hooray for busy-ness!!

So yesterday and today I've been on the North Shore, yes the North Shore, working out of our office at Trinity and let's just say there was and is lots to be done. I must say I kinda felt like a bump on a log this past week and a half not having teams so it feels great to have my plate full again.

We have 2 teams coming in to go down to Houma LA and possibly another team headed to Texas! YAY God providing workers! Julie and Arnold Horst were here for a day and are now headed to Texas...it was soo good to see them! They're awesome!

Looks like we'll be trying to set up shop in Texas...it'll be like our little baby, hoping to get a place to host teams, staff to run it, and volunteers to work it! There were at least 7 EFCA churches that were hit by Ike and right now, those churches and their members are our priority in Texas. I call it our baby because New Orleans will always be our #1 priority, unless God says otherwise, and trust me, there is still plenty of work to be done here! But it's soo cool to see God grow our ministry in areas that are under crisis.

Hoping to get my newsletters out by the end of the week and hoping to get my application done asap! I actually started the theological part and I'm excited to mull over what it is I believe and where I stand on certain issues...thanks for the prayers for determination!

Just keep me in your prayers along with our staff and of course those suffering because of the hurricanes.

Love ya!

Katie

Psalm 91:1-2
"He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High, will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD, "He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust."

and back again...

back on the south shore again! (thats the New Orleans side in case you didn't know) babysitting was good, the kids were great, and it was nice to see my kindergarteners (sp?) again at church! one kid, Andrew, ran up to me saying he missed me...tear!

spent the entire evening packing a trailer full of food, water, gas, everything for Shelby and Gene to drive to texas tomorrow morning for Ike relief. please be praying for safe travels for them!

Tamara is flying home tomorrow so pray for her too and as she is moving out, an evacuee from Texas is moving in. don't know much else but be praying she feels welcomed here and can return home soon and find little to no damage.

i'm pooped so off to bed!

best part of the night: hanging out at the Symmons house, you learn not to drink anything at the dinner table because you're bound to choke on it while laughing...their sense of humor is amazing and i'm so glad they've come down here to serve!

peace out!

katie

Prayer for our Guys!

Hi Yall,

Just a quick post letting yall know I'm back on the North Shore tonight. I had a great dinner in the french quarter with roomy Lacey and Tamara then drove across the causeway to the Lewis's to watch the Lewis kids (Emily, Kara, and Caleb) and the Wattersons (Kendra and Logan) so Mark and Kevin could head to Texas tonight to help and survey Ike damage.

Please pray for safe travels for them and that God would direct their paths to those in need. In addition please pray for John Horst and Jack Symmons as they head to Houma tomorrow to survey the flood damage that was caused because of Ike. Almost 13,000 homes in the Terrebonne parish (where Houma is located) are flooded affecting 20,000 residents. These people already experienced wind damage from Gustav only to have flood damage from Ike....please be praying for these residents. Pray that God will comfort them during this time and provide means of getting their homes back.

Pray also for us here at Crisis Response as we take on new locations and seeing our ministry expand...pray God would work out all of the logistics for volunteers coming down and places for them to stay. Pray for volunteers to come! You are reading from the volunteer coordinator's blog and without volunteers this position would not exist. At the bottom of this post is our website and the link to our application. You can also email me at hurricanerelief@efca.org if you have any questions.

Yall are awesome! God is awesome! Praise Him for all the things He has done, is doing, and will do!

Love yall!

Katie

www.efcakatrinaproject.com

Application to bring teams down

Matthew 8:24: "Without warning, a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping."

I like this verse because even though this crazy storm comes and scares the disciples, Jesus remains asleep, in fact He later calms the storm, He remains asleep because He has it all taken care of, He knows what is going on and He knows what will happen, He doesn't worry...Amen!

Gettin my NO feet under me...

Hi everyone,

It has been such an interesting week back in New Orleans. I got back on Sunday afternoon and it was quite nice to be by myself for a couple hours after spending 24/7 with others. The yellowhouse is good, the tree limb hanging over the camper outside not so good, but it hasn't fallen completely yet...it's still holding on.

Getting back in the swing of things has been a whole different experience. Got back to calling teams, cleaning the yellowhouse, wrote my newsletter (which if you want one I need your addy), and still working on my EFCA application. Please pray for determination to get that done. Not having teams has made the month of September even odder. I know God has this break in teams for a reason and I need to use this time to do what He wants. Also please pray for a full night sleep, since I've gotten back I've woken up every night in the middle of the night to either dogs barking, car alarms, etc...it's just been really difficult to get a good night sleep.

