Sojourners Coming To Florida Bible Camp

March 3-20 the Sojourners will be working here at FBC. If you would like to join us for a day or more your help would be greatly appreciated. Also the start of youth camp weeks will be here before we know it. The list of paper products below are needed here at camp during those weeks. If you can donate or know of a business that could donate any of these items it would be a great help.

Paper Plates
Cups
Napkins
Paper Towels
Toilet Tissue

Photos from Hunter Hills CoC

The first picture is of the drainage system beside the Walmart parking lot. The second is also in that parking lot. The last picture is the gymnasium of the Prattville Christian Academy, our Church of Christ academy (K-12) just across a parking lot from our church building. The rest of the academy was not seriously damaged (some roof damage), and the church was virtually untouched. David Cannon

Another Story From Prattville, AL

There was also good TV news coverage on various occasions with the supplies as well volunteers reaching out to those with needs. The mayor, other relief workers and affected families were very appreciative of the quick response and the heartfelt gift from Tennessee.

P.S. I spoke with one of the first families to receive relief supplies and they said that they had just used their final monthly allottment of food stamps at Walmart prior to the tornado striking. They were outside with their groceries and shopping cart and had to run inside
Walmart for cover, abondoning their shopping cart. In the process they lost all of their food when the tornado hit the Walmart shopping center. You and you volunteers can imagine how grateful they were for the relief supplies.

God Bless,

Wayne Gaines

Tornado Update Prattville

Below is email from my contact at Hunter Hills CoC in Prattville. Above photos are of the semi from Disaster Relief Nashville being unloaded.

Hello Brother Mike—

It is a quiet day here in Prattville after three days of very tiring work involving food & supplies distribution, as well as putting up tarps where there are holes in roofs, putting fences around swimming pools that had previously been surrounded by privacy fences, seeing about people’s cars, etc. We took food from the Emergency Response truck from Nashville and pre-staged portions at three other distribution centers in town. Two of our elders helped work with all these details.

As it turns out, the area was not declared a disaster area, because 98% of the people had insurance. It seemed that just about everybody had a lot of friends, and the “war zones” were crawling with people for three days.

By today, I think people are using the rainy weather as an opportunity to rest a little, and, as with some of our own families, concentrate on paper chores. We are maintaining close contact with many, and the shipment from Nashville has made a huge difference for everybody. This was truly a blessing.

Quite a few church groups/religious organizations have also been involved, in addition to families and friends. I have been very impressed with how everybody has jumped in to help. I believe we will go forward much more quietly from this point. This will be that “quiet time” when people might be more inclined to talk about their feelings about what has happened. We pray that there will be a good opportunity to use this tornado as an instrument to bring people closer to their God.

Blessings to you, Mike.

Dave Cannon

Early Hurricane Forecast for 2008

The preliminary forecast calls for a total of 13 named storms in the Atlantic. It also says it is probable that at least one major hurricane will hit the U.S. coastline. We all know the past two seasons the predictions have been much higher than what actually happened. We still need to be prepared it only takes one.

6.0 Quake in Northeastern Nevada

A strong earthquake shook rural northeastern Nevada. The quake was centered in a sparsely populated area 11 miles southeast of Wells near the Nevada-Utah line. Reports say it was felt across eastern Nevada, Utah and as far away as Southern California. People reported items falling off shelves. There was no reports of serious injuries. One truck stop was evacuated because of a propane leak.

Prattville, AL Tornado Update

Here is some of the information I received in a email from one of the local Churches of Christ there in Prattville around 11PM last night. They received a semi load of food and supplies last night and finished unloading it around 8PM. Than some of the leaders had a dinner meeting to review their options. They have about 20 houses destroyed and about 3 dozen more with serious damage. They don't feel there is crisis of major proportions. They are going to be delivering the supplies to the damaged areas today in smaller vehicles. Than review again at the end of today and see if the need is greater than they first thought and let me know if they need any help.

Sunday Night Tornados

I have spent most of this morning on the phone with churches in Prattville, AL and Molino, Fl where the tornados touched down. Also have talked to Russ Blackwell, David Sargent in Alabama and Disaster Relief Nashville reviewing what needs to be done in those areas. Will keep you posted.

Today I gave one tour of the camp and handed out a contract. The above photo is Walter & Pat Voce leaving the camp with their RV. Over the past two years they have volunteered many weeks of their time doing work here at FBC.

University of Florida Campus Ministry Spring Retreat

Photos above are of the UF Campus Ministry Spring Retreat that was here at FBC this weekend. Two youth were baptized in our pools freezing water.

The weather here in Florida at FBC has been changing each day. One day we have mid 80's and bad storms and last night two days later we had below freezing. We had many tornado watches and warnings earlier this week. The worst that I could find out about was in Cocoa Beach. The roof was blown off a condo building and landed two buildings away on 5 or 6 cars and another condo. No one was injured, just a mess to clean up.

FBC Work Day a Success

The weather was great and a lot was accomplished Saturday here at FBC. The old carpet in the camp session directors office was taken out and replaced with vinyl flooring. All the cabin roofs were cleaned off with blowers. All limbs, branches and trees were taken to the burn pile and the pile was burned for the first time in over a year. Cabins were swept and matress covers washed,trails were cleaned and other misc. items taken care of. I cooked breakfast and lunch for between 20 and 25 people.

