Update from Don

Our next mission begins Jan. 5th, next Mon. Rosemary and I plan to leave rather early in the morning for the 3 day trip to Key West, some 1100 miles south of here. This is our third year working with the Key West Church. There will be a group of us sojourners there highly involved in evangelism. During the past two missions, we have taught and baptized about a dozen people. We will give special emphasis on this mission in teaching more material to these new converts. Our team leader is Doug Shepherd and his wife Maxine. This couple has been doing this type of mission work for over 10 yrs. They are great leaders. They are great servants. Rosemary and I count them among our very best friends. We are planning to have a "Super Saturday" on Jan. 10th. We will be teaching lessons on the life of Christ. There will be a break for refreshments and at the conclusion of the three hour teaching sessions, we are planning to have a cook out. We will be using this occasion of pleasant experience for the children and adults who attend to set up further bible studies with them. We hope to sign up a lot of people for bible study. The Key West Church is looking forward to our coming as we are looking forward to this effort. Good progress is being made in the area of community evangelism, I really believe good things will be occurring with the church. This is a mission that is developing into a real success story.
Am looking forward in speaking at the Fla. School of Preaching Lectureship in Jan. We will be teaching methods in helping get people back in church. We have had some real success this year in this area of evangelism at Howell. One reason is the very interested friendly brethren that make up the congregation at Howell. There is a great desire for teaching and also a great desire for fellowship. "People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care." When you go to where people are, you can take them where you are going." More on the lectureship in the next report. Don

Carol Ogle(On the Home Front)

I n my work as the Relief Ministry coordinator I have met many people who have learned this ancient di-rective well. In the dozens of phone calls I take and on our visits to churches on the front lines of hurricane re-lief, again and again we receive what we intended to give. Our purpose is to encourage and bless the de-voted workers and in every case we are the ones who are encouraged and blessed by their courage, love and servant spirits.
What a joy and unique blessing to see first hand my brothers and sisters in Christ living out the grace of giving by devoting themselves to others as they use every means to serve the hurting. The heroes among us are too numerable to mention by name but I am forever thankful to God and to those who live out His life by giv-ing themselves freely to the needy.
Without you, our faithful supporters, the work of helping the hurting could not be accomplished. Your generosity does not go unnoticed by WFR Relief or our faithful Lord. Thank you for all you have done to help us help those who lives have been forever changed by dis-cree

A Pendleton County town in mourning the loss of a man who lost his life in a Christmas Eve crash.

Jason Carr was killed on December 24 when the car he was driving collided with two other vehicles on the AA Highway just south of I-275 in Wilder, Kentucky.

Thirty-year-old Carr was a resident of Falmouth, Kentucky, and a father of two girls, ages 9 and 11.

A friend of Carr's, Brian Owens, says, "He did anything he could for the girls, and even with the rough schedule he would get them through the week to go do something fun like going to the pizza place in Falmouth, taking them to soccer games, playing basketball out back of his house, soccer in the living room with the girls and his dog Dutch when it was cold and wet. Really anything that a Dad does. There are so many people whose lives he touched with his smile and twinkle in his eyes, he loved life and made it so much better for his family and friends."

Carr worked for the Norfolk Southern Railroad.

Services for Carr will be on Saturday December 27 at noon at Peoples Funeral Home in Butler, Kentucky. Visitation is at noon with the funeral service immediately following.

Update from Bayou La Batre

2008 has been a good - if challenging - year at the Hemley Rd. Church of Christ in Bayou La Batre, Alabama. We now have an average of 60 people in attendance and have had ten precious souls baptized this year. Our teens and children's classes have outgrown our classroom facilities but we give God the glory that the children love to come to church and learn more about Jesus.
Our summer intern, Tyler Cope, a student at Oklahoma Christian University, was a great leader for our kids. With the help of our dear friends and partner church in El Campo, Texas, our teens attended Camp Bandina in Bandera, Texas last summer. It was a time of great growth and fellowship with our friends from the congregations in El Campo and Lake Jackson, Texas, along with many other churches. Two of our young men were baptized at camp.
We had a great Vacation Bible School in July which was conducted by members from the White’s Ferry Rd. Church of Christ in West Monroe, La. Their Jr. High group taught our kids many new songs and activities. We have 3 new families in our church as a result of their children attending the VBS.
After Hurricanes Ike and Gustav, we were able to serve hundreds of hungry people through our Food Pantry. Our Hemley Rd. group has also coordinated activities with the local city council, the Local Lions Club, the Fire and Police Departments, and many relief organizations. This is a church that is known around the coast of South Alabama for its love and compassion for those in need. \
Church members recently participated in a day of Christmas time activities. We had Friday night Christmas banquet for team members and parents of children who are active in the Sunday school program. Saturday activities included Bayou Recovery Project workers involved in the Christmas toy Drive sponsored by the New York City Firefighters at the Bayou LaBatre Community Center. Over 2000 children received gifts and got to sit on Santa’s lap. Afternoon festivities in-cluded sponsoring a float in the annual Bayou La Batre Christ-mas parade, complete with “Mr. and Mrs. Claus” (aka Ken and Ann Bolden of the White’s Ferry Rd. where Ken is a direc-tor of the World Radio ministry)
Evening activities included a Christmas play involving over 50 children with more than 150 community and family members in attendance. For information about opportunities to participate in numerous volunteer service projects for 2009, please contact: Daphne German, at daphneger-man@hotmail.com or phone 251-609-0448.
Thank you for all your prayers and support of the Hem-ley Rd. Church and the Bayou Recovery Project. We give God the glory for all His blessings!