Wednesday was airport day, I drove Ms. Kaarin to Baton Rouge because she is headed home to WA for good now to spend time with her family and see what God has in store for her next. Please be praying that she can find a job she loves and that she really enjoys her time at home. I'm gonna miss her mucho! Then that evening I went to the NO airport to pick up Tamara who is volunteering for the week, and another God praise. I didn't even ask for her and God provided someone to help me clean and just hang out with. God is good!

The cops who have been working in Houma this week are staying at the house tonight before catching their flight home tomorrow so I'm excited to hear their stories and how things went! Me and Tamara were hoping to head down there tomorrow but we'll be checking the weather first incase the outerbands of Ike decide to go there too!

Let me know how yall are doing and how I can be praying for yall!

Love ya!

Katie

Isaiah 54:10

"Though the mountains be shaken

and the hills be removed,

yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken

nor my covenant of peace be removed,"

says the LORD, who has compassion on you."

There's no place like Houma!

Pictured above: Gas Station in Houma LA where the eye of Hurricane Gustav passed over.

Hi Yall!

I feel like I've been going non-stop for the past 8 days and with Ike approaching I'm starting to wonder if I should even bother unpacking! This time last week I was packing up things at Trinity and headed to Pensacola...now I'm staying with the Lewis family and hopefully helping the Symmons today unpack their uhaul.

My Very Own Checkpoint Story:

So Wednesday night, me and Mary Held were on our way to Houma at around 5pm. After making some stops and finally getting to Houma, we didn't realize that the parish could be under a curfew. So as we pull up to the checkpoint entering Terrebonne parish, the officer tells us that since we are not emergency personnel we are not allowed in (granted we just drove about 2 hours and got there right at dusk, he wasn't letting us pass.) So we call Mark who met someone that day that could possibly get us an escort into the city. So after about 45 minutes of waiting and calling the Emergency Operations Control and constant prayer, our escort showed up to lead us in. PRAISE GOD!! It just goes to show that God really is in control and when you are doing His work, He knocks down the barriers, He takes care of the details!

Thursday in Houma:

We woke up around 7am and Mark the previous day already had scoped out our job for the morning. We show up at this house where a huge tree had fallen and luckily missed the house but was pretty much all over the front yard.

That morning, the homeowner June and her daughter Mindy stop by and quite shocked to see us chopping down her tree and very very thankful! They immediately run out to get us drinks and offer to provide lunch for us! We didn't even pack lunch knowing that God would provide and He did, He was and is faithful! By lunchtime, the tree was chopped down, and cut up and the logs on the streets. Me, Lisa, and Mary were working 2 houses up and turns out that that was June's mother's house and she was excited to see us cleaning up branches there too!

After lunch, we got back to clearing trees. This one house, Kevin and Prissy's, one of the giant limbs from their tree had fallen on their fence and their awning was blown into their neighbor's yard. After work, we prayed with them and talked with them. They were very glad that that hadn't had more damage. Everyone we helped thus far have been so grateful and it's such a blessing to be there right after the storm to be their first responders.

All in all, I'm very thankful and blessed that God allowed the chance for me to go to Houma to help people in need, to pray with them, to talk with them and hear their story, it's just what I love to do and I'm glad God has given me this passion and these opportunities!

A team is coming in next week of about 4 guys who are going to be working on about 8 houses owned by cops so that should be cool! Please be praying for those who are still without power, water, sewer, etc. God definitely creates a mission field in the wake of crisis and I just ask that we take this opportunity to share the love of Christ to all of those affected!

Love yall!

Katie

"If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen." 1 Peter 4:11

P.S. Funny story:

So after a long day's work and getting drenched in the rain, me, Lisa, and Zack jumped (well kind of slowly stepped then fell) in the Bayou by the Children's home where we were staying in Houma...also another God praise because there were beds, showers, a kitchen, and everything we'd need to stay there. And it was all God providing again for us! And the night before, Will, John Horst, and Steve did it too...no worries no alligators that we saw! Let's just say, I'm never doing it again...it reeked and when you put your foot down it was like putting your foot in mush with seaweeds everywhere...grossss! (but hey how many times do you live?)

Houma is where the heart is...

Hey All!

Last night I got back from Houma where I was able to help clean up people's yards, drag limbs to the streets, talk and pray with homeowners and it was just amazing!!