Update From Missions With Don and Rosemary

Received this update from my good friend Don Hudson on his Sojourn mission in South Florida.

We have had a wonderful week in mission work with several sojourners here in Key West. We leave today to go to the Hollywood area, near Ft. Lauderdale, for a couple of weeks of evangelism with another group of sojourners. While here in Key West, a lot of work was done on the building, nine bible studies were conducted and 5 people put on the Lord in baptism. It is my opinion that many people here are very receptive to studying the bible to see what God's word says about salvation in Christ. Thank you to all who have an interest in our work. We look forward now in going to the Driftwood congregation and evangelizing that area. Don

FBC Available Dates Filling Up Quickly

Yesterday I gave two tours of the camp and handed out two contracts and emailed out a third one. If you are considering booking some time here at FBC you need to do it soon. Only a few weekends remain open between now and the the end of August.

Danville man heading for disaster, on purpose

The story below was taken in part from the Danville Register. I met Jimmy 1 year ago at the Lady Lake tornado here in Florida. Sense then he has been here at the Florida Bible Camp 2 times to help me and also with me in California. In the photo is Jimmy(on left) and Gomez.

Some people retire after a lifetime of working and head for the golf course. Not Jimmy Nichols - he headed for disaster.

Nichols, who retired from the Department of Corrections in March 2005, bought a small motor home with the intention of traveling, but then Hurricane Katrina hit in August 2005.

His church - Nor-Dan Church of Christ in Danville - rented a van and Nichols headed out with a crew to help.

He returned to Louisiana twice during 2006 to help again.

The next stop was on his own to Florida for a tornado disaster.

“When I went to Lady Lake (Florida) in January of 2007, I told the church I was going, but I didn’t know where,” Nichols said last week. “So I packed up the camper and left. I drove all night and stopped at the visitor’s center and asked a woman if she had heard of anyone doing volunteer work.”

The woman marked a map, and he took off.

He eventually met up with with the Churches of Christ Disaster Response Team, and he found a new mission in life working with the group that aids members of and recruits from Church of Christ congregations throughout the U.S. to help during disasters.

Last year, Nichols helped out with the tornado disaster at Lady Lake, Fla.; the tornado disaster at Enterprise, Ala., in March; and flooding in Finley, Ohio, in October. He also spent about three weeks in the fall near High Springs, Fla at the Florida Bible Camp.

In 1992, he also volunteered in Florida when Hurricane Andrew hit.

Most recently, he spent Dec. 2 through Jan. 8 in Southern California, helping people put there lives back together after the wildfires that burned thousands of acres of land in October of last year.

“I flew out to California with frequent flier miles a friend gave me,” he said. “When we flew in from Phoenix, we came in over the mountains, and it looked like an atomic bomb had exploded. The mountains were all black and charred.”

The Cremeans picked him up at the airport in San Diego and told him to “say good-bye to civilization.” They drove 45 miles east of San Diego to Barrett Junction, Calif., along the Mexican border.

“There were mostly Mexican-Americans or people who lived out there to be by themselves,” Nichols said. “We had to win their confidence. It wasn’t really a community because everything was so spread out. The fires had been so devastating that they had burned everything.”

One of the people the team helped was a man whose last name was “Gomez.” Nichols can’t recall his first name, but he remembers his story.

“He was renting property in sight of the border,” he said. “He was an animal lover and had eight to 10 dogs, 100 pigeons, chickens, roosters, goats and horses on four to five acres of land.

“He and his wife had been separated for 20 years, and she lived in the house and he lived in the trailer.

“He was hosing down the house to save it from burning when he saw that the trailer was on fire.”

The trailer burned down to the ground, so Nichols and others cleaned off the site so FEMA could put a trailer up.

They also worked cutting and removing dead trees and feeding people from a kitchen trailer.

“At first, we were feeding lunch and dinner for about 100 a day, and then it dwindled to feeding an evening meal from 3 to 6:30 p.m.”

Other times, Nichols would take out a group of volunteers and supervise them.

Although he didn’t initially plan on being in California for Christmas because he wanted to get home to take advantage of hunting season, it ended up that he did spend Christmas there.

“I went with the idea I would be there a couple of weeks, but there kept being more and more to do,” he said.

On the Friday before Christmas, the volunteers set up a tent with gifts and brought in a snow blower to pack enough snow on which to set a sleigh. Santa and Mrs. Claus showed up and took pictures with the children and handed out gifts.

The volunteers fed 350 people meals that night.

Nichols said it was worth being away from home during Christmas, though.

“It’s just seeing the look on people’s faces when they’ve lost everything and you’ve given them hope,” he said. “If anybody goes one time, it will get you hooked.”

People asked him why he was going out to California to help the movie stars who had so much money, but he said he told them not everyone out there had money.

He has the pictures to prove that some of the people lived in pretty dire circumstances before the fires even hit.

“You really meet such nice people, it’s unbelievable,” he said. “They come and help whenever they’re needed. My life has been blessed, and you can’t outgive God.”

Work Day at Florida Bible Camp

Saturday February 9 we will be having a work day here at FBC. A group from Bell Shoals COC will be arriving Friday night and leaving on Sunday. If you would like to join us for a day or just a few hours your help would be greatly appreciated.