Safe Harbor: Pacific Northwest Flooding

On Tuesday evening our assessment team was able to get into the town of Vernonia, OR on the Nehalim River. Vernonia was one of the hardest hit communities in Oregon with both strong winds and massive flooding. Much of the town and surrounding fields and farms were under as much as 5 feet of water. It also took over a day for emergency crews to reach the town after the storm passed as every highway had been blocked with downed trees, power lines, mud and land slides, as well as erosion from flowing water. As the Lord led the assessment team they were able to make contacts with county emergency officials, the local grocery store owner (who’s a Christian), and county health service administrators who work with the elderly and shut-ins.

On Wednesday a Response Team headed by Randy Foster was deployed to Vernonia, taking with them a cook/work trailer with enough food to give a hot meal for 400 people including local citizens, first responders, and National Guard Troops. They were able to deploy in the parking lot of the local grocery store. They will also be serving a pancake breakfast, and lots of water. This team will be reinforced by other volunteers from regional churches for at least the next week. Because of the extensive damage, the Responders will be doing anything from cooking and delivering hot meals, helping remove wet drywall and muck from homes, to helping the county health administrators check up on the elderly and shut-ins.

Please pray that the love of Christ will be evident to all through everything that our Responders do and say.

In Christ’s Service,

Daniel Gettemy

Safe Harbor International Western Regional Coordinator

HT: Safe Harbor Blog

Grace in Sudan

Bill Paquette is serving with Safe Harbor in Sudan. Below is an excerpt from his recent newsletter. No doubt you've heard the recent story of the British school teacher being jailed and expelled from Sudan for allowing her students to name a teddy bear Mohamed. Islam can be graceless, but Bill's newsletter demonstrates the grace shown by Christians.

Grace is non existent in Sudan. A dear friend of mine whom lived in the compound with me had an issue with taking things that didn’t belong to him. After discovering an item missing that only he could have taken, it was determined that he had to go. My heart agonized over this as in Sudan prison is the punishment for stealing. It seemed like an opportunity to show my brother grace, mercy and forgiveness. After 4 days of prayer, I told him how much I loved him and that I had no choice but to let him go. We prayed with him and provided some benevolence so that he wouldn’t end up on the streets. The result is that the thief was shown grace and mercy (just as we are). The Sudanese staff also learned grace.

Read the whole story here: Safe Harbor Blog