Spiritual Growth Workshop Orlando

I was scheduled to have a booth space setup up there this weekend but thought the work we are doing here was much more important than standing around at a display booth.

Weekly Recap

Monday we had 180 people sign up for Saturdays food bank handout here at Hemely Road CoC. Don and Rosemary arrived and Don setup 10 Bible studies. Group of volunteers arrived from Texas to help for the week.

Tuesday Unloaded semi load of water one case at a time. Went to food bank to get supplies. Don had 27 people in Bible studies. We served 100 lunches.

Wednesday Food hand out at church(Bread, corn on the cob, frozen dinners)also signed up more people for Saturday count is now up to around 350. Don took out lunches and conducted Bible studies. Cooked 238 lunches.

Thursday Don took out lunches and had another 25 in Bible studies. Went to Sams to pickup supplies for Fridays lunches. Cook 114 lunches. 15 people from El Campo CoC arrived to help and hold vacation Bible School on Saturday

Friday Produce handout from the food bank and frozen dinners. Cooked and handed out 1075 lunches.

I have a church that can get me almost 1/2 off the warmer we need. The cost is now $1750.00 would be great if someone could help us get this.

We are very, very busy here. More people are coming each time we have a food or meal handout. BP still has not put the money in the account that was suppose to help people out.

Quote that was posted to one of my updates this week

Royce Ogle-I am so proud of you and the folks there for doing what you can to help the helpless. For some reason that is foreign to me, many people will get all excited about feeding people in some 3rd world country and not give a hoot about the hungry in their own back yard. Go figure.

More People Than Ever Today

We handed out bread, corn on the cob and frozen dinners. We also have around 330 families signed for the food bank giveaway that is here on Saturday. Cooked 238 lunches. Don took lunches out and had bible studies. Photo is of people in line 2 hours before we started.

Very busy day. Unloaded semi load of water one case at a time. Went to food bank to pickup truck load of bread for tomorrows giveaway. Cooked and handed out 100 lunches and Don had 27 people in his bible studies through out the day.

Today we signed up 180 people for Saturdays food give away. Don and Rosemary also arrived and Don has over 10 bible studies setup up for tomorrow.

"We Drive as Dawn".

Tomorrow morning early, Rosemary and I are leaving for Bayou La Batre to work with "Disaster Assistance" at the Hemly Rd. Church of Christ. We are helping this small church feed hundreds of meals each week to the people who have been so badly effected by the ...oil spill. My work will be to carry food to people's homes in the name of a Christian and to engage them in bible study and invite them to this church who is helping them. When we return, we will have a report for you. Thanks for your help and your prayers. Don

Tonight we have a group of 10-15 volunteers arriving from Church of Christ in Uvalde, TX. They will be here all week working.

Correction

The last two weeks I posted that we gave out over 1200 pounds of food on our big handout day it was 12,000 pounds I was short on zeros.

Today we only received about 1/4 Pallet of produce form the food bank, so we handed out 6 pallets of frozen dinners. Things here are most likely to get worse. BP has laid off everyone because of the storm and will most likely only hire a few of them back. People started lining up at 6:30 this morning and there was still people in line when we ran out of supplies.

Gulf Coast-South Alabama

Today was another very busy day we received around 1200 pounds of food to hand out. Below are the photos.

Unloading Truck

Standing in line waiting heat index today around 111

Getting food ready

Families getting their boxes filled with food

Update from Pikeville, KY Flood

Talked with Elder from Main Street Church of Christ yesterday and their members are doing a good job volunteering and taking care of the needs there. We will stay in touch.

Today we unloaded a semi filled with Hungry Man dinners(half chicken/half meatloft. Also BP is laying off most of the temp workers and most of them will not be hired back. This means that there will be more families needing help. You can help us just click on the donate button.

Well we had another good day today. There were 450 hot meals cooked and handed out along with a bag of food to everyone. Also we were still signing up people for Thursdays big handout, we reached the cutoff 200. Anyone after that will have to wait an see if there is anything left. I hate having a limit on how many people we can help but with only limited funds you can only do so much.

Gulf Coast

Today we gave everyone 3 bags of food, 1 case of frozen dinners and passed out over 400 hot meals. We had TV crews here from Ch 5 and 15 out of Mobile. Photos below are of people waiting in line and of volunteers getting bags and meals ready.

We have been in touch with the Main Street Church of Christ in Pikeville, Ky. They are having an Elders meeting and will get back with us on their needs. The church sectary said things are really bad and the roads are still closed.

Flash Flooding in Kentucky

Don Hudson our director of Evangelism is checking on what if anything is needed from us in this area.

