Galveston, Texas - Thursday-Saturday, October 30 - November 1st.

We continue to provide dinner each evening, give out drinks, meals ready to eat and tarp during the day, clean homes and minister to people.  Here are some wonderful stories of lives touched in recent days:

Some of our ministers met a homeless young man at the Cafe who was a cross roads in his life. They ministered to him, led him to Jesus and found him a place to stay for the night.  In the morning they put him on a bus to go back to his mothers and when they called her to tell her he was on his way home, she wept and thanked him for the what they had done, telling the men she had been praying and praying for her son.

Another woman was distraught because she had not been able to get in touch with her adult children since the storm, over a month.  Our team prayed that she would hear from them right away.  Just a little while later, when the woman was relaxing with her meal at the From Jesus with Love Cafe, she heard a voice call her "Mom, Mom. We have been looking for you!".  There were her children waiting in line for food!  What a joyous reunion. What an answer to prayer.

The Billy Graham Rapid Response Team Chaplains are doing an outstanding job of meeting the spiritual needs of our guests at the Cafe.  Here is one story among many to give you a feel for the great fruit we are experiencing in this outreach. The Chaplains met and ministered to a woman, her two sons and daughter who were flooded with 4' of water in their home.  They are still living in the home and the children come home each day from school to work on restoring it.   After an afternoon of work, the family often comes to the Cafe for dinner.  The Chaplains presented the plan of salvation to the family.  The mother had received Jesus some time ago but she was able to watch with joy as each of her children also made the decision to follow Jesus.

People here in Galveston are very grateful for everyone who is helping them in so many ways.  As the days go by, one group after another completes their work and heads away but the people will be left with a long road to recovery.  Please remember them in your prayers.

Galveston, Texas - Wednesday, October 29th.

Today our teams finished cleaning and gutting another home.  We continued to give out vinyl roofing.  The Cafe provided hot wings and barbeque chicken to more than 2000 people and snacks and beverages all day.  We had live music, dance and drama.  The Billy Graham Chaplains continued to provide fellowship and prayer.  We are also very happy to have local pastors joining us now to help with ministering to the guests. Christ in Action donated a huge amount of food and supplies. We are overflowing with food, beverages and cleaning supplies that will help greatly with our remaining time here in Galveston.

Galveston, Texas - Monday-Tuesday, October 27-28th.

On Monday a large team from Texarkana arrived.  On Tuesday we were able to send one team out to gut a home and one team to help at a feeding program in Jamaica Beach.  Others helped our crew at the Cafe feeding location.  We provided hot meals for about 1600 each day and distributed snacks and drinks during the day.  Bill Henderson, Bobby Chance, Roger Siratt and a local man (Andrew) sang, played guitar and ministered.  The Chaplains circulated talking and praying with our dinner guests. Dr. Cox, our chiropractor is back in Galveston this week and helped many folks with sore bones.

Dr. Roger Siratt told us an encouraging story.  A man came in and sat down at a table.  Roger asked if he would like to have some dinner. The man smiled and said no.  He said he came here each day just to enjoy the peace at the From Jesus with Love Cafe.  The man said to Roger "Listen".  The two men listened and they heard a high level of noise, hustle and bustle, people eating, people serving, people talking, people laughing.  The guest said "See? Peace.  That's what I come here for." 

How wonderful that the Spirit of the Lord is in this place!

Galveston, Texas - Saturday, October 25th.

On Saturday, we fed dinner to about 2000 people!  We had ministry and song by Bill Henderson and Bobby Chance.  We were able to send three teams out to help homeowners recover from the storm.  On Sunday, the crew rested.  We will be back in action on Monday.   

Galveston, Texas - Friday, October 24th.

Friday, we were able to obtain a mobile kitchen will that will greatly enhance our work!   In addition to our church teams, the city officials have started to refer groups of workers to us so that we can send them out with leadership, in addition to providing us "work orders" for families most in need of assistance.  We sent out two teams to gut homes and one team to help move items out. 

We are distributing roofing tarp and in the late afternoon, served 1200 meals of delicious fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, bread, fruit and candy for desert.  Visiting Ministers Bobby Chance, Bill Henderson and Denny Nissely, the Founder and Director of "Christ in Action", an awesome ministry that had been providing meals and help with homes here since the day after Hurricane Ike hit, all ministered in word and song to the crowd.  Many people were prayed with and many decided to invite Jesus into their hearts. 