Disaster Assistance Gustav/Ike Mission Recap

Thanks to you, the first "Disaster Assistance" mission was a tremendous success. This mission started Sept.5th with Hurricane Gustav in Baton Rouge, and ended Dec.9th on the Bolivar Peninsula with the results of Hurricane Ike. There were 39083 meals prepared and served. There were just over 500 people signed up for bible study. We helped unload and distribute 10 semi- truck loads of supplies such as food boxes, cleaning supplies, mattresses and appliances, furnished by "Churches of Christ Disaster Relief" of Nashville and other churches. We would like to especially thank the Churches of Christ at Goodwood, Lake Jackson, El Campo, Broadway, Cox Blvd, Whites Ferry Road and many of the Churches of Christ in the Houston area. not only for their financial support, but also for providing volunteers to help in serving and bible studies. Now we have singled out these churches, but truly churches from all over the country sacrificially donated and continued to donate the funds that were so necessary to accomplish this great mission. God was glorified, Christ was magnified and the local churches were edified.

Now for some more good news. Quite frankly, when we started this mission under the oversight of the elders of the Alachua Church of Christ. Our hope was that we would receive enough donations to at least help people close to home. Gainesville, Fl. Boy were we surprised!!! You made it possible for us to minister to people well over 800 miles away. Churches from all over the U.S. were so helpful, that now we can say we are prepared to go almost anywhere, anytime in the whole country to help in most disasters. Everywhere we go people see our "Orange Shirts" which tells them, "the Church of Christ is here helping." Thank you so much for making this possible.

It is our hope that you and your family have a wonderful holiday season and are looking forward to the great doors of opportunity to serve God in the coming year.

As you may wish to continue supporting this mission, a special separate Sunday contribution, ear marked "Disaster Assistance", will enable us to be "ready to roll" at a moments notice. We found that this was an excellent way for each person to give if able and as they see fit.


Remember you and we together are "Combating Natural Disasters with Acts of God"


Donations should be mailed to Disaster Assistance, Alachua Church of Christ, 14505 NW 145 Ave,
Alachua FL 32615

Merry Christmas and please continue to keep us in your prayers

From the Goodwood CoC Bulletin

This past year has been a year of blessings. This congregation has been able to serve the Lord in a variety of ways in 2008. Our Bible classes, benevolent outreach, mission efforts, fellowship with one another, and worship to God have been a blessing to each of us. As the elders of this church, we are doubly blessed by these opportunities and by the wonderful people with whom we serve. Let us commit to increasing our service to the Lord in 2009. The Elders

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It has truly been a blessing to have served alongside of you in 2008. We have rejoiced as many have been added to this congregation and said goodbye to many others, reached out to our community in the wake of Gustav, mourned the passing of a few of our members, spent much time together in the study of God’s Word, and experienced several transitions in our leadership. Kristi, Eden, and I thank you for loving all three of us and for continually overwhelming us with your support and encouragement. During our fifth Christmas in Louisiana, we truly have much for which to give thanks. We pray that the Lord will bless you with a wonderful holiday season and an even better new year.

Love, Doug, Kristi, & Eden

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What a busy year 2008 has been at Goodwood! It was fun to watch the new wall calendar in the office fill up with the year’s events. Some changes were made this year – Camp Maywood, new formats for VBS and Bible Bowl – and all were a great success! We will miss our many friends who moved away this year, but will never forget them. Plans for 2009 are underway, and will bring new opportunities for us all to do the Lord’s work. May you all be blessed with a joyful holiday season and happiness in the New Year! Love, Peggy

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This year has been a mixture of both happy and sad: So happy that we’re here at Goodwood and able to be a part of this wonderful congregation of the Lord’s family; sad that we had to tell so many sweet brothers and sisters goodbye this year as they moved away or passed on to be with our Lord. I’m so thankful for the chance to serve our Lord in such a loving environment with such wonderful people. Clayton and I and the boys wish everyone a heartwarming holiday this year and then safely return to continue the Lord’s work in 2009! Love, Clayton, Chris, Samuel & John

Royce Ogle(White's Ferry Rd CoC) and Hoss Ridgeway(Lake Jackson CoC) in front of Lake Jackson CoC

2009 Hurricane Prediction Suggests Above Average Activity

Hurricane forecasters at Colorado State University are predicting above-average activity in the Atlantic next year: 14 named storms, including seven hurricanes—three major.