Schedule For Next Few Days

Tonight - 15 people from a church in north Alabama will be arriving late

Monday - 9AM sign up for food bank handout Thursday
handout of food, supplies and more frozen dinners
500 hot to go meals prepared and ready to hand out at 2PM

Tuesday - 500 hot to go meals prepared and ready to handout at 2PM

Thursday - 10,000 pounds of food from food bank to be handed out

Friday - Produce from food bank handout and frozen dinners

Sometime this week a semi load (26,000)more frozen dinners will arrive

My wife(TY) came down here to help us for a few days. She was mowing a yard, stepped in a large hole and the result is torn ACL and must stay off it for 6 to 8 weeks.

The man in the middle wearing white shirt is Mr Roosevelt. He has been helping with whatever the church needs for the past 5 years. Some of you should remember him back after Katrina.

Unloading the produce truck

Produce unloaded ready to hand out

Gulf Coast Bayou La Batre--Last night our truck of frozen dinners arrived. The Jubilee Shrimp Co delivered them to us and are letting us keep 6 of the 8 palletts in their freezers.

Today we went to food bank and pickup 4 pickup truck loads of food and delivered 4 loads of furniture to a family who had no beds. We are also waiting for the truck with 8 pallets of frozen dinners to arrive. Tomorrow we will be handing out produce and the frozen dinners.

Wednesday we unloaded and handed out over 5000 pounds of food from the food bank. Also we cooked 1092 corndogs. After we were finished I took family down to Dauphin Island Beach to see what the oil spill was doing there. We could see some of the oil in the sand but didn't see any tarballs. The photo below shows how they are pilling up the sand along the beach to keep the waters from getting any further inland.

Waiting in line for todays food handout

Upcoming Schedule That I Know of so Far

Today food handout at Hemely Rd CoC
Tuesday meetings most of day and evening
Wednesday food bank handout at Hemely Rd CoC and cooking 500 meals
Thursday taking trailer to Gateway CoC in Pensacola to pickup food
Friday food bank produce handout at Hemely Rd CoC

Billy Helping Cook Breakfast Before Church

Breakfast Line Before Church

Church Service

Kids of Bayou La Batre

The below kids will also soon be needing school supplies. If you would like to help the information is on the right of this page.

Today was play day for the kids. They all save their change and keep it in a jar at the church and when there is enough they have a play day.

People of Bayou La Batre Standing in Line

I dont know about you but I dont like standing in line at Walmart in the cool building. These people here in Bayou La Batre are standing in line outside in the sun and heat. They stood in line this morning for a small bag of fruit and vegies. Than this afternoon they are standing in line to sign up for the handout next Wednesday because the food bank is only bring enough for 100 familes. So the first 100 who signs up today will get something next Wednesday. Hemely Road Church of Christ went to the food bank and bought groceries to give away on Monday. So the people will be standing line filling out paperwork that day also. How would you like to do your grocery shopping like that?????

On the tables below is all that arrived today from the food bank. We put 5 items in a bag and started handing them out. We soon ran out with people still waiting in line.

Photos below are from the food bank handout today. National Guard was on hand for help and crowd control

People linning up for lunch 1 hour before start time

Bayou La Batre, AL--Gulf Coast Oil Disaster

Kids from Bayou La Batre waiting in line for corndogs and chips before church. Tomorrow at 7:30 AM we go a few blocks to downtown and passout food donated by one of the major grocery chains. Friday fruit and vegies passed out here at the church form the food bank. Monday will be boxed, can goods and meat handout here at the church. If you can help us with a donation to purchase food and supplies that would be wonderful.

The only thing that came in today from the food bank was 20 cases of tomatoes

I had a really good visit with Goodwood Church of Christ this weekend. Goodwood was the first church that we helped as the Disaster Assistance Mission. It was nice to spend Sunday afternoon with one of the Elders, his family and others from church. Wonderful cookout.

Early this morning I left for Bayou La Batre, AL. The church there has a lot going on helping the families that have been affected by the oil spill. The small town relies on the fishing industry for most of their incomes. Thursday and Friday I am going to help with two food handouts and one on Wednesday if they can get enough food in. I am told the need is so great that they have the national guard on hand during these handouts for crowd control.

I will try and get some photos of this mission work to share with you. Information on how you can donate to help us with this mission work is to your right.

Below is our new display we have setup at Goodwood Church of Christ in Baton Rouge, LA this weekend.

New Page Added to Web Site

A new page has been added to our web site it is called Items Needed. Please visit the site and check it out. www.disasterassistancecoc.com

Hurricane Alex

I talked with all of our contacts this morning and it looks like South Texas survived without much damage and our help is not needed. So instead of driving another 10 hours south I am going to Goodwood Church of Christ in Baton Rouge,LA for the weekend. Goodwood was the first church we helped as the Disaster Assistance Mission back in 2008. Hopefully I will be able to give them a recap of our work sometime on Sunday.