Left Hanging

Yesterday and today we have very few volunteers present to do work. This will change somewhat as 30 people arrive from California sometime this afternoon. I'm not sure where they are from at this point, but I'll let you know about them later. We have several weeks in the summer when there is room for volunteers. If you want to bring a group down, take a look at the WORK CREW REPORT to find weeks when volunteers are slim and come on down to the Coast. I am convinced that every day is crucial to the effort we have ongoing. All of us are very aware that at some point the money will stop coming, the volunteers will stop coming, and the work will come to a standstill. At that point there will be many people left hanging. That is going to be a sad time for these people. Maybe some of them got a late start. Some of them 'fell through the cracks' of the system and did not receive the help they deserved. FEMA has never been to our house even after nearly eight months! Hurricane Season 2006 is just weeks away. In the face of a similar hurricane season to last year, there is the fear that money and volunteers will be unable to keep up with the needs. Preparation is very important in this stage, but it is hard to get prepared for a new season when you are still reeling from the previous season. 99,000 people in Mississippi live in FEMA campers. An approaching hurricane will be cause for pandemonium. Most of the country is unaware that there are ongoing relief efforts here in Mississippi. We are getting good traffic at www.christiancrisisresources.com . I hope you will bookmark it and visit often. Even now there are appeals for help on that site. The sister blog, http://crisisresource.blogspot.com also will have disaster related information posted. Carla Calhoun and I will be on the program at the Pepperdine Lectures coming up the first week of May. If you are at the lectures or in the area, please come out and meet us. I will share more about that as the time draws nearer. If you know of an individual that would like to get financially involved in a stateside mission effort to help churches prepare for disaster relief and to have hands-on help immediately after disasters, let me know! Hope your Tuesday is a great one. Let's all work together to make sure that there are as few people as possible left hanging when this relief work comes to a stop.