BST's Blog

As my bro-in-law, Chris (Fajita), put it, "The romance of Katrina is coming to an end." Now, you may think "romance" is a weird term, but I think it's dead on. In the wake of tragedy there are concerts, benefits, news stories, headlines, etc. We're now coming to the grim reality of what we're left with after the immediate drama of Katrina. We're left with many homeless and jobless people who are still searching for family members and a way to put their lives back together.

Charles Marsallis and his family are from New Orleans and they are living with Jerry and Sandra Collins. Charles is working at Otter Creek right now with Ed Rucker helping with maintenance. As we talked yesterday about all the needs, you could see the overwhelmed look in his eyes.

Linda Green and her son Jonathan are staying with Otter Creek member, Betty Brigham. They, along with the Marsallis family, were stranded in the balcony of their church for a week. When her son, Jonathan, went to find food, the rescuers came and everyone had to leave. Linda and Jonathan were separated from each other for several days until learning that each one was safe. They are now reunited and a part of our family.

The stories go on and on. We have partnered with another church in Nashville who is placing families in apartments and empty houses. Our role is supplying furniture. It's a huge thing to take on and seems a bit overwhelming. We've organized a furniture supply at the King House on our new property. We're asking everyone to bring donations of furniture. Please--no junk. We already have quite a bit and have been getting the place organized. It will be manned from 4-7pm Monday-Friday. We need volunteers, we need men who can lift, we need people who can make deliveries, and we need people to help organize the stuff as it comes in. Please call Doug at the Otter Creek office (615) 373-1782 if you have furniture to donate or want to help in any way. Yesterday was our first day. We had lots of furniture and it's already gone and in the hands of those families who needed them. I'm really excited about that!

Doug and a huge group of OC folks are leaving tomorrow at 6am for Picayune, MS. They'll have to cross FEMA borders to get through. They are taking 8000 bottles of water, cleaning supplies, chain saws, you name it. One of the nurses from the area wrote asking everyone to come prepared--physically and mentally. They haven't been able to even get to removing the bodies so the authorities have resorted to putting an "x" in blue tape across all areas with dead bodies. She said there are x's everywhere--over cars, piles of debris, houses, stores, everywhere. Please also be in prayer for those going. This will be life-shaping for many of them.

On a lighter note, we are meeting tonight to rehearse for the upcoming conference. It's been a while since we've all been together and I'm really looking forward to being with ZOE again. There's nothing like family! We're also working on last minute conference details. Our praise band and I will be doing a late night worship time on Thursday. John Chisum will be doing a worship night on Friday night. Michael Card will be playing on Saturday. There are a lot of cool things coming. Randy Gill and Chiz will be handling worship for the leader's conference (Th-Fri afternoon) and then ZOE and I will lead through the weekend at the main conference. Those of you bloggers who are coming, leave a comment and let me know. I'm excited to see you all!

Tonight is Vespers and ZOE rehearsal. It's a beautiful day in Nashville! I hope your Wednesday is full of peace.