Sorry you haven’t received anything earlier today, but I hadn’t heard anything until just a few minutes ago.

Our people are all doing well; working hard and not getting a lot of sleep. The shelter where they are has been designated a distribution center. So they have been unloading trucks of supplies and distributing food and water. They found a hospital nearby that was almost out of food and water and they took water, Gatorade and about 100 MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) to them. Tomorrow they will take some hot meals to the hospital. Charley told me that they have plenty of food and water and trucks keep bringing more. There is a clothing distribution center open, but most of the people are really not interested in that at this time. They are just trying to process what has happened to them and their area.

There are about 100 people at the shelter (Christus Victor Lutheran Church) and that included some babies with dysentery (diarrhea). They isolated them and they are improving.

There have been groups going out from the shelter to help distribute food in other areas (Pascagoula, for example) and to see what else can be done to help.

Alan picked his grandmother up in Slidell, LA and then went on to Picayune, MS to his home town. I understand that he is bringing his father back to Montgomery with him and is concerned about his blood pressure because he is out of medicine for it. Please be praying for him as well as the hundreds and thousands that are dealing with the lack of medicines they need.

Charley, our brother-in-law, our son-in-law, and 2 or 3 more will be staying the rest of this week. The others plan to leave tomorrow morning and return to Montgomery. I plan to go down Friday and help over next weekend at least. I have heard from 2 other churches that plan to send teams down. One church is sending a team for Tuesday - Friday and another church will send a team Thursday – Sunday.

Also, please be praying for someone to take over the management of the shelter/distribution center. Right now some people from our team is doing that, but don’t feel they can leave until there is someone in place that can provide continuity and keep things running.

If anyone has heard anything more, please email or call me and I will pass the information on to everyone else.

Blessings,