One Chaplain was ministering to a Spanish speaking family.  He did not speak Spanish so found one of our dinner guests who could translate the Gospel message to the family of four who all decided to become Christians.  When they were done praying, the Chaplain noticed that the translator was engrossed in reviewing the written material he has translated for the family.  The Chaplain asked if he too would like to accept Jesus and he said yes! 

Later in the evening, the Directors of several of the wonderful ministries working here in Galveston gathered together for dinner and fellowship. It was a great evening.

Galveston, Texas - Thursday, October 23rd.

Teams clean two homes to much appreciative home owners.  Our kitchen site was put temporarily out of commission by very high winds on Wednesday night so we spent the day putting it back together and passing out meals ready to eat, orange juice and water to those who came by for food.  Friday we will be back in full action with chicken dinners.

Galveston, Texas - Wednesday, October 22nd.

We have decorated the Cafe with brightly colored tarp trim on the tents, evergreen candle holders (and candles) on each table, giant piñatas hanging from the ceiling and tiny colored Christmas lights.  We certainly look fun and festive now and it seems to be a welcome respite for the community as they continue work on the difficult and emotional job of cleaning out their flooded homes.  Today we fired up the huge cast iron pots and made a massive amount of delicious fried chicken and beans.  Our team of high school students from California completed two home jobs early today then joined with another team to finish a very big job they have been working on.  The group of 30 worked the rest of the day to finish taking out debris, cleaning and gutting a home. The couple who owned the home came to the Cafe for dinner and was very blessed and grateful.  A supervisor from the city of Galveston stopped by to let us know how much they appreciated the work we have been doing and how impressed the city is by our organization He asked us to supervise 100 students coming to help this Saturday.  

The evening was pleasantly topped off by the students singing praise and worship songs with the volunteers and dinner guests.  It was lovely and a perfect way to end a great day! 

Galveston, Texas - Tuesday, October 21st.

Tuesday we continued to provide hot meals.  Today Chili with Hush Puppies was served. The team of Chaplains talked, prayed and ministered to people as they relaxed over dinner.  Our 2 California teams went out to houses helping the tenants move items, clean and patch roofs.  It was a very productive day.

 

Galveston, Texas - Monday, October 20th.

Monday we had a steady line of patrons from opening at 3:00 pm until 7:30pm and we fed even more people than on Saturday (we lost count!)  The popular cuisine was hamburgers and hot dogs with chips. We are pleased to be getting acquainted with some of the other Christian groups that are working here as they come by for dinner in the evening after a hard day of helping others.  We served coffee and muffins to those who came by during the day.  A team from the Billy Graham Ready Response group joined us aboard ship today and will be with us this week.  We also got in two teams-both of whom traveled all the way from California.  It is great to have so many willing hands and we were able to send groups to clean out four homes.

 

Galveston, Texas - Saturday, October 18th.

Saturday was a big day in the Cafe.  We fed 1600 guests with chicken, corn on the cob and baked potatoes. It was a wonderful meal.  And we were open all day serving coffee, drinks and snacks.  Disaster Relief Director Murray Douglas coordinates families in need with teams to go out.  Today, one team worked cleaning a community church. Another team helped an elderly man move his belongings from his home. We also had lots of much needed help in the kitchen as all four of our massive grills were going full steam. A woman came by with beautiful toys to distribute to the children. And a teacher and her family from Austin, Texas collected toys from fellow students, also including many of their own toys and drove all the way to Galveston to drop them off to children who have lost everything.  We had so many great workers that we were able to sort and organize the abundance of goods that have been flowing in!  THANK YOU JESUS FOR ALL YOU DOING FOR THE PEOPLE OF GALVESTON.

 

Galveston, Texas - Friday, October 17th.

On Friday, Friend Ship Hope arrived in Galveston and tied off alongside Mersea, doubling our ability to house teams and delivering tons of vinyl tarp for distribution.  We had a good day of providing meals, prayer and chiropractic services.  We have opened the Cafe now in the morning for coffee and snacks and in mid-afternoon and early evening for dinner.  We were also able to send one team to a home to help move belongings out and one team to a help clean a church.  We have been lent an even bigger smoker than the other three we are using and it is able to double the amount of chicken we can cook at once.

