Gearing Up

It rained this morning and then began to turn colder. It is supposed to get down around 33 tonight. For the Coast that's a wet humid 33 that feels very cold to us. Those of us who are living in campers are sleeping with very little insulation. This makes the heater come on often. This means burning a lot of propane. That translates into extra costs. If you have central heat, you never consider going to 'get' gas - it just exists where it needs to be. If you live in a camper, you know that at some point you will have to carry your tank to someplace and get it refilled. If you are like me, you never really know when that tank is going to be empty - it just goes out. So today there was a long line of people getting propane, preparing for a cold December night. December. How can it be December? The past three months are a blur. Today we observed the 13th week since Katrina disrupted our lives. High on everyone's mind is Christmas. Dolly Parton sings about a 'hard candy Christmas', and I think that's what it's going to be for most everyone on the Coast. But there are people working on that. Almost all of our families who asked to be adopted have been adopted. I think we have about a dozen left. We'll make sure no one is left out. Churches have adopted large numbers of people. Some churches in Nashville have some special outreach ideas planned for the next few weeks. Some of those are still in the works and I'd rather wait until the details are all fleshed out before I talk about them. I do know that the Concord Road Church of Christ and the Southern Hills Church of Christ will be bringing about 500 gifts down to share with our church and community. Their associate minister, Ken Reed, will be bringing the message of the morning. The Hillsboro Church of Christ is planning a special outreach to some displaced people here, and I'll have to wait to share those details with you. I do know they are cooperating with three other churches in the Nashville area to accomplish their goals. Groups of kids have been adopted for Christmas by churches at Elba, AL, Boonville, MO, Charleston, SC, and Starkville, MS. A student organization at Heritage Christian University took thirty names. A share group at Gateway Church of Christ in Pensacola took a family. Friends in Newton, AL took a couple of kids. I know I'm leaving some people out ... churches that are sending donations and gifts and helps ... please forgive me if I left you out. I promise you, we are thankful. Every effort is so vital to our work. Paul Owen and a few other folks came here from Boonville, Missouri last week. They brought with them some gifts for outreach and encouragement. One of them was a quilt that was assembled by a ladie's Bible class. Each square was unique. There was a letter attached to the quilt. Doing some door knocking, they ran across a lady that they thought would appreciate the quilt. So they gave it to her. Don't you know that Sunday morning I met a lady and all she could talk about was those Christian people from Missouri who came by her home and blessed her with a quilt. She was present for worship, and stayed and ate lunch with us at the church as well. I think we will be seeing this lady and her husband again very soon! Things that seem like trinkets are so important to people here. Attention. Time. Listening. A token of love and appreciation. All so important. Next week we will have several more helpers with us. Among those are some preachers from the Fulton, KY area and Tim Roland from Humboldt, TN who will be doing ministry work. Also Marvin Phillips from Tulsa, OK will preach Monday - Wednesday nights. We hope this will be a powerful outreach week for us. We want this community to know that we love them with the love of Jesus Christ. We want to serve them, encourage them, bless them, and teach them. We believe that the efforts we are making to help them get back into their homes will result in many opening their hearts to the gospel message. Tomorrow I have a full slate of appointments, but if I tell you about them tonight then I won't have anything to write about tomorrow night! CURRENT NEEDS I haven't run a 'current needs' list in a while. As always our most current need is for workers - both skilled and unskilled. Included in this is the need for 'ministry' type workers (not just preachers) who love to talk to people and would like to spend some days just sharing the good news! Money always helps us keep on this path of service to the community. People often request clothes washing detergent, pine sol, lysol, and other cleaners. Most items are available locally, but we still run into those cases of people who have no transportation to get the needed items. We also still have many people who are jobless, homeless, and who need our help. If you don't know what to do and you want to do something, Wal-mart and Lowe's gift cards are very nice. Lots of people will be buying lamps, tables, pillows, and other home accessories as they move back into their homes. Thanks for reading! I'll check in again next opportunity I have.