Ohio Flood Relief 2011
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We are all called by Jesus to disciple others. We read in Mathew 28:18-20
And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you;
and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
Discipling others isn’t an option, it’s a command. God has us all in different
places in life to disciple others. God has called Mary Jo and I to be
missionaries. We are no different than any other missionary in our calling.
Just like someone is called to Africa, Asia, Haiti, etc, we have been called to
areas hit by disaster.
Wherever we go, we are called to make disciples, just like any other
missionary. Many think that we go into areas to help people who are affected
by a disaster, that’s just our cover! Our main focus is to disciple others and
we use disaster relief as the tool that opens the door to discipleship!
Many times as we travel we hold church in yards of damaged homes. We
invite people we serve to join us back at the camp for devotions. We
encourage all of our team to have a personal time of devotion every day and
on top of that we have team devotions in the morning and another one at
night. As we serve we listen to Christian music and often times talk about
things of the Lord, usually centered around what we’ve been studying in the
Bible.
This trip was no exception. We studied God’s Word for 2-3 hours together
every day. Even one night we were at a church mission’s dinner and got back
in late. I wasn’t going to require the team to do devotions and was saying
good night when one of the Bowery disciples asked me, “What about
devotions?” I replied I was willing if they were but didn’t require it since it
was late. All but one of the 15 in house came to the study and it lasted for
almost two hours! Please pray that God’s Word penetrates our lives and that
His promise of His Word not returning void will be lived out in each of our
lives.
People often times ask us why we come and do what we do, and we always
reply because Jesus told us to! As we serve people get to see first hand how
Jesus lived His life on this earth. As much as possible we get together with
the family when we are all finished, present them with a Bible and some
other Biblical literature, a worship CD, a teaching CD from our pastor with a
salvation message on it and then we pray with them. And they thought we
just came to clean their house!!
It is a great opportunity that the Lord has allowed us to be part of and we
take it very serious. Please continue to pray that the Lord would lead, guide
and protect us in His ministry to others as we fulfill His commandment to go
and make disciples! We look forward to the day when we can be supported
for our physical needs so that we can spend more time ministering and doing
mission work, in God’s timing!
And now for the trip synopsis! About two weeks ago every county in Ohio
experienced major flooding. Some areas were less fortunate than others,
Wapakoneta and St Marys areas being a couple of these areas.
One of our team members is from Wapakoneta. His brother’s home had
close to a foot of water in it. He called me to ask for advice with what to do
with his home. I gave him some direction and asked him if he knew of any
other needs in the area. Of course he was busy with his own disaster and
didn’t know what else was happening in the area. His wife began checking
with different authorities and churches in the area and we were put in touch
with the Wapakoneta Fire Chief and the Auglaize County EMA Chief. They
both agreed that there were a lot of homes that needed our assistance and we
were asked to deploy to the area if we could.
We immediately began praying about deploying and sent out an email to
others to see if they would do the same. We decided the Lord wanted us in
Ohio and I made arrangements to finish up work and Mary Jo had her Spring
Break so she had the week off.
I contacted Tom from the Bowery and he agreed to send eight of the disciples
to join us. Our good friend Chuck “Chuckles” who retired to Ohio from
Florida last year (I think he has it backwards), agreed to join us. Jason from
Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville, Virginia who has a relief ministry, called and
he and a team member could help out for a few days. Cassie from Horizon
Fellowship in Indianapolis also called and showed up with two guys from her
relief team. We also were blessed to have Kevin from Wapakoneta join us as
well as he is currently unemployed.
We headed out on Friday morning, a little later than we had hoped as we
stayed up late the night before getting everything loaded up. We weren’t an
hour down the road when the trailer lights began flickering on and off. I
pulled into a rest area and couldn’t figure out the issue so we headed to a
trailer repair shop. After three tries by them and being charged for fixing
something that wasn’t broken, I finally dug through the trailer and got my
tools out and found a short in one of the side running lights. I eliminated the
wire and we got back on the road!
We made it to Knoxville, TN and found a hotel to spend the night.
