Hurricane Ike Relief Trip #1, September 18th to 20th, 2008

Late Thursday afternoon Theo and Michael joined me in traveling to Galveston, TX to assist with Hurricane Ike relief work. Since this was the first trip, I’m thankful that God orchestrated it to only be three of us.

Late Thursday afternoon we arrived in Friendswood, TX were we assisted Trinity Fellowship with tarping their damaged church roof and cleaning tree debris from the property.

Friday morning was spent in a long line waiting to get through police checks to cross the bridge onto Galveston Island. The road along which we traveled was strewn with all sizes of boats.

In Galveston we joined with the EFCA National Crisis Team in their relief efforts. They were in the process of setting up a staging area for their ongoing relief work. They have joined

with Galveston Bible Church (EFCA) to assist those in great difficulty. Thus we spent our two days squeegeeing mud out of a large warehouse which can be used to store equipment and donated goods to assist with

ongoing relief work. A few other volunteers assisted helping the church begin deal with its destruction and also help prepare sleeping and food areas for future teams.

The area of Galveston we served in had 6 feet of water in all buildings which left layers of mud to deal with. This of course resulted in furniture, equipment and personal goods of home and business owners being ruined. All such goods needed to be taken outside and piled up in the streets for removal. Buildings in this area were all still standing.

With no electricity all food eaten was MREs (meals ready to eat). Now I know what the military eat while in the field.

The people of Galveston Bible Church were very thankful and encouraged with our assistance and the hopeful return of many others from FEFC.