H. I. S. Team (Hands In Service)     |      10/23/08

Today we made it into Houston, Texas, and after a minor wrong turn down
Interstate 45, we made it to Gloria Dei Lutheran Church. Gloria Dei
has opened their church home to all of us and can't believe that we have
come from CA to help. Gloria Dei's building took some damage and had
to remove flooring throughout the campus.

You can see damage in Houston, but as you get closer to the lower
sections of town, you can really start to see the impact of the storm.

Here are some pictures of the camp grounds:   [LINK]

This setup is very nice for the volunteers, with gym showers and
indoor sleeping. We're not sleeping in tents this time. Around the church
are several stores and places to eat. You can walk to most places. Johnson
Space Center is right across the street with lots of activity there. I hope to
see it Sunday.

The Core team wants to say thank you so much to our school kids for
the $500 + dollar donation. They couldn't believe that our kids
chose them and wanted to say how great our school kids are for doing
this. Since there is so little news coverage of the situation down
here, funds, resources and volunteers are much harder to come by,
compared to Katrina, but the need is about the same. Bruce, the
Missions and Outreach leaders shares his greeting and thanks to
Pastors Tim and Chris. Your support of CORE and Gloria Dei's work
down here is very much appreciated. The volunteers here are great and
tonight, after working all day, went "alligator" hunting. Not sure
about this one, being from CA.

On Friday, we start work at 8:00 AM and will start seeing first hand the
damage from the storm.

On Saturday, the church has planned and prayed for 1,000 volunteers
from the local areas to come down to the bay area for a major clean
up day. It is hoped that this event will spark more interest in the
need and get more people involved to help. Saturday, regardless of
the number of people, it promises to be a good event.

Please continue to keep the CORE's Hurricane Ike response in your
prays. They have a much smaller group of volunteers this time, but
have lots of needs to cover.

In Christ - Brian

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10/25/08

Saturday we had a great day of work and worship. The church was able to get very close to 1,000 volunteers. The worship service was great and filled with people willing to help. Young adults group, lead the worship with music and praise. They were able to reach out into communities that need help, but have yet to receive it. We all prayed that hearts would be moved by the word.

http://homepage.mac.com/jbriantodd/PhotoAlbum71.html

We continue to work on the house in Seaport. Its mostly completed, the floors were very hard to remove and I starting to feel it in my arms and legs. Mary was able to help the family sort through belongs and get rid of items destroyed by the storm. Norma has been removing floors and nails.

Sunday is a day of rest and we hope to see other parts of Houston, after Sunday service.

In Christ - Brian

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