3 Were Baptised at Hemely Road CoC, Bayou La Batre Today

Very Good Crowd Today at Hemely Road CoC

Kids at Hemely Road CoC Having Breakfast Today

Today was another busy one here at Hemely Road Church of Christ. We passed out lots of produce and fruit form the food bank, sandwich boxes from Compass Food Serv and Hungry Man Dinners from Disaster Relief in Nashville. The photo below shows people lining up 2 plus hours before the food even arrives.

Wednesday my wife(Ty), Taya(9 years old) and I cooked and served 1120 lunches to the people here that were inline to pickup a box of groceries.

Below is ariticle about the group that was working here at the church last week

BAYOU LA BATRE, Alabama - The Partnership for Prescription Assistance will be in Bayou La Batre for three days beginning Wednesday, August 4, at the Hemley Road Church of Christ to help uninsured and financially-struggling Alabamians, including those affected by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster, access information on programs that provide more than 2,500 brand name and generic prescription medicines for free or nearly free. The Partnership for Prescription Assistance (PPA) is a nationwide effort sponsored by America’s pharmaceutical research companies.

The South Alabama Regional Planning Commission – Area Agency on Aging will join the PPA at the event to help disabled adults or individuals 55 years of age or older identify other benefit programs that may be able to assist them via the Area Agency on Aging Benefits Check Up and Alabama SenioRx programs.

To date, the PPA has helped over 6.5 million patients find such programs, including more than 140,000 Alabamians. Since its launch in April 2005, the PPA has visited all 50 states and more than 2,500 cities to raise awareness about patient assistance programs.

Uninsured patients in need can access information on more than 475 patient assistance programs including nearly 200 offered by pharmaceutical companies. Patients can visit PPA’s easy-to-use Web site (www.pparx.org) or call the toll-free phone number (1-888-4PPA-NOW) where trained operators field calls in 150 languages. Disabled adults or individuals 55 years of age or older should also call toll-free at 1-800-243-5463 or log on the Web at www.BenefitsCheckUp.org/SARPC to determine other benefit programs that may be able to assist them.

Partnership for Prescription Assistance was here from 10AM to 3PM again today. Parking lot was full all day. About 4PM ref truck pulled up and dropped us off 250 boxed sandwich lunches(Compass Food Service). Than man from church in Daphne AL stopped and dropped off school supplies. Never a dull moment around here.

Another Busy Day

We went to food bank and picked up a load of groceries, Port City Church of Christ was here conducting a 1 day vacation bible school and Partnership for Prescription Assistance is setup helping people with their needs. They will be here for 3 days. Also 7 people from Americorps arrived last night and will be here for 10 weeks helping the food bank and the Hemley Road Church of Christ. Photo is of PPA helping the people. Also cooked 90 corndogs for the kids.

Our group of volunteers form El Campo Church of Christ left after church on Sunday so Monday I used to get caught up on thank you letters. Our next group of volunteers are scheduled to arrive today from Americorps.

Photo and Clip taken from today's Mobile Press-Register

The line is between our mobile headquarters and Hemely Rd Church of Christ.

People battle the heat as they wait to receive food during a Bay Area Food Bank distribution at Hemley Road Church of Christ Saturday July 31, 2010, in Bayou La Batre.

Sponsor a Lunch for Everyone

Saturday we had another big grocery handout from the food bank, it was sponsored by a company from Northern Alabama. They brought 20 of there employees to help with the distribution. As always we had people lining up at 6AM and we didn't open until 10AM. You should get your group together and sponsor a lunch for everyone. You can even come cook it and help hand it out if you like. Cost to sponsor a lunch for everyone is approx. $1700.00. Just let me know when you would like to do this.

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.

Hurricane Alex

I am in contact with churches in Corpus Christi, Brownsville and Harlingen TX. They will let me know tomorrow morning if we need to move on down into any of those areas to help.

Disaster Assistance Update

Our staging location will be the Sojourners Headquarters, camp B in Marshell, Tx. I will arrive there on Wednesday and remain there until storm has passed and we are able to move in. Anyone wanting to meet us there just let me know.

I have talked to several churches in Texas and we are all watching the predicted landfall location of Alex. I will check the early update Tuesday morning and if it looks like landfall will be Texas I will start that way before noon. The Mobile Headquarters have been cleaned form the Albert Lea, MN tornado and is ready to go.

Not Looking Good

Predictions early this morning are that Alex will become a major hurricane. Each time I check the forecast models they are moving farther northeast. The latest have over half of them showing storm will make landfall at Corpus Christi, TX. We do have a lot of good contacts in Texas that can help us prepare if we are needed.

