Of Gustav Visiting NOLA & Flooding in India

It's Labor Day in the U.S. & many people are enjoying a holiday. Yet, it's amazing how many locations around the world are struggling with natural disasters.

In recent days flooding in India has at least 1.2 million people homeless & a 1/2 million stranded in the state of Bihar. Read more at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7591006.stm Another good website to know what is going on is the Relief Web and can be found at http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/dbc.nsf/doc100?OpenForm

Having served on the Gulf coast in reconstruction efforts for the last 3 years in Gulfport and in New Orleans it's hard to imagine the area getting pummeled again. The path & intensity of the hurricane and time will tell if all the work since Katrina will hold up. Our prayers are with those neighbors in the eye of the storm.

UMCOR will reveal updates regarding any volunteer needs soon after the storm. http://new.gbgm-umc.org/umcor/

Shifting Gears

So I've returned from west Africa, spent a few days eating my regular food, sleeping in my own bed, and enjoying my family, and it's time to go again.

I leave this morning at 6 AM with a team headed to New Orleans to do Hurricane Katrina relief work. Yeh, I know it's been awhile, but the work still continues.

I'd signed up since I'd heard the guys would be working inside. After all, who would want to be on a roof in New Orleans in July. Guess what?! A few of us, including me I'm afraid, have been volunteered to help some teenagers from TN do roof repairs.

Shift gears, keep taking the malaria medicine, and now eat gumbo in a different locale!