 

We received donations of wonderful variety items from a local grocer.  We also were blessed with rice, greens and a huge pot of gravy.

 

Galveston, Texas - Thursday, October 16th.

Continued service at the "From Jesus with Love" cafe and provided over 1000 meals.  The Chaplains were on hand to talk and pray with patrons while teams went out to help people in their homes.  One group cleaned up the yard of a woman and her daughter who are both disabled.  Another team helped a man on the west end of the Island, where there was massive damage, clean and repaired his home.  Today we received donations of beef, chicken, bread, waffles, ice, vegetables and orange juice. 

The media team is conducting interviews with various ministries working here in Galveston for Radio Friend Ships and preparing brief video news spots for presentation on the internet.

 

Galveston, Texas - Wednesday, October 15th.

We had a great day on Wednesday.  The food service crew served about 1000 people with fajitas, spanish rice, refried beans, tortilla, candy and bananas.  Dr. Cox provided chiropractic services for many patients.  The Missionary Baptist team helped an elderly lady gut her home and a Friend Ships team went door to door in a heavily affected neighborhood taking food, water and prayer.

 

Nurse Sharon taking blood pressure.

Dr. Cox providing chiropractic adjustments.

 

We received donations today of potatoes, candy, bananas, biscuits, muffins, ribs, hamburger patties, breakfast sausage, pinto beans, orange juice, cereal, pound cake, macaroni and cheese, fried chicken, greens, and rice. Wow!

 

Galveston, Texas - Tuesday, October 14th.

Today we served about 1200 meals with ministry and also sent a team of men (Missionary Baptist Pastors) to the home of an elderly woman to help her with hurricane clean-up.  As more church groups begin to arrive next week, we'll be able to send out many more teams.  A steady stream of patients were treated by our chiropractor Dr. Kevin Cox. We were blessed to receive many supplies including chicken, sausage, ribs, drinking water, packaged lunches, orange juice, muffins, corn, canned goods, charcoal and new clothing.  It was a great day.

 

Our first team, three pastors and a deacon along with Friend Ships crew member Hannah were dispatched to the home of an elderly couple who are disabled.  We were told that they have been waiting for someone to help move their belongings for weeks.  The church team moved all their furniture and boxes down three flights to a U-Haul truck.  The gentleman we were helping told us that he is a disabled Vietnam veteran and the couple was just about to walk away from everything they had because they could not physically move it themselves.  How wonderful that the pastors could help them at God’s perfect timing!
 

Galveston, Texas - Monday, October 13th.

We resumed providing meals to the Galveston community and were also able to add chiropractic services. We served 1200 meals and as always, the Billy Graham Chaplains mingled through the crowd, ministering to the guests.  We were blessed by many other groups today and received donations of a wide variety of food.  Our first guest team including three pastors from Louisiana arrived today and tomorrow will go to the home of a 90 year woman who needs help at her home.  We also are scheduled to receive a large donation of meals ready to eat and drinking water.

 

 

Galveston, Texas - Saturday, October 11th.

As we prepared our much in demand smoked chicken for Saturday night dinner Chef Shawn told Chief Steward Teri Shields that we could not go on another day without acquiring firewood to fuel our smokers.  Teri barely had time to consider Shawn's request when a man we didn't know arrived at the site to inquire if we happened to need firewood!  On a regular basis, passer-by's stopping in to drop off financial gifts because they appreciate what we are doing for the community. We are seeing the Lord meet every need in such a fun and loving way.  Saturday evening we were swamped with even more patrons than we had served on Thursday and Friday!  We are already packing out our tents with people and it's only the third day we have been serving.   

 

The Billy Graham Chaplains were with us in large numbers Saturday and they were busy talking with, comforting and ministering to people who have endured so much.  Each afternoon, a kind gentleman from the neighborhood Mosque has been delivering us what he has remaining after serving lunch to the community and he always seems to arrive just in time with rice and other tasty dishes to help stretch our supply of food. Our good friends in several other ministries are becoming involved in the Galveston outreach by providing food, ice, paper products and other much needed items.

 

We are still in need of funds and of church teams so our crew can cut back their 16 hour schedule and so that we have people to go out to homes and help the elderly, single moms and others make their homes livable again. 

 

Sunday, most of the crew took a much needed break and Monday we will resume food service and also open the clinic for nursing and chiropractic services.

 

Galveston, Texas - Friday, October 10th.

