Hurricane Katrina (UPDATED)

Be in prayer today for the relief efforts in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

I have received several blogs from that area and many members of the Church have lost everything.

Be in prayer today for the people and the relief agencies that will be rebuilding this area in the coming months.

Those wishing to send funds directly for relief efforts here are a couple of Church organizations:

Hurricane Katrina
WFR Relief Ministries (2005 hurricane)
3201 North 7th Street
West Monroe, Louisiana
71291

Churches of ChristDisaster Relief, Inc.
410 Allied Drive
Nashville, TN 372111
1-800-541-2841

Heres the latest from the Christian Chronicle Web Site:

New Orleans Elder Appeals for Help
By Bobby Ross Jr.
The Christian Chronicle
August 30, 2005

Church of Christ disaster relief agencies making plans to help victims and seeking donations.
An elder with a New Orleans church appealed to fellow Christians on Tuesday to help those devastated by Hurricane Katrina.Fred Franke with the Carrollton Avenue Church of Christ said his family escaped with two days of clothes and essential papers."We, like God's people of old, are in exile, away from our home. Money has already run out for some of our number ... and is running out for others as we speak," Franke said in an e-mail from a Destin, Fla., hotel. Franke said famillies could be allowed back in New Orleans to check their homes in about a week, but then might be forced to leave for a month or two because of a lack of electricity and water."Where many of us had an income or a business that generated an income, many now have none," he wrote. "We absolutely will need help and assistance from every corridor throughout the building of Christ!!"John Dobbs, preaching minister at the Central church, Pascagoula, Miss., wrote on his blog Tuesday that he's almost certain that the hurricane claimed his home."I might entertain some notions of rescuing some items of interest, but between hurricane force winds, rising flood waters, looters and other potentials I haven't even considered, there is nothing left," Dobbs wrote from a public library in Cleveland, Miss., about 350 miles north of Pascagoula. But Dobbs said he was thankful to be with his wife's family. "I am thankful not to be trapped in an attic in New Orleans watching water rise," he wrote. "I'm thankful that I have my loved ones around me. My children are safe. We just have no home."David Hicks, minister of the Carrollton Avenue church, said he evacuated with his family to Anniston, Ala."I have no way of assessing the damage," Hicks said in an e-mail Tuesday. "I doubt that our church building and our home have been seriously damaged. However, we have members all across the city and beyond so I am without doubt that there has been some serious damage to some of the homes of our members."About 120 miles west of New Orleans, members of the Riverside church, Lafayette, La., are opening their homes to as many as a dozen hurricane victims each.“Our community has been inundated with long-term refugees because they can't go home and the hotels are full,” said minister Paul Jones, whose 300-member church is about 120 miles west of New Orleans.Disaster relief agencies associated with the Churches of Christ remained busy Tuesday making plans to send food and supplies to the hardest-hit areas.Joe L. Dudney, executive director of Churches of Christ Disaster Relief Effort Inc. in Nashville, Tenn., said his agency could distribute items to seven or eight locations from New Orleans to Mobile, Ala.But the biggest challenge Tuesday was finding a route for the ministry's tractor-trailers to get to the ravaged areas.“I've got a truck loaded. In fact, I've got two loaded,” Dudney said. “As soon as I get the 'go' sign, then we're going to start moving. But there's no use in us moving if you've got nowhere to go when you get there.”Don Yelton, director of WFR Relief Ministries of the White's Ferry Road church, West Monroe, La., appealed to church members to send donations to help victims. Yelton said the ministry was working to identify where to send help.“Hurricane Katrina has devastated six states,” Yelton said on the ministry Web site. “It is being billed by the TV news as the most costly with an estimated $9 billion worth of damage and deaths unknown.“Please help us find the churches who need our help and send a contribution if you are able,” he added. “Pray for the people for sure.”In Lafayette, Jones said he expected at least eight hurricane victims to stay with his family Tuesday night. “If I need to, I'll sleep in my office,” he said.Besides opening their homes, members are serving a nightly meal in the fellowship hall and preparing it to house as many people as will fit, the minister said.Jones described the needs as “overwhelming” and the damage east and south of Lafayette as “devastating.” And rising waters in New Orleans could make the situation even worse, he said.“There's a lot of tears and heartache, anxiousness,” he said of the people forced to flee their homes. “There's some anger; just not knowing when they can go back to see the damage is a big problem.”But for the church, the opportunity to help is a blessing, he said.“We've just got such wonderful hearts in this church to help people,” he said. “We want to do whatever we can to help. It just seems overwhelming to us at this point.”