I'll definitely write more later but right now we're about to have our KRA meeting which is our vision meeting for the upcoming year! Please pray for wisdom as we make decisions and pray for strength as many of our team is exhausted from working 2 1/2 days in Houma non-stop.

Love yall and thanks again for your prayers!

Katie

Evacuation Complete!!!

Hello everyone!!

Praise God I'm back in Covington! Praise God that the area wasn't hit as badly as people thought it would be! Praise God for being in control of it all!

They are opening up the roads to New Orleans at midnight tonight but I probably won't be headed back there until the weekend. Me and Mary Held are making are way to Houma LA tonight to meet up with our staff and help in anyway we can, from cutting down trees to praying with people! It is such a blessing to come back to trinity and everything be up and running! I just pray for those areas that are still without power, water, sewer, etc and pray that those things return soon!

There was some slight damage on I-10 coming back but nothing horrible we could see. Praise God! He really has been so faithful in so many ways and definitely answered prayers in ways we never thought possible!

More updates later on...

Thanks again for your prayers and concerns!

Mucho love!

Katie

2 Corinthians 1:3-4: "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God."

Pensacola is for Patience

Hello all,

Just wanted to update you all on today's activities:

The guys (and Lisa) got to Covington safely! They found the church and vehicles in good condition just no power at the church. They then left to find work in Homa (sp?) LA which is south of New Orleans that was hit very hard and were able to help out many homes in the area. They had given away most of the food they had but at the last jobsite they were at, the owner offered to cook them dinner! YAY GOD PROVIDING!!! As they returned to the church, they discovered all of the electricity working so another Praise!!! The Wattersons, Symmons, Bograns, Horsts, and Lewis's houses are all good, and the Lewis's and Bograns have power! This is another God praise because they were predicting a 15 foot storm surge in Mandeville where the Lewis's live! Please be praying for the rest of power to be restored and for those driving back to Louisiana over the next couple of days...I'm guessing traffic is going to be crazy!

I guess the reason Pensacola is for patience is because I'm definitely learning lots of that being in a house with a lot of people and children. Quiet times to myself are hard to come by and since I dont have my car, I cannot easily get away...especially when all I wanna do is helping those affected by Gustav. But God is teaching me patience and the time will come for me to be back in Louisiana serving Him and I just have to live in the now and use the time given here to do what He wants...which yes may be filling out that 4-12 month application and working on my newsletter. God is good and I have so many reasons to be joyful right now and I can't let the fact I'm not physically helping others get me down!

1 Peter 1:8: "Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy.."

Looks like I'll be in Pensacola tomorrow...unless something comes up and then probably headed back on Thursday...but not 100% sure of that either.

I love yall! I can't thank you enough for your prayers! They were definitely heard and felt! Yall are awesome! God is wayy awesome!

Katie

Philippians 2:14-15:
"Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe.."

good update!

can't blog long just wanted to let people know that the guys (and Lisa) got back safely! All of the houses and Trinity and my car are good just no power yet. The guys are out helping and saying it's hotter than ever!

We're off to the beach and I'll blog some more later!

peace,

Katie

The Light after the Storm...

Well as I'm sure you all are aware that New Orleans was not hit as hard as it was thought. The levees have held (so far), and we're praying they continue to hold. However, other areas of Louisiana were hit quite hard so please be praying for them!

Today was spent in a midday meeting getting down the logistics of what will happen when we get back. The guys are headed back tomorrow at 4am to Covington to survey the damage and let us know when and if we can come back. I'm desparate to go back but I know my place is here where I have the internet and can get volunteer teams and such in order. So tomorrow, we're going to the beach! (and yes I will be doing work..especially on my EFCA 4-12 month application...please pray I get that done soon!)

funny stories today: Jousting! We would put the kids on our back and we were the horses and we'd crawl towards each other and it was the kids' job to pull off the other kid! Videos and pictures will come soon! The horses were me, Lisa Nelson, Steve Nelson, John Horst, Will Lane, and yes even Mark Lewis got in on the fun!

Please pray for the first wave of our team to get back safely! Please pray that the damage done can be undone and that we can multiply our vision for bringing people into God's kingdom through service!

Love in Christ!

Katie

Isaiah 66:1-2 (The Message):
God's message: "Heaven's my throne, earth is my footstool. What sort of house could you build for me? What holiday spot reserve for me? I made all this! I own all this!" God's Decree."But there is something I'm looking for: a person simple and plain, reverently responsive to what I say.