Dear Alumni:
Here is a quick update on our response to Hurricane Harvey and other items:
We just sent out 15 guys about two hours ago to work with Samaritans Purse in the Victoria, TX region which was hard hit by the hurricane. This will be a relatively short deployment since this is the last week of the semester and some have to return to connect with flights on Saturday. Conditions in Victoria will be a little more rugged with no electricity, hot water and very limited food supplies available so we’ll be counting on local agencies to help provide for us.
It’s hard to imagine what the cleanup effort will be like in this part of Texas. I’ve done a number of flood relief responses and can’t even begin to calculate how long it will be before Houston and its neighboring communities will have some semblance of normality.
Having said that, I want to encourage our alumni to consider serving in southeast Texas sometime in the next year. It would be great to have you as a part of an ALERT team when we go out since our numbers will be modest this fall, but there will be an overwhelming amount of opportunities to serve – whether it is with us, Samaritan’s Purse, Operation Blessing or a host of other agencies that will engaged in recovery. Prayerfully consider what your role could be.
I also thought you’d be interested to know that a number of past ALERT guys (Bryan Winchell, Steve Dankers, Stephen Winchell, Cliff Patrick and Josh Tanner) are all helping in various capacities in Houston as I write. If other ALERT guys have been serving down there as well let me know so I can update these stats in the next newsletter.
For information purposes if you’d like to help out financially with this or other deployments make sure you designate your gift specifically for that when sending it to ALERT.
In other news:
Basic training Unit 58 starts next Friday night. It looks like we have somewhere between 40-42 guys enlisting. Pray for them as well as the Cadre that will guide them.
Farewell goes to Joe Mueller who will be leaving this weekend to pursue enlistment in the military. His help with deployments and serving in a number of other capacities were much appreciated and he will be missed. Send him a note of encouragement if you get a chance.
God’s blessings on each of you.
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