As we prepared for serving dinner this evening, a steady stream of people stopped by to find out when food service and "church" began.  Many of the islands churches are temporarily shut down and we are finding a hunger for the things of God, as well as the need for material help.  Even before we opened for food service, we had the opportunity to talk and pray with many people.  A truckload of goods arrived from Port Mercy including a clinic we will set up at the site in order to offer medical care, tarp for distribution and many other needed items.

 

Tonight the menu was a delicious Jambalaya and fruit.  We fed hundreds of people. The Billy Graham Chaplains worked with us again this evening and reported that at our location so far about 50 or more people made decisions to follow Jesus!  What a praise!  We wound up the evening with a message shared by one of Chaplains, music presented by the charming "Steel Magnolia" a group of lovely women with an average age of 70, then songs and testimonies by church workers here to help people clean up their homes.  The Billy Graham team also shared how things have been in Galveston since they arrived shortly after the hurricane made landfall.  When Hurricane Ike was still out to sea, people around the world were praying that the event would bring out a harvest of souls and that is the case!  Some of our guests remained at the tables for more than 2 hours to hear the Word of God.

 

A multitude of donations came in today from many donors including Anheuser-Busch, Christ in Action, Gleanings from the Harvest and Good News Galveston.  We received gifts of ice, soda pop, water, snacks, candy, crackers, toilet paper, and paper towels.  A repairman visited the ship to check out our broken ship's laundry machines and he is generously willing to help repair or replace them for us. We were also richly blessed by the donated use of two new incredible smokers to prepare chicken dinners!

 

Galveston, Texas - Thursday, October 9th.

We began providing hot meals to the people of Galveston today from our very visible location at 51st and Broadway.  As our large smokers sent the tempting smell of delicious bar-be-que chicken into the neighborhood, hundreds of people stopped by to see what was up and came in to dine.  While seated in the lovely outdoor cafe with tent canopy's, clean white tables and chairs, our guests received physical and also spiritual nourishment as the crew prayed, listened, and encouraged those who have been so ravished by Hurricane Ike.  A lady in her 70’s saw our site and stopped by, after asking the Lord for help to clean up her garage.  There “just happened” to be a lull during the set up process at the time that she arrived, so a team was formed to go to with her to her home.  They found her property had been flooded with mud and debris. The team cleaned everything up finding only a few items that were salvageable.  They also cleaned and raked her yard and in closing prayed and cried with the dear lady.   The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association Rapid Response group teamed up with us and sent a great group of chaplains to meet the wonderful people coming to the Friend Ships site to have dinner, talk and pray with them about many things.  We are thrilled to report that several families decided to invite Jesus into their hearts!  How about that for a first night?!

 

Hurricane IKE Response in Galveston, Texas - Wednesday, October 8th.

Friend Ships began to arrive in Galveston on Tuesday when our advance team led by Murray Douglas, Director of Disaster Relief and Teri Shields, Food Service Director brought in our initial trucks, tents and equipment.  We are blessed to have been given the use of a wonderful lot at a busy corner in the middle of town where people will be able to easily find us for a hot meal, prayer and other assistance.  We are preparing the set-up and hope to start serving tomorrow. 

Setting up in Galveston, Texas

Friend Ship Mersea arrived at the Port of Galveston this afternoon to support the operations.  Because so many other news items have overshadowed this great disaster, the public is not well informed and the island of Galveston is not receiving the help it needs. The response here relative to the help that which was offered for Hurricane Katrina is not even comparable. Yet, the damage is tremendous.  Please think about sending a church team or otherwise supporting this effort. Thank you for your prayers.

 

---

Hurricane IKE -

September 29, 2008

Preparations are in full swing for the mission to Galveston.  We are bringing our team home from the West Coast to join the Port Mercy crew loading trucks and preparing to send in the first food service operation early next week.  We will follow up with the ships shortly thereafter. 

 

 

Hurricane IKE

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Sunday we continued to provide food from a church in Bridge City.  Thousands of meals were served to the community as they work to recover from massive flooding and wind damage.

 

Hurricane IKE

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Saturday we served several hundred meals to people as they worked to recover from Hurricane Ike in Bridge City, Texas.  There is still no power and very few stores or restaurants open in this area so a delicious bar-be-que chicken dinner is much appreciated!  At Port Mercy, we continued to distribute roofing tarp and make initial plans for the mission to Galveston.