Unfortunately Mary Jo is not comfortable with pulling the trailer, yet, so
since I couldn’t find anyone to go with us from FL, we couldn’t drive straight
through.
We got back on the road and noticed that our truck had picked up quite a
shake so we found a service garage and asked them to check things out.
They concluded that the issue was a bad bearing in the trailer so we opted to
replace all four of them. The brakes also were getting low so we decided to
replace them as well.
Four hours later, we were on the road again! We arrived late in the
afternoon and went right to our first home. We surveyed the damages, filled
out the appropriate paperwork, got the required signatures, promised to
return with a team the next morning and headed to our second home. We
now carry commercial fans and dehumidifiers and this home needed both, so
we set the home up to begin the drying process and headed to St. Joes
Catholic School who had graciously given us full use of their facilities for
sleeping, eating and cleaning up! Shortly thereafter the Bowery guys arrived.
St Joes Catholic Church and Wapakoneta Church of the Nazarene decided to
take us on as a project!! They made sure we were welcomed and very well
taken care of. Different people took turns providing us with a hot breakfast
and supper and packed us sandwiches and treats for lunch. Judy and Geneva
Opperman quickly took control of all the details and made sure we wanted
for nothing. They even got us cots and mattresses for all the team that
needed them! They were truly angels sent to take care of us and we are
eternally grateful for all that they did! Their care of us allowed us to better
serve in the community, helping everyone the Lord sent our way.
Jason and John arrived on Sunday evening and served with us through
Wednesday evening. Chuckles arrived Monday and served through Tuesday
evening. Cassie, Landrew and Jeff arrived on Wednesday and stayed until
we were finished on Friday.
Linda from ISOH/Impact ministries in Ohio contacted us and asked if we
needed any supplies, which we gladly replied yes too. We have worked with
them on several projects and they sent four pallets of cleaning supplies and
food items for us to use and distribute in the area. Monday afternoon we
unloaded the truck and immediately began using the supplies. Thanks again
guys!
We were able to serve at seven homes, two of which had extensive damage
and had to be completely gutted to the four foot level. There were seventeen
of us all together serving in the homes and too many to mention helped out
with meals and things back at the school.
Saturday morning we got up and said our good-byes. The ladies had
breakfast for us and even packed us lunches for the road! The Bowery boys
made it home on Saturday without a hitch. Mary Jo and I had a few issues.
The truck was really shaking again the longer we went on our trip Saturday.
We made it to Macon, GA and found a tire store that was going to be open
early on Sunday morning. We got some pizza for dinner and checked into a
motel.
I got up early the next morning and headed to Firestone. I was the first one
there so they immediately started looking at the truck. Apparently we had
an alignment issue, two bad wheels and one really bad tire. We got
everything taken care of and by 10 AM we were back on the road. What a
difference the ride was!
We got home a little before dark and I had to unload the relief trailer and
put my work tools in my work trailer. I had to be at a job at 8 AM on
Monday morning and knew I’d have better luck getting it done that night
than for me to get up early the next morning!
It was a great trip and we really met some great people. Please continue to
keep them in your prayers. One family in particular, the Rineharts, have a
rough road ahead of them. They can’t live in their home, it had six-ten
inches of water in it, they have three kids, two of them under five and two
dogs, one is pregnant and the other got really sick from the flood. Another
family is also out of their home but things are moving a little quicker for
them. Each home/family that was affected is dealing with a lot of issues, not
all of them flood related. But they all have one thing in common, they have
a God who loves and cares for them. Pray that they would draw closer to Him
through this and that He would send others their way to proclaim the Gospel
with their lives as our team tried to do this past week.
Make sure you check out the pictures page to view some photos of the trip.
There is also a link at the top of the page for our youtube page. It contains
videos of the trip including a copy of Dayton's Channel 7 news coverage of
one of the homes we were serving in. There is also a copy of the newspaper
article that interviewed us under the in the news tab at the right.
Thanks for all your prayers and support; we couldn’t do what we do without
each and every one of you!
