The UmBlog

Not that I ever would be invited to be on this council of evangelical advisers , because of many reasons, I don't pastor a large wealthy church, I didn't endorse him, I don't flatter him by calling him God's chosen leader, and I'm not fundagelical anymore....but....if I was asked to serve, I'd consider it a Good Samaritan opportunity to help a deeply wounded enemy of mine who has little good will for me or my neighbors, especially brown skinned neighbors. wikipedia In the liturgy readings last week, I encountered again the obscure Hebrew prophet, Micaiah . King Ahab, a notorious Jewish king in the Hebrew scriptures, had a bunch of flattering court prophets who agreed with any plan he had and always told him god would support him. But this other Jewish king from the south wanted to hear from prophets from his school of theology. Ahab shrugged and was like, "yeah, I have one of those, but he's so negative, but sure I'll get him over here." ...

First Kelly Hart, at the earth bag building blog , posts a link to the bottle brick house in Africa. Then I found a BBC report on it. Eventually I ended up at Eco-Tec Soluciones Ambientales , which I think is the Latin American nexus of this technology. This video seems to explain how it started way back in 2000. My brain is exploding with excitement especially about applying this to Haiti, which has an abundance of trash water bottles all over Port-au-Prince.

Mr. T sheds gold after Katrina destruction - Yahoo! News : "The former television action star shed the piles of gold chains that were his signature look after witnessing the destruction from Hurricane Katrina...'If you're not going to go down there with a check and a hammer and a nail to help the people, don't go down there.' "

Katrina Patina: On Our Own : "The Georgia Power crews had already cleared most of the main arteries, so the going was much easier than the day before. I ran into two other friends biking with the same mission and we pedaled on together. They’re members of the Baptist church in Old Town and told me that a relief center was already being set up in the building. We marveled at the fact that the churches and the power companies had hit the ground running, while there was no evidence of government help anywhere."

Katrina Patina : the observations of a Bay St. Louis survivor. "My home in Bay St. Louis is a renovated schoolhouse - The Webb School - built in 1913. My contractor friends assure me that it’s as strong as a fortress. It’s a raised building, set on solid concrete pilings, ten feet tall. I’d already boarded up the largest of the many windows, but there was still a lot of work to be done. The next twenty-four hours were a blur as I put my hurricane preparation system into effect. The list is long: Take down every piece of art and store it in the most protected closets (a strong storm can vibrate the walls so much, they crash to the floor). Move all the potted plants and outdoor furniture to safety beneath the house. Ditto the car. Cover the important furniture with tarps in case the roof blows off. Pack up all the pottery and sacred books in plastic crates. Fill up the bathtub. Check the battery supply and make sure all the flashlights were working. Make backup discs for the compute...

I learned of this ministry from a recent Chuck Colson Breakpoint article . He writes, Carrying a camera they purchased on eBay and their parents’ credit cards, the young men endured Malaria and scabies as they journeyed from Sudan to Kenya, searching to find a story worth telling. They found it, all right, in northern Uganda. There, Russell and his friends stumbled across thousands of Ugandan children who make the nightly trek from their homes in outlying villages to nearby towns, sleeping in parking garages and bus stations in order to escape abduction by the so-called Lord’s Resistance Army, or LRA. The LRA is a rebel group that has terrorized Uganda for twenty years, kidnapping more than 30,000 children and forcing them to fight for the LRA. Those who resist face murder or mutilation. So this is the vision these guys have for Uganda. Invisible Children, Inc. is dedicated to providing financial resources to invisible children by documenting their true, untold stories in a creative a...

"Morning of Hurricane Katrina…Bay St Louis, Mississippi beach front This is a picture taken at St Stanislaw, Bay St Louis located on the waterfront, by a brother on the third floor. He was with a group of international students when they saw the “tsunami” type wall of water coming in. The water level was measured at 68 ft! You can see from the picture that it was one continuous “wall” and not just a wave separated by water. Of course we now understand the devastation that ensued… Imagine the terror of that moment!" My friend Al Serino, who is coordinating help in Hancock County Mississippi, contrasted this wave to the Indian Ocean tsunami. While the water rushed in about 5 miles in India, it came 15 miles inland here in Mississippi. If the people had not had warning in Mississippi to evacuate, the proportion of lives lost would have been simliar to the tsunami. We visited a house that sits in Diamondhead, 25 feet above sea level that had at least 5 feet of water rush through...

If my body can prevail against this virus/flu, i won't be blogging for a few days. I'll be observing the ongoing relief work organized by Willing Hearts on the coast of Mississippi.

Christianity Today tells a story of relief in Pass Christian, Miss. "The collaboration between Christian groups has impressed Pass Christian's politicians. Christians represent 95 percent of relief volunteers, said Lou Rizzardi, Pass Christian's Ward 1 alderman who coordinates them. "Faith-based organizations come in here much more organized, ready to go to work," Rizzardi said. "They don't ask for anything." Mennonites re-roofed Trinity Church, an Episcopal congregation. The Assemblies of God donated a huge tent to shelter Crusade volunteers. Pass Christian's largest volunteer presence is Campus Crusade... At any given time, up to 300 Crusade volunteers are working. About 4,000 have become involved through Crusade recruitment and word of mouth. Crusade welcomes whosoever will: male or female, young adults, retirees, church groups of mixed ages, and their non-Christian friends. Some have returned to help. Crusade volunteers share the gospel wit...

David Langness is quoted at Informed Content , Katrina displaced probably a million people; 144 square miles of New Orleans (the city is about 200 square miles total) are under a toxic brew of foul water, sewage, oil, gas, lead, PCBs, carcasses both human and animal, etc. I saw thousands upon thousands of poor people set adrift; America’s most vibrant city stilled and stinking; alligators feasting on the dead; flooded, evacuated hospitals; the complete destruction of hundreds of thousands of homes. The television and newspaper photos are nowhere near sufficient to convey the scope and magnitude of the destruction There is an abundance of newspaper clippings worth reading at Prometheus6 . Mostly pictures here. Church blog. Sovereing Grace Fellowship in Slidell, La.

Homes for Katrina Victims

It’s been hard to blog about anything after this devastating hurricane Katrina. I’m a little shell-shocked, even though I live in Connecticut. Last night I was able to make a contribution, monetarily, through the Samaritan’s Purse website. One of the guys I have coffee with every morning heard somewhere from someone a proposal that we who have homes could take in all these displaced people. I really like that idea. Logistics are a big problem, but maybe churches can connect and facilitate this.