 

Pictures from Bridge City, Texas

---

 

Hurricane IKE - Friday, September 19, 2008

Friday we continued to load out trucks of vinyl tarping and prepared to provide food throughout the weekend at Bridge City, Texas, an area particularly hard hit. 

 

Hurricane IKE -

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Thursday the food service team provided hot meals in Beaumont Texas as we continued to load trucks of tarp at Port Mercy.  We have sent loads to Hardin County and Vidor, Texas as well as to Westlake, Vinton and Cameron, Louisiana. We are receiving loads of bottled water, commodities from American Family Radio and chicken from Sanders Farms.  

 

Hurricane IKE -

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

On Wednesday, we loaded truckloads of roofing tarp for hurricane victims throughout many communities between our location and Galveston, where the eye of the hurricane made landfall. Also, our mobile feeding team provided food in Orange, Texas and prepared to provide meals in Beaumont, Texas tomorrow.  We are received a large shipment of chicken from Sanderson Farms that will be great for the hot meals program and a truckload of drinking water is arriving on Friday from Anheuser-Busch!  We can use church teams to help.  We are short of man-power.  If you would like to send a team, call our personnel office at (337) 433-5022 or email personnel@friendships.org.

 

Hurricane IKE - Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Continued to distribute truckloads of roofing tarp throughout the community.  The National Guard sent a truck to pick up vinyl for the Beaumont area. We are preparing household goods to send to a race track in Texas that will serve as a large distribution center. We took our mobile food service into neighborhoods of Westlake that were hardest hit with floods.  People are so very grateful and encouraged for the help we are able to give them as they make their way through this distressing situation.

 

Hurricane IKE - Monday, September 15, 2008

We are providing meals for several hundred people each day.  To date, we have received $350 in donations toward this response which only keeps us going for a couple of hours of feeding meals so if the Lord puts it on your heart, please contribute funds for food, fuel and miscellaneous expenses!

Hurricane IKE - Sunday, September 14, 2008

We are providing hot meals, beverages and roofing tarp for the Lake Charles community affected by Hurricane Ike.  We are also offering: roof tarp to Galveston, Houston, Beaumont, Orange, Port Arthur, Vinton, Vidor and all of the many communities who received extensive wind and water damage.  We continue to assess our next phase of response and will keep you posted as things develop.

 

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Hurricane Ike made landfall at Galveston in the early hours of Saturday morning and dealt a devastating blow to Texas. In addition, a huge storm surge brought large scale flooding in Southwest Louisiana. At the location of the Friend Ships home base in Lake Charles, Louisiana, a 12' storm surge has caused our city to experience serious flooding and widespread power outages. As an immediate response we are setting up meal service for the community and a distribution of tarps here at Port Mercy. We will evaluate the possibility of bringing help to Galveston as soon as more information is available.

 

If you would like to help Friend Ships with a response to Hurricane Ike, we are in need of food, bottled water, personal care kits, diapers, paper products and fuel.  You can assist in this effort by contributing funds or sending goods to 1019 North First Avenue, Lake Charles LA  70601.  We cannot take used clothing at this time.

 

---

 

Hurricane GUSTAV - Update

Fortunately, Southwest Louisiana was not severely affected by Hurricane Gustav but some communities southwest of New Orleans, along the Gulf Coast did receive severe damage as the Hurricane made landfall.

 

Previous to arriving in the U.S., the storm made landfall at the nation of Cuba as a strong Category Four.  Many regions there experienced extreme damage.  The storm also passed through the nation of Haiti.  They suffered lose of life, dangerous flooding and landslides.  They are also feeling the effects of Tropical Storm Hanna.

 

This is what Friend Ships is currently doing to response:

• We have made heavy duty roofing tarp available to Louisiana victims of Hurricane Gustav.  The Lake Charles Fire Department is delivering tarp to Houma Louisiana, one of the most effected areas.

• We are sending financial support to an organization in Haiti that is providing food service to displaced victims of the storms.

• We are trying to organize a shipment of heavy duty tarp material to be delivered to Cuba for victims of Hurricane Gustav. 

We will keep this site updated as things develop.  Thank you for your interest and support.

If you would like to help by contributing funds, click here.  If you would like to support this effort or would like more information, click here to email or call "Port Mercy" at (337) 433-5022.  Together we can be a blessing to people in need!

---