The 50-year average is 9.6 named storms, 5.9 hurricanes and 2.3 major hurricanes. Researchers William Gray and Phil Klotzbach say in their extended-range forecast today that there is a 63 percent chance that at least one major hurricane will make landfall on the U.S. coastline. The long-term average probability is 52 percent.

This is Gray’s 26th year of forecasting hurricanes. His predictions are watched closely by emergency responders and others, but many say such long-range forecasts don’t have a lot of practical value beyond focusing public attention on the dangers. The hurricane season runs from June 1 to Nov. 30.

From Royce's Blog

Twins with one heart!

Jane Smith and Judy Peter are twin sisters from El Campo, Texas. They are very active members of the El Campo church of Christ where my friend John McCord is the preacher. We first got to know this “dynamic duo” as a result of our joint work in the South Alabama town of Bayou La Batre. These ladies are like servants on speed! (I mean this in the best possible way) They are high on Jesus and want to serve people in His name and make Him known to everyone possible.

The winds of Hurricane Ike had hardly died before Jane and Judy snapped into gear gathering ice, coolers, water and food for those who had been devastated by the storm. They loaded a pick up truck and were off on a trip that would be repeated time after time in the next months. It is amazing what these two gals have done! Just ask Mike Bumgartner with Disaster Assistance and you’ll get an ear full of wonderful comments about them.

When Carol and I recently visited several churches and hard hit communities, these delightful twins insisted on treating us to a beach front lunch of scrumptious hamburgers and the very best onion rings. After a great visit we followed them to the relief site where Mike Bumgartner was cooking up a storm and preparing to serve 800 or so meals. I was recruited to help unload the twins truck. They had huge cans of vegetables, drinks, cleaning supplies, and other things hurricane victims need. What for us was a big deal for them has become routine. They seem to think nothing about getting in the aged pick up and driving a few hours to deliver the goods, most of which I suspect they paid for out of their own funds.

If I could lawfully clone anyone, I might just start with these dear sisters who know no fear, see no obsticles, and can get more done than a small army. My hat’s off to the “Turbo Twins” from El Campo. What a joy to know them and their families and to have them as friends. You go girls!!

His peace,

Royce

TOTAL MEALS SERVED TO DATE 39083

Plan Now For 2009 Disasters

Brethren,
For sometime you have been receiving our emails concerning "Disaster Assistance"and the work we have been doing in the hurricane affected areas. Your generous support of this work has made this possible.
It is because of the effectiveness of this work in not only helping people, but also the great opportunities of this work in evangelism that the Disaster Assistance Mission will be able to continue working in areas
effected by hurricanes, floods and other disasters. As you make your budget plans for 2009 please
try to set aside some funds for Disaster Assistance work in the future.

Friday and Saturday were 2 of the busiest days we have had here at Port Bolivar around 250 lunches and many, many boxes of food & supplies passed out

Notes from Don

Because of your support, we at "Disaster Assiatance" are going to be involved in more mission work than we originally planned. Under Mike's leadership, we had hoped to be able to minister to people affected by the late summer and early fall storms. We knew it would take a lot of support, but we hoped and prayed to be able to do this. Your support has simply been overwhelming and because of it, we are now able to plan to be involved in other disaster work as in weather related events such as spring floods and the like. We will be notifying you on Mike's blog www.mikesmissionupdates.blogspot.com and on our blog www.donchudson.blogspot.com as well as other means as the need arises. You may want to give consideration in helping us. We can use people to help cook, serve and wash up after cooking. The days are long,usually from 7:30am until finish, mostly around supper time that night. If you can help set up and teach bible studies, the opportunity is great. We do not single in on any specific method, but I personally use the Jewel Miller Videos and a method very similar to the Safety Chain.
Again thank you for your support of "Disaster Assistance" and we will do all we can to continue to merit your trust. As you know, "Disaster Assistance"is under the over sight of the Elders of the Alachua Church of Christ. You may contact them at Alachua Church of Christ P.O. Box 237 Alachua Church of Christ Alachua, Fla. Don

Today was another very busy day unloaded another semi load of food and cleaning supplies, served 158 meals and passed out many boxes of supplies

Today we unloaded a semi load of food and supplies from CoC Disaster Relief Nashville