And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you;
and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
Discipling others isn’t an option, it’s a command. God has us all in different
places in life to disciple others. God has called Mary Jo and I to be
missionaries. We are no different than any other missionary in our calling.
Just like someone is called to Africa, Asia, Haiti, etc, we have been called to
areas hit by disaster.
Wherever we go, we are called to make disciples, just like any other
missionary. Many think that we go into areas to help people who are affected
by a disaster, that’s just our cover! Our main focus is to disciple others and
we use disaster relief as the tool that opens the door to discipleship!
Many times as we travel we hold church in yards of damaged homes. We
invite people we serve to join us back at the camp for devotions. We
encourage all of our team to have a personal time of devotion every day and
on top of that we have team devotions in the morning and another one at
night. As we serve we listen to Christian music and often times talk about
things of the Lord, usually centered around what we’ve been studying in the
Bible.
This trip was no exception. We studied God’s Word for 2-3 hours together
every day. Even one night we were at a church mission’s dinner and got back
in late. I wasn’t going to require the team to do devotions and was saying
good night when one of the Bowery disciples asked me, “What about
devotions?” I replied I was willing if they were but didn’t require it since it
was late. All but one of the 15 in house came to the study and it lasted for
almost two hours! Please pray that God’s Word penetrates our lives and that
His promise of His Word not returning void will be lived out in each of our
lives.
People often times ask us why we come and do what we do, and we always
reply because Jesus told us to! As we serve people get to see first hand how
Jesus lived His life on this earth. As much as possible we get together with
the family when we are all finished, present them with a Bible and some
other Biblical literature, a worship CD, a teaching CD from our pastor with a
salvation message on it and then we pray with them. And they thought we
just came to clean their house!!
It is a great opportunity that the Lord has allowed us to be part of and we
take it very serious. Please continue to pray that the Lord would lead, guide
and protect us in His ministry to others as we fulfill His commandment to go
and make disciples! We look forward to the day when we can be supported
for our physical needs so that we can spend more time ministering and doing
mission work, in God’s timing!
And now for the trip synopsis! About two weeks ago every county in Ohio
experienced major flooding. Some areas were less fortunate than others,
Wapakoneta and St Marys areas being a couple of these areas.
One of our team members is from Wapakoneta. His brother’s home had
close to a foot of water in it. He called me to ask for advice with what to do
with his home. I gave him some direction and asked him if he knew of any
other needs in the area. Of course he was busy with his own disaster and
didn’t know what else was happening in the area. His wife began checking
with different authorities and churches in the area and we were put in touch
with the Wapakoneta Fire Chief and the Auglaize County EMA Chief. They
both agreed that there were a lot of homes that needed our assistance and we
were asked to deploy to the area if we could.
We immediately began praying about deploying and sent out an email to
others to see if they would do the same. We decided the Lord wanted us in
Ohio and I made arrangements to finish up work and Mary Jo had her Spring
Break so she had the week off.
I contacted Tom from the Bowery and he agreed to send eight of the disciples
to join us. Our good friend Chuck “Chuckles” who retired to Ohio from
Florida last year (I think he has it backwards), agreed to join us. Jason from
Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville, Virginia who has a relief ministry, called and
he and a team member could help out for a few days. Cassie from Horizon
Fellowship in Indianapolis also called and showed up with two guys from her
relief team. We also were blessed to have Kevin from Wapakoneta join us as
well as he is currently unemployed.
We headed out on Friday morning, a little later than we had hoped as we
stayed up late the night before getting everything loaded up. We weren’t an
hour down the road when the trailer lights began flickering on and off. I
pulled into a rest area and couldn’t figure out the issue so we headed to a
trailer repair shop. After three tries by them and being charged for fixing
something that wasn’t broken, I finally dug through the trailer and got my
tools out and found a short in one of the side running lights. I eliminated the
wire and we got back on the road!
We made it to Knoxville, TN and found a hotel to spend the night.
