Friend Ships - Activities Report January 2008

Disaster Relief

Greetings Friends, 2008 is off to a good start. A shipment to the Dominican Republic is on its way. It will be received by the Santo Domingo Evangelical Council of the Assemblies of God. The Dominican Republic is a Latin American country located in the Greater Antilles on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, and is home to more than 9 million people. One of the last storms of this past season, Tropical Storm Noel, hit the Dominican Republic causing landslides and massive flooding. Thousands of people lost their homes, many lost their lives. The storm displaced 51,000 people and livestock and crops were devastated. Floods contaminated the water supply and thousands of families had no shelter, food, access to power or clean water. Then, in December, Tropical Storm Olga barreled through the Caribbean and crossed over the Dominican Republic killing at least 33 people and displacing another 62,000. The export of bananas makes up one third of the country’s farm exports and roughly half of the 25,000 acres of banana plantations were destroyed resulting in thousands of people without work.

New clothing, bags of rice, pasta, mattresses, hygiene supplies, blankets, linens, and heavy-duty vinyl tarp material for shelter assistance.

New clothing, bags of rice, pasta, mattresses, hygiene supplies, blankets, linens, and heavy-duty vinyl tarp material for shelter assistance.

Since the storms hit, the Evangelical Council of Assemblies of God of the Dominican Republic has been caring for people who are injured, homeless and displaced and destitute because of all that has happened due to these two terrible storms. The church group requested our help and we were able to respond by shipping rice, pasta, mattresses, hygiene supplies, blankets, linens, new clothing and heavy-duty vinyl tarp material for shelter assistance. The Dream Center of Los Angeles participated by sending funds to transport the goods via commercial ship. Goods will be used to assist those most in need.

Humanitarian Aid

Amazon Outreach is taking a team to the villages of Brazil that are located along the Amazon River. We are providing them with clothing, linens, toys and medicine to take with them to distribute.

Bulk food that is give out to those in need... The team in Los Angeles continues to bless many groups each week with tons of nutritious food... We received a report from a church organization we worked with on the outreach to New Orleans in December, that the winter coats and clothing we delivered have been distributed to the community and were greatly needed and appreciated!

Los Angeles

The team in Los Angeles continues to bless many groups each week with tons of nutritious food as they collect medical supplies and equipment for future international missions.

Roatán

The first seminar for 2008 has now taken place. This one was a follow-up weekend for people who had already attended a seminar and are now being trained to be leaders themselves to run house groups and other activities. One of the great things about these meetings is that the people are discipled very well and then encouraged to grow in their Christian faith. Most of the churches involved with the seminars are expanding in numbers and are requiring much more space to operate.

Port Mercy

We have received several incredible donations this month including a brand new 6000 square foot warehouse building that we will be erecting at Port Mercy and several additional 20 foot shipping containers. Warehouse space is one of our greatest needs so this is great news.

We have also received a $50,000 match for the payment on our Port Mercy property. The balloon payment is due in a few short months and we are looking forward to making that final installment. Thank you Lord for making it possible for us to own this awesome facility.

Thank you for standing with us as we do our best to accomplish the work set before us by the Lord. You are a wonderful part of it all and we couldn’t do it without you.