Friday

And my God will meet all your needs

according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.

~ Philippians 4:19 (NIV) ~

The arrangements for the wake and funeral services for Mr. Jason “Bully” Schwartz are still not available. I’ll post them when they become available.

Flood Relief Focus Shifting Toward ‘Mud-Out’
By Staff

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (BP)–The focus of Southern Baptist relief operations in America’s flooded Midwest may be shifting toward “mud-out” recovery teams — a ministry that weary residents will be deeply grateful to receive, according to Southern Baptists in the region.

“The feeding operation seems to be decreasing in most of the areas in which we are currently operating,” said Mike Morgan, manager of the North American Mission Board’s Disaster Operations Center. “We have had no additional requests for feeding teams at this time. Requests for the mud-out recovery teams — that go in and clean the homes so people can get back in them and rebuild — are increasing extensively, especially in Iowa and Indiana.”

President George Bush scheduled a June 19 to visit the region, where volunteers still are piling sandbags atop river levees in a frantic effort to forestall the disaster that has engulfed so many communities to their north. At least 20 levees have been overcome by floodwaters this past week and emergency management officials expect another 30 may be overflowed in the next few days, according to the Associated Press.

Storms and flooding in six states have claimed 24 lives and caused an estimated $1.5 billion in damage. The Associated Press reports a 280-mile stretch of the Mississippi River between Fulton, Ill., and Winfield, Mo., is expected to remain closed for at least 10 more days because of flooding. Almost 2,000 members of the National Guard have been deployed in riverfront communities of Missouri and Illinois.

More assessment teams are moving into the area to identify additional needs in towns that don’t have recovery operations in them, Morgan said. “We are still finding areas that even though the recovery need is there, the water hasn’t receded enough for us to do any work yet,” he added.

Richard Nations, editor of the Iowa Baptist newspaper, has been on the road in eastern Iowa, interviewing both flood victims and Southern Baptist relief workers who have come to their aid. He said residents whose homes and businesses have been flooded out are grateful others are coming to help and relief workers are just glad to lend a hand.

“I spoke to Brad Oberreuter, who had chest-high water in his house in Cedar Rapids,” Nations said. “They were pretty much emptying the house of everything. There is mold and the smell is horrible. I could smell the mold. I could smell the rotting food. It just singed your nose as you walked into his house.

“I also met the son of Marcene Pollet, who is a 75-year-old member of Immanuel Baptist Church in Cedar Rapids. She lost her house, which was about 100 years old, to the flood,” Nations added. “Her son-in-law stopped by the church when he saw the Texas Baptist disaster relief unit. He said, ‘She doesn’t want to accept any help, but I know this is her church and I wanted to thank you for what you are doing.”

Much of Pollet’s furniture had been moved to a nearby town, where the owner of a storage facility gave her two months’ free rent on a unit, Nations reported.

Nations also had an opportunity to meet Tommie Brown, a Southern Baptist retiree from Plains, Texas, who was serving as a volunteer in a feeding unit that had been deployed to Cedar Rapids for 10 days.

“Tommie was washing dishes and stopped for a minute to talk with me,” Nations said. “She told me this is her seventh or eighth deployment in four years of working in disaster relief. She said she was just glad to be able to help.”

Nations said Brown told him: “I don’t want to just sit down and wait for death to come. I want to feel needed and used. If I get tired, that’s a good thing. I enjoy this work and it’s a good tired. I am ready to be tired. I’m here to roll up my sleeves and work.’

Individuals and churches interested in donating or helping with relief efforts in Iowa may contact the Iowa Baptist Convention office at (515) 278-1566 or Baptist Convention of Iowa, 2400 86th St., Suite 27, Des Moines IA 50322; or, visit http://www.bcisbc.com and click on “Disaster Relief Give Now.” Donations for disaster relief also may be directed to the North American Mission Board by visiting http://www.namb.net and clicking on “Give Now.”

Compiled by Mark Kelly, an assistant editor with Baptist Press.

KOMpray

June 20, 2008

“Let the little children come to Me, and don’t stop them, because the kingdom of God belongs to such as these,” Luke 18:16b

THEY SPEAK A DIFFERENT LANGUAGE

We are Kids on Mission in Togo, West Africa. We live at a school in Togo where Africans from a lot of different countries come to learn about Jesus and the Bible. They move here with their families, so my sister and I have a lot of other kids to play with. We love to play soccer and throw rocks at the mango trees so that we can knock down the mango fruit and eat it. My sister likes to play dolls and climb trees. The hard part is that none of our friends speak English. They all speak French in this part of Africa. We are learning to speak French too so that we can talk to them. Will you pray that God helps us to learn this language? My sister and I really want to be able to tell our friends about Jesus. LOGAN and ELIZABETH, age 6 and 4 (West Africa)

MORE PRAYER REQUESTS FROM MISSIONARY KIDS
Please pray that all my friends would come to Christ. Pray that the Central Asian government will let us keep living in our country. ERIC, age 12 (Central Asia)

My brother goes to a boarding school and doesn’t live at home. I have a hard time with him gone. I know that this is God’s plan but I still have trouble. God has taught me not to take my family for granted all the time.
My last prayer request is for the villages that we go to. Pray that I can be a living testimony to the children and adults. MIRANDA (West Africa)

Please pray for the people of South Africa who are dying of HIV Aids. 40% of South Africans are dying of HIV Aids. Praise the Lord that many Zulu people are bringing Jesus into their hearts. COREY, age 11 (Central, Eastern and Southern Africa)

Please pray for me to be able to make friends where I live. Please pray for me to become a Christian. Please pray for me to be able to learn Thai so I can speak with the Thai kids where I live. RACHEL, age 9 (Pacific Rim)

There are many needs, spiritual, physical, financial, etc., in our community. Please pray for God’s solution and God’s timing for each need.

Anna Lee