For RevNeal

[Peggy Sue]

Hi,

 

I seem to recall reading that your home is in Texas. I hope you are safe and out of Rita's path.

 

I also recall you mentioning your church had set up a shelter for some folks that lost their homes during Hurricane katrina - how are things going? Would love to send a donation to assist your mission. How would I go about doing that?

 

Our niece lives in Houston. She made it 13 miles outside of the city yesterday after 16 hours on the road and a near miss with running out of gas. We pray that she, and everyone else in Rita's path will remain safe.

 

Take care,

Peggy Sue

[debjo]

Peggy Sue...

I think I saw on a Roll Call board the Rev. Neal was from Dallas, but I'm not absolutely certain. I, too, was wondering if he'd be affected by Hurricane Rita. I hope he does read this thread you started and gives you an answer.

 

Debjo

[RevNeal]

Thank you for your concern.

I'm the Senior Pastor of the First United Methodist Church of Seagoville, Texas.

Seagoville is a suburb on the south-east side of Dallas County.

We had Katrina Evacuees in our buildings for about 4 days before transferring most of them to apartments or to the Dallas Reunion arena, where there were superior facilities.

 

This morning FEMA/Red Cross operators called and let us know that the Dallas shelters were filling up and that we were going to be needed again, so we re-opened our "Evacuation Center Food and Rest" operations. I spent the entire day -- with a few minutes now and then to come and post on this board and check e-mail and such -- working with our people to get Food prepared, cots up, and bedding out. The first vans with people arrived at 11:30, and by 3 we have about 60 families on site. But dinner time, tonight at 7:30 pm, we had 230 people in our Fellowship Hall and education wing.

 

Please pray for them. Most of these people have more assets than many of those who were evacuees from Katrina, but they are all worried -- as one would expect. Many are from south of Houston. 4 families are from the area around Port Arthur, where the storm is expected to make landfall. They're likely to be with us long-term.

 

Hurricanes at sea are fun ... the ship is slamming and even the staff turns green (which doesn't look all that good against the traditional HAL red and blue uniforms). But on land, the aftermath and the evacuations are HELL.

 

If anyone wants to make a donation to the church for Katrina and Rita relief, you are welcome to do so. Mark the Memo "Hurricane Relief."

 

First United Methodist Church Seagoville

101 South Kaufman Street

Seagoville, Texas 75159

 

Red Cross and other religious-based charities are also in need of support, so if you have one you normally give to, PLEASE DO. But ... if you'd like to send some our way knowing that 100% it will be used for this relief effort (or for the continuing Katrina situation), we can use it. We spent $900 today on food supplies -- water, pasta and sauce for spaghetti, bread, crackers, peanut butter (that they can take with them), and such. That wiped out our funds, and I ordered $1500 shifted from the Pastor's contingency fund for this emergency. We've got funds for further needs, but it's going to need a push ... especially after the $5800 local Katrina relief cost us over 2 and a half weeks. 45 kids and 190 adults will eat a LOT of food. :)

[Betsy's Mom]

Hope our small donation will help you and all you are caring for.

B :)