amidst the storm...

As many of you know there is a serious Hurricane heading toward New Orleans right now. A sister ministry of ours called communitas is located in NO and has had to leave as a result of the storm... many of them are close friends of mine. Would you pray with us for them as they live as a community (with children) in wait of what the storm will do to their homes and neighborhoods? Pray also that God will use this team for His glory amidst the storm.

Thank you!

Dear friends and family,

THANK YOU FOR THE DOZENS of calls, texts and emails. We do so appreciate it. Not an hour has gone by that at least 2 contacts have reached us. Thank you to all of those who want to help and make a difference. There may well be a time for that – we pray not, but we’ll remember. :-) No news has been good news... Here is the latest....

We’re settled at Perdido Key in very Western tip of Florida. We’re safe, and the place we’re staying made it not just cheaper than hotels (we have these get-a-way small holiday houses where we have 18 souls in three small but very comfortable places. We emptied every last item from freezers and refrigerators so have plenty to eat!
We left last night at midnight as planned, but the traffic was still full on. With 3.5 million people moving off the coast, it is expected, but it began Friday afternoon and continued through today, 24 hours a day heading in five directions on multiple interstate freeways! Our normal four hour trip took 9.5 hours. We drove through the night! The place we’re staying let us in early into all three – kept cleaning there late last night to get them ready for us as they knew we were coming. How cool is that!? We were zombies, except for the kids of course! Many of us took naps and will sleep all night. We spent two days not just getting ourselves ready to go (furniture moved up off the floor, rugs rolled, all food removed from cooling, cars filled, checked, etc, but also helping others, like Rona, Ali, our neighbors, etc.
We’re waiting! We can’t do much. We’ve had some time to pray together, we’ll have our weekly coordination meeting tomorrow, which we’ll use for larger picture strategy work, and I have a ton of work to do with me and my laptop here. When we can, we go home!
I (Mike) am supposed to be in New York City Tuesday-Sunday, but expect I’ll be late if I can get out. I can’t go until I know the status of home. It is just wisdom as dad, husband and community (team) leader.
The storm: Moving NW at a screaming pace – fastest I’ve ever seen (18 miles/hour). This means less rain – GREAT! It also weakened instead of getting stronger which was expected. It can actually shift west and be drained by being near the coast. The danger for New Orleans is storm surge as the protection on the west bank of the river is still very much under improvements and not completed. Our danger where we live is if the drain system cannot keep up... Prayers appreciated! :-)
Our greatest opportunities come in the next weeks with the leminal time after such a stressful experience. This has brought up the Katrina PTSD for many and we will have huge opportunity to make progress is why we’re here.
We ALL feel never more resolved than today that we are sent here, and have a contribution from heaven on high. EVEN if we lose our homes – we are all supposed to be here doing this. People with nothing to lose are dangerous! :-)

So, pray for our continued safety, our homes (though they are not our security), our mission, the city’s safety and protection, protection for the cities along the coast (vital to oil/gas production and marine aqua farming and fishing, as well as rice and sugar cane agriculture. We are thankful for the proactive reaction at the city, state and national levels to this threat. This is how it should always be!

No news is good news – we’ll keep you posted!
Mike & the community!