Albert Lea, MN

A Note From Don

Dear Friends, because of your prayers,volunteer help and financial aid, we have already been able to care for hundreds of people in three disasters this year. Last year all year long, we were only needed in two disasters. Hurricane season in just getting started and our expectation , due to forecasts, is the our work has just begun. People who have suffered thru weather related disasters are especially appreciative of the help that members of the Church of Christ have provided thru the efforts of such organizations as "Disaster Assistance". Please, as you have opportunity, continue to remember this work. To the best of our ability, thru this work, Jesus will able glorified and the Church of Christ will be magnified. Please continue to check here and our web site www.disasterassistancecoc.com for information on our activities and important info as how to contribute much needed funds. Thank you so much for your gracious support. Don, Director of Evangelism

Today we again had volunteers from Richfield and Albert Lea Church of Christ. We delivered 150 lunches.

Albert Lea, MN Area

Today volunteers from Richfield and Albert Lea Church of Christ helped pack and delivered 217 lunches.

We had another good day. Had volunteers form Albert Lea CoC deliver 150 lunches out in the affected areas. I also moved the moble headquarters from the church parking lot into the Walmart parking lot no electric at either place so I might as well stay where if I need something I can walk and get it.

Albert Lea, MN

Well we had a good day today. Cooked 150 meals and the two volunteers from Rochester Church of Christ delivered them into the areas in need. Not sure what we will do from here on. Those two can't come back to help and I am having trouble finding anyone to take the meals out. Like I always say our mission needs 3 things YOUR PRAYERS, VOLUNTEERS AND DONATIONS and as I am seeing here not only are the donations hard to come by so are the volunteers.

Just arrived at Albert Lea Church of Christ. Will setup in their parking lot tomorrow. Rochester Church of Christ will be here to help us also.

Will be arriving at Albert Lea Church of Christ tonight

Albert Lea is a very small congeration 8-10 members. I have talked with Rochester Church of Christ and they are going to come over and help with volunteers tomorrow. With church this small we are for sure going to need help with funds to purchase food, supplies and expenses.

Minnesota Tornadoes

I have been in contact with Emergency Management Director of Wadena,MN,the President of MNVOAD and the minister of the Albert Lea Church of Christ. They have told me it
is to early to know what all the damage is as tornadoes are still on the ground
while we were talking. They will be getting back with me as soon as they know what
all the damage is.

Edmond City Oklahoma

Just finished talking with the Director of Central Communications and Emergency Management for the City of Edmond, Oklahoma and he said that our help was not needed there at this time.

Oklahoma City Flooding

I have been in touch with our contact in Oklahoma and am waiting to hear back on how many houses are affected.

Alabama Coast

The oil has now reach the Alabama shore. I just talked with our contact there, they said things are getting worse. The Disaster Assistance Mission may move into that area in a few days . We need your help for this work. Donation Information on the right.

IL,IN and OH Tornados

Have talked with our contact in OH and checking into IN and IL damage. The Toledo area is reporting 50 houses destoryed and 75 more damaged.

We have been in contact with BP, governors of FL,MS,AL and many local officals along the Gulf Coast they will let us know when we are needed

700 yard oil slick came ashore at Gulf Shores Al yesterday.

Past few weeks mission work

We went to Yazoo City, MS on 4/15 and was there 8 days. We served 1531 meals and Don had 30 bible studies going on. From there we went to Nashville, TN to help after the flood. We worked with Antioch and Western Hills Church of Christ and with Lispcomb University. We were there 25 days, cooked 6371 meals. Don had many bible studies going on and volunteers worked on around 200 houses. We are always prepared to leave for any disaster no matter where I am. The mobile headquarters I travel in has all of our cooking equipment and other supplies stored in it so we can be ready at any time.

Bayou La Batre, Ala., the "Seafood Capitol of Alabama," has nearly come to a standstill as shrimping vessels with nothing to do pack the bayou.

Gulf Coast

Oil cleanup workers hired by BP walk Tuesday along the beach in Dauphin Island, Ala., where oil has started washing ashore. We are staying in touch with our contacts in LA, MS, AL and Fl and will head there when needed. Funds are needed to continue working disasters this summer please help if you can.

Gulf Breeze Florida

Gulf Breeze is poised to launch an aggressive battle plan to protect its six miles of coastline if efforts by BP to stop the oil fail, City Manager Edwin "Buz" Eddy said. That coastline is dotted with sensitive wetlands, fish nurseries, beaches and expensive waterfront homes.
"BP is the first responder," Eddy said. "What we're doing is prevention and protection methods. If BP is overwhelmed, we have a backup plan."
That backup plan includes:
n Protecting shoreline with 6,000 feet of turbidity curtains.
n Sending out volunteer coast watchers to spot and report approaching oil.
n Deploying a team of specially trained firefighters to use a $19,000 oil skimmer the city purchased to scoop up oil.