Has
the ever rising cost of fuel and the price of airline tickets killed your
plans for a family vacation this summer? You might want to consider
becoming a "voluntourist" on the Gulf Coast. LCC has partnered with three
camps along the Gulf Coast who will be offering family volunteer
opportunities. $120 per person will provide room and board at one of our
camps. The only other cost would be the cost of transportation to and from
the sight and any personal expenses for sourveers. LCC is able to provide
you with maps to and from the camps and make arrangements at a half way stop
for $10 per person a night stay (This includes an evening meal and a hot
breakfast before you continue on your trip)All of our camps have air conditioned sleeping quarters, showers and bath room facilities. Camp Biloxi and Camp Restore offer cafeteria style dining with food prepared by a former chef from one of the New Orleans Bourbon Street restaurants. The modified meal plan at Bayou Grace allows you the opportunity to savor the local cuisine of the area.
By day you and your family would serve as volunteers helping families to rebuild their homes, serve in some of the other program services provide by the camps or assist in evangelist out reach of the camps or near by churches to the surrounding communities. Outreach program might be VBS, sports camps, music camps, Camp Noah, preschool field trips, health fairs, prayer walks and many other forms of out reach. By night and on the weekends you and your family are tourist who will want to visit the many sights and attractions that the Gulf Coast has to offer.
A family vacation as voluntourist is a life changing event. It will allow time for you and your children to work side by side serving others in the name of Jesus. You will have the opportunity to model your faith for your children, grow spiritually and teach some life lessons. In the evenings and weekends you will be able to visit many historic sites and attractions and participate in a variety of recreational activities in the area around you.
To check on available dates at the camps and to register your family as "voluntourists" please call Dianna Bonfield at 866-455-6466 or click here to register as a LCC volunteer to travel and fill out a registration form.
Extra Mile Ministries in serving the homeless in the community of Biloxi request your help to provide bag lunches and shelter for the many survivors of Hurricane Katrina who have lost everything and live under the railroad bridge. Before the hurricane most of these families had homes humble and shabby but it was a shelter. They had jobs but struggled daily to make ends meet. Before the hurricane they had no insurance and since then they have been struggling daily to survive by living under the bridge for shelter. With a donation of $20 dollars Chaplain Buchhorn and the staff of Extra Mile Ministries will be able to purchase a 6 ft X 5 ft tent to provide shelter for two to three people.
Help support the relief efforts in New Orleans with a Cook'n for Katrina cookbook
All Proceeds go to Katrina Relief
We have always loved entertaining. A large part has been cooking with family and friends. There is nothing better than everyone crowded in the kitchen creating a meal.After visiting Biloxi and New Orleans for Lutheran Church Charities we became very aware of the continued devastation a year and a half after Katrina hit. What we saw weighed heavy on our hearts. We knew we wanted do something that would tell the people of the area they are not forgotten. So we did what we knew best: enlisted our family, friends and extended Curves family for support and recipes. They all came through.
Here is your chance to help and enjoy recipes from the heart!
In Christ,
Rich and Dona Martin
Click Here to Order yours Today!
Grant monies given to Bayou Grace
Bayou Community Wellness Enhanced!
Pictured here are Bayou Grace Program Director Courtney Howell and Rev. Bill Geis, Pastor Of St. John's Lutheran Church Of La Grange, Il At Montegut Lions & Lionesses Club-Hosted Dinner
Revised Construction Needs List - April 2007 (PDF)
Office Needs List - April 2007 (PDF)
Help "Welcome Home" our Neighbors in the Gulf States
LCC is asking you, your family, church, or organization to put together
Welcome Home Packs that you
will send to our churches in our
Southern District to be given to returning families.What is a Welcome Home Pack?
It is a box filled with new kitchen items such as: a set of pots and pans, a set of dishes for a family of 4 or 6, glassware, and flatware. The pack would also include a set of kitchen towels, washcloth, potholders & oven mitts or other utensils and kitchen items that a family would need when they move into a FEMA trailer or back into their home. These starter kits will give them something to help them feed their families. Each box should also contain a personal note or letter from the donor welcoming them home and a Christian message, devotional book etc. Lutheran Church Charities will also supply you with a letter to include in the box for the family, as well as an address label.
