Perishable Food
Sheets/blankets
Towels
Monetary donations to purchase supplies needed.


We have a meeting Saturday with another congregation in Louisiana. We may be needing volunteers at this location as well. More to come on that later.
As you can tell, God is using this ministry to reach out to these communities in an awesome way. Come be part of it!! Please continue to keep this mission in your prayers!!

MAJOR UPDATE FROM THE GULF COAST

Bay St. Louis/Waveland area


Bayou La Batre




Mark and I traveled the gulf coast Tuesday to check on the needs of congregations and to see of what assistance we can be to them. It's just unbelievable how much damage and destruction remains even after 4 months. I understand that those who are not right here tend to think things are getting back to normal especially since things are no longer in the news. I'm going to try my best to describe some of the things we saw on our travels across Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana.

We started out going to Pascagoula, Ms. This is just one of many scenes in Pascagoula (picture bottom right) and remember.....these pictures were just taken one week ago and others when we were traveling this Tues. Jan. 3!!

We went through Bayou La Batre....the scene there is much the same as Pascagoula. Many of these people have also lost their livlihood of fishing, their boats are destroyed, their houses are destroyed, they have no income.

We stopped at the Slidell Church of Christ and spoke with a couple of the sojourners working there. It's time once again for me to say how much we LOVE the sojourners!! :) They were putting in electrical boxes for Don and Carrie Schmidt. Don and Carrie were working here with us in Mobile and are now going to be coordinating the efforts in Slidell. They are a wonderful family and we are confident they will do a great job in Slidell. The area around Slidell still has much work ahead of them as well.

From Slidell we journeyed on to Bay St. Louis and the Waveland area. This is where the hurricane made landfall. IT LOOKS LIKE DAY 1 IN THIS AREA!! Families are still living in tents (it gets cold at night......tonight they are forecasting it to get down to 29 degrees!!) There are still many areas without electric. We then stopped at the Long Beach Church of Christ and spoke with Mark Hodges the minister there. They have been doing a wonderful work reaching out to their community. They are currently in need of a lift that will take shingles to the top of roofs if you know of one available, please let us know.

Our last stop of the day was the Division St. Church of Christ in Biloxi. WOW!! All relief agencies have pulled out of Biloxi (which is what we have found in most places another reason for our slogan "FIRST IN - LAST OUT") Anyway we spoke with Paul Warren the minister there. We've been working with the Biloxi church taking supplies there, but now they really have an excellent opportunity to reach out!! Paul spoke with the city officials that morning. Since all other agencies have pulled out and there is still a DESPERATE need, they want his congregation to take over all distribution for the Biloxi area!! This will entail working out of one of the city parks distributing food, cleaning supplies, personal care items, etc. A major undertaking but terrific opportunity! We will be working with Biloxi to accomplish this, we sure need help as well though. The best part of all about Biloxi............So far they have baptized 16 people since the storm!! PRAISE GOD!!

I'm sure by now you're asking yourself, "how can I help?".........WELL......I'm glad you asked :)

1. Pray for this effort and for all those in Bible Studies.

2. Send this blog address and our website address to EVERYONE you know.
www.disasterresponseteam.blogspot.com www.churchesofchristdrt.org

3. Volunteer--between our 3 different sites we can handle about 300 volunteers each day.

4. Help with funding. This is needed to help purchase building material and supplies for those without insurance. As an average each house has been running about $5000. - $8000. in building supplies.

5. Talk to your congregations about this effort. Ask for their support in funding and sending volunteers.

6. Items Needed: Lift for taking shingles to roof tops.
Roofing Supplies (shingles, nails, felt paper)
Drywall Supplies (drywall, joint compound, tape, tools)
Food (already boxed up) call us for details.
Personal care items
Cleaning Supplies.
Semi trailers donated to store supplies/make into dorms/make into a mobile
kitchen

I know this was a long entry....thanks for staying with me!! :) Please continue to keep all of us in your prayers!

What Are Your Hopes And Dreams For 2006??

Here we are......the first day of 2006!! Can you believe it? Time goes by so quickly. As I think about the past year, I'm remembering all of you that we've worked so closely with us through disaster relief. Whether I've known you for years or I just met you this past year, I want you to know that I thank GOD for you and I feel so blessed. GOD has put so many wonderful people in our path through this life. You've been an inspiration to me and it's you who keeps me going even when I'm so tired I'm not sure I can take another step or I'm homesick and missing my mother, children and grandchildren. It's been your prayers, your encouraging emails, your cards and letters, your smiles, your hugs, writing letters of encouragement to hand out to the victims of disaster, your volunteering in whatever way, whether it is here in the disaster area or in your local area making care packs, shoe boxes of toys, sending the items we need as soon as we call and ask for them (Atwood COC), doing our financial stuff and being so patient with me when I don't get the info to you as soon as I should (Nancy :) Listening to us and being joyful with us everytime we call to say we have another grandchild on the way!! we appreciate you so much!! By the way.....we have "another" grandchild on the way!! We are thrilled! :)