Unfortunately Mary Jo is not comfortable with pulling the trailer, yet, so
since I couldn’t find anyone to go with us from FL, we couldn’t drive straight
through.
We got back on the road and noticed that our truck had picked up quite a
shake so we found a service garage and asked them to check things out.
They concluded that the issue was a bad bearing in the trailer so we opted to
replace all four of them. The brakes also were getting low so we decided to
replace them as well.
Four hours later, we were on the road again! We arrived late in the
afternoon and went right to our first home. We surveyed the damages, filled
out the appropriate paperwork, got the required signatures, promised to
return with a team the next morning and headed to our second home. We
now carry commercial fans and dehumidifiers and this home needed both, so
we set the home up to begin the drying process and headed to St. Joes
Catholic School who had graciously given us full use of their facilities for
sleeping, eating and cleaning up! Shortly thereafter the Bowery guys arrived.
St Joes Catholic Church and Wapakoneta Church of the Nazarene decided to
take us on as a project!! They made sure we were welcomed and very well
taken care of. Different people took turns providing us with a hot breakfast
and supper and packed us sandwiches and treats for lunch. Judy and Geneva
Opperman quickly took control of all the details and made sure we wanted
for nothing. They even got us cots and mattresses for all the team that
needed them! They were truly angels sent to take care of us and we are
eternally grateful for all that they did! Their care of us allowed us to better
serve in the community, helping everyone the Lord sent our way.
Jason and John arrived on Sunday evening and served with us through
Wednesday evening. Chuckles arrived Monday and served through Tuesday
evening. Cassie, Landrew and Jeff arrived on Wednesday and stayed until
we were finished on Friday.
Linda from ISOH/Impact ministries in Ohio contacted us and asked if we
needed any supplies, which we gladly replied yes too. We have worked with
them on several projects and they sent four pallets of cleaning supplies and
food items for us to use and distribute in the area. Monday afternoon we
unloaded the truck and immediately began using the supplies. Thanks again
guys!
We were able to serve at seven homes, two of which had extensive damage
and had to be completely gutted to the four foot level. There were seventeen
of us all together serving in the homes and too many to mention helped out
with meals and things back at the school.
Saturday morning we got up and said our good-byes. The ladies had
breakfast for us and even packed us lunches for the road! The Bowery boys
made it home on Saturday without a hitch. Mary Jo and I had a few issues.
The truck was really shaking again the longer we went on our trip Saturday.
We made it to Macon, GA and found a tire store that was going to be open
early on Sunday morning. We got some pizza for dinner and checked into a
motel.
I got up early the next morning and headed to Firestone. I was the first one
there so they immediately started looking at the truck. Apparently we had
an alignment issue, two bad wheels and one really bad tire. We got
everything taken care of and by 10 AM we were back on the road. What a
difference the ride was!
We got home a little before dark and I had to unload the relief trailer and
put my work tools in my work trailer. I had to be at a job at 8 AM on
Monday morning and knew I’d have better luck getting it done that night
than for me to get up early the next morning!
It was a great trip and we really met some great people. Please continue to
keep them in your prayers. One family in particular, the Rineharts, have a
rough road ahead of them. They can’t live in their home, it had six-ten
inches of water in it, they have three kids, two of them under five and two
dogs, one is pregnant and the other got really sick from the flood. Another
family is also out of their home but things are moving a little quicker for
them. Each home/family that was affected is dealing with a lot of issues, not
all of them flood related. But they all have one thing in common, they have
a God who loves and cares for them. Pray that they would draw closer to Him
through this and that He would send others their way to proclaim the Gospel
with their lives as our team tried to do this past week.
Make sure you check out the pictures page to view some photos of the trip.
There is also a link at the top of the page for our youtube page. It contains
videos of the trip including a copy of Dayton's Channel 7 news coverage of
one of the homes we were serving in. There is also a copy of the newspaper
article that interviewed us under the in the news tab at the right.
Thanks for all your prayers and support; we couldn’t do what we do without
each and every one of you!
and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the
darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. Isaiah 58:10
darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. Isaiah 58:10