Click
here for a complete list of suggested items to be assembled into the packs
Click
here to
Sign Up for this project with LCC
The Semi that was loaded with your generous donations on March 13, was driven to the Gulf on March 17
and arrived safely on March 18. The many donations loaded and
transported were of value to each recipient. The Camps are especially
grateful for donations of equipment and tools to continue the process of
Restoration.
Pictured here is the truck arriving at Camp Victor in Ocean Springs, MS,
with Jan Boerman, her son Mike Boerman, and nephew Dan O'Dell.
Among
the tools donated was a 400 pound paint mixer, donated by Paulson's Paint
Company. This was unloaded using a forklift at Camp Victor (as shown
at right).
After
transport to Camp Restore in New Orleans, a table saw and radial arm saw were
unloaded (shown in the photo on left).
Boerman Moving and Storage in Woodridge, Illinois donated the use of a 51
ft semi truck, drivers and fuel to transport needed donations to the Gulf Coast.
The company also donated their services in picking up donated appliances and
loading and unloading trucks.
LCC would like to thank all those whose generous donations filled the semi
truck:
Members of Trinity Lutheran Church, Lisle,
Peace Lutheran Church, Lombard,
members of numerous congregations in the Northern Illinois District as well as
individual donors,
The Corporate Offices of Social Security,
the Bolingbrook Park District,
New Beginnings Baby Store,
Paulson's Paint Company, and
the Papering and Wallpapering Company
Click here for all of the updates that are being sent in...
LCC Staff member heads to Katrina to Coordinate Groups and Semi with Supplies
L to R Glenda & Sam - Thurmond Half Way Stop Hosts, Pastor Danny Dabbs, and LCC staff member Dianna Bonfield
Since Sept of 2005 Hernando United Methodist Church in Hernando, Miss. has been a half way stop for LCC volunteers going to the Gulf Coast to serve on Servant Teams. Their graciousness and southern hospitality abounds. They know how to make a stranger feel at home. They truly have the gift of Hospitality.
Click
Here for more Updates/Testimonials regarding the Teams sent to the Gulf States
T-Shirts Needed
Special Request from Pastor Gonzales of Monte de los Olivos Lutheran Church, Metairie Louisiana
Pastor Gonzales is the pastor of the only LCMS Hispanic congregation in Louisiana. Pastor Gonzales and the members of Monte de los Olivos have an outreach ministry to Hispanic migrant workers from Central America and Mexico who are helping with the clean-up efforts after the hurricanes. On an average they house and feed 30 people a week.This tiny Hispanic congregation's worship attendance is 50 to 70 people a week. Thirty of them are usually those being housed at the church. Pastor Gonzales holds a Bible class for 18 men. The class begins at 9:30 at night, after they get back from their day's work.
Click here for a newspaper article (in Spanish) on this ministry . . .
http://
myweb.cableone.net/LESMBETH
The web page contains our orientation packet for
volunteers, the various facets of the ministry, all of
our updates, our current needs for both the clinic
and the ministry as a whole. The only thing it does
not contain is a separate sheet concerning Judy's
speaking, BUT that can be found in our most current
update, January 1, 2007 (listed on our updates page
on the web).
As of
January 20, Judy Jones is away speaking at congregations who
have lovingly helped south Mississippians recover
from Hurricane Katrina. She has, however, written a
report on the Clinic...
Youth Servant Opportunities in the Gulf States
Is your Youth Group looking for an opportunity to do hurricane clean-up on the Gulf Coast?
LCC has had numerous
requests in the past from Youth Groups wanting
to serve on hurricane
clean up crews. Because of the high toxicity
of the initial clean up
efforts the camps were not allowed to house
or use Youth Groups on
clean-up crews. With the creation of the
Southern
District's new Disaster Relief Department, the
camps are
now able to
accommodate Youth Groups. If your Youth Group is interested in putting together a team contact LCC Volunteer Coordinator Dianna Bonfield at 866-455- 6466
RV's needed for Housing Volunteers
Come February and March Bayou Grace will be receiving the assistance of several long term volunteers (LTV), these are individuals who stay a month or longer and are part of the Bayou Staff. Right now they have only one RV for use by LTVs. It is named LYDIA. Lydia was purchased by the very first LTV that we sent to Bayou Grace. Carol stayed for a month and half and worked as a LTV. When she left the Bayou to return home she left Lydia there with the instructions to Lutheran Church Charities to keep sending LTVs who could work with Bayou Grace and they would have a place to stay. Since Carol first donated Lydia LCC has been sending LTV one after another as Lydia becomes available. Because we have a number of long term volunteers who will be filling critical needs it is necessary to have more RVs available in the Bayou.