I'm thinking about my hopes, dreams, plans and goals for 2006 and wondering what yours are.
I want to be in prayer to GOD more, to do what HE wants and how HE wants it done, I want to be a more loving and patient wife to my wonderful husband, I want to spend more time looking at flowers and birds and the sky with our daughter Ashley, taking time to really appreciate God's World. I want to be a better example to our children, grandchildren, sons-in-law and daughter-in-law in hopes that "all" of them will understand GOD'S LOVE and want to serve HIM faithfully. I want to reach out and be a tool for others to reach out through disaster relief to show the LOVE OF JESUS to a world that needs HIM so desperately. Do you have any of these same hopes, dreams, goals and plans? Let's work together, ok? Encouraging one another in spirit and in truth.

If you think things along the gulf coast are pretty much back to normal, this group from Huntsville, Al. will disagree with you. They were here working this week and took these pictures. Things are not even close to being back to normal for so many along the gulf coast. Please keep them in your prayers and consider joining us for a weekend or longer. 

Bywater Church of Christ, New Orleans 

As you can see, there is work for volunteers of any age. 

Nathaniel Jones (Bywater Church of Christ - New Orleans) along with the Disaster Response Teams very own Mike Baumgartner (red shirt) and Mike's son-in-law and 2 grandchildren. 

There Is A Burden On My Heart

I can't believe it is the end of the year already!!

2005 has been bittersweet. The gulf coast area has been devastated by Hurricanes. Many, many people are without homes, jobs and basic everyday needs. Volunteers are being stretched to the max and funding is tight.

The funding is the burden that I have on my heart. The Disaster Response Team is currently set up in 2 locations and about to open 2 additional locations. Now that we are into the rebuilding stage, funding is going quickly to purchase building material for those without insurance. WE REALLY NEED YOUR HELP!!! If you or someone you know can help financially (no matter how small an amount) it is SO VERY needed!! There are thousands of families who need our help! AND........you still have some time to donate before the end of the year! :) I really don't like talking about money but I will for this mission. These people are in desperate need, they need all of us working together. PLEASE HELP!!

HOWEVER........ :) (there is ALWAYS a however) God is working as He always does!! It is because of HIM that we continue on with the disaster relief efforts in these areas. This has been an exciting and amazing mission to reach out to the lost of many communities and share GOD'S LOVE through disaster relief.

The following are some statistics from the Disaster Response Team efforts.

There have been 9 baptisms (that we know of in our efforts) I'm sure there have been MANY more. We praise GOD for the increase!
Over 700 houses have been worked on (gutting, roofing, tarps, drywall, yards cleaned)
Over 4500 families helped with food, personal care items, cleaning supplies, baby items, clothing.
Over 15 local schools helped with bulk school supplies.
Over 400 backpacks filled with school supplies distributed to children in the gulf coast area.
Over 4000 meals cooked and served in several communities.
Over 3000 volunteers have worked through the Churches of Christ Disaster Response Team efforts.

We love you all and thank you for your interest, prayers, financial support and volunteering. Without YOU this ministry could not continue.

Community of New Orleans waiting in line at Bywater Church of

Bywater Church of Christ Relief Effort

Bywater Church of

Toys for Children

Do You Want The "Good" News First or the BEST NEWS?!?!?

We received wonderful news today! We have a new couple who will begin working full time with the Disaster Response Team. They have secured their support and will begin working Lord-Willing the week of January 9. We are so happy to have Steve and Stacy Baxter working with us.

We are in Ohio to spend Christmas with our family. We've also been fundraising and recruiting much needed volunteers to come work. We are having a wonderful time. Don and Carrie Schmidt and their 2 daughters are doing a terrific job taking over for us in our absence. We are hearing great reports and appreciate them so much.

I will be putting pictures on here of our site in New Orleans. Mike Baumgartner has been doing fantastic working with Nathaniel Jones getting things organized over there. They are serving food. Handing out food boxes and cleaning supplies along with many other items. They are currently in the gutting out phase of the houses and are in desperate need of volunteers.
NOT ONLY THAT.........The BEST news is....there has been another baptism. One of the workers at our site in New Orleans was baptized!!! PRAISE GOD!!!

We have several volunteers scheduled to come into Mobile. So far we have volunteers coming from New York, Maryland, Wisconsin, Ohio, Alabama, and Florida.
The need at the Mobile site is workers to do insulation, drywall and roofing.

Please plan to come and be part of this wonderful life changing mission!! You won't regret it.

These are two of our terrific volunteers, Dick and Nita Stockton of Indiana.They are wonderful workers, they are also sojourners, which tells you how amazing they are. We Love the Sojourners!!!

This is just one of the fabulous meals that's been cooked for us! The cooks here at Creekwood are amazing!!

One of the houses we've worked on.

volunteers in line for dinner.

See......It's not all work and no play.....We have lots of fun too!! Pictured here is our most precious Wanda

Bob Card --another one of our amazing volunteers!! We appreciate Bob so much