Camp Biloxi is now in the place where they are hiring people with construction experience to work as Construction Staff Team Supervisors and they need RVs at their camp to house these individuals.
The rental price of housing has nearly triple in cost throughout the gulf states. Affordable housing just is not available for residents of the gulf coast or for volunteers.
If you have an RV that you would be willing to lend to the camps or to donate please contact Dianna Bonfield at Lutheran Church Charities 866-455-6466. Whether you lead or donate an RV you can take this as an income tax deduction.
What a wonderful way to Make a Difference in the
Lives of hurt by the hurricane and in the Kingdom of God.
Volunteers Needed for Bayou Grace Camp
As Bayou Grace moved into the New Year it had seven families whose homes had been destroyed by the hurricanes. During these first two weeks of the New Year LCC sent a team to do repairs on three of the seven homes and help these three families move closer to the day when they can move back home. There is still much work to be done on all of these homes plus they have three more that they anticipate adding to the list.
They are especially looking for volunteers who are skilled or experienced in roofing, carpentry, electricity or plumbing. In another month or so they will begin construction on the first of brand new home (A Home for Life Home) which is being built for someone whose home was totally wiped out. The Home for Life Program has adopted the plan for the Mennonite prototype home that is built 12 to14 feet above the ground and can withstand 150 mph hurricane winds.
For the next six months they will need teams every week to be able to help these families. If you can become part of a team that is willing to go to the Bayou to assist Bayou Grace as they help these families please fill out the Volunteer to Travel application at the link below
News and Needs of Camp Biloxi
Camp Biloxi has been moving right along in providing services for people. They are now almost totally involved in the rebuilding phase. Currently they are helping people whose homes are still standing but badly damaged. Most of the work is interior work, rebuilding the inside of peoples homes so that they can move back in: dry walling, painting, carpentry, electrical, plumbing, tiling, etc.CAMP BILOXI IS LOOKING TO HIRE EXPERIENCED CONTRACTORS, CARPENTERS ,PLUMBERS, ELECTRICIANS AND OTHER CONSTRUCTION TRADESMEN. Applicants need to have minimum of four years experience in residential construction. Salary is $18.00 an hour. plus room and board.
If you are interested contact Dianna Bonfield at 866-455-6466 (Toll Free)
Bayou Grace: Donated Pickup, need Repair Costs offset
On
September 10th, after volunteering for three months with the Mennonites
building houses in the Bayous of Louisiana, Karl Grissom and his wife Sue
signed on as long term volunteers with Bayou Grace. Karl works as the
construction supervisor for Bayou Grace. He inspects the homes of residents
and determines what needs to be repaired, procures the supplies, assigns and
supervises the volunteers who come to serve a week at a time.
Sue assists Karl with all the paper work and supervises the operations of
the warehouse, procures the supplies needed by the volunteers as well as
what ever other tasks need to be done.
In order to get the tools and building supplies to the job sites Bayou Grace
needed a pickup truck. God answered their prayers with the donation of a
white Ford pickup truck. In October the transmission went out on the truck.
Because the truck is a piece of equipment that is used extensively everyday
it was necessary to replace the transmission and torque converter. The
repair costs of $1,737.00 had to be borrowed from the funds that are used to
buy building supplies. Lutheran Church Charities is assisting Bayou Grace to
raise funds to replace the money borrowed to replace the transmission.
LCC Warehouse: Heat Needed
With the weather getting colder outside, we are desperately
in need of a kerosene heater that will be used in our warehouse in
Mundelein. If you have a 125,000 BTU kerosene heater that you are willing to
donate, please call LCC right away at 866-455-6466. Or if you would
like to donate for the purchase of a new kerosene heater, the cost is $364
from Lowe's.
Thank you for you ongoing support for LCC and our Warehouse that prepares items for going south to Katrina.
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