HURRICANE IKE UPDATE - DECEMBER 10, 2008

Hilltop Rescue volunteers spent the month of November working on the Bolivar Peninsula.  Conditions there are very bad.  The landscape is bleak.  Parts of the area look like a giant hand has come down and smashed all the buildings flat.  Part looks like that giant hand just swept everything away.  Other areas look like "normal" flood-damaged land--ruined homes with a bizarre variety of debris littering house and yard.  The water is not safe to drink.  Electricity is still out in many neighborhoods.  The only aid available on the peninsula has been at the Port Bolivar Volunteer Fire Department, where three volunteers from other states have been giving out cooked meals, bottled water, and any other donated supplies on hand. They have spent time not only cooking and running the distribution center, but also sitting and talking with anyone who came in, letting people cry out their despair, and sometimes offering to help with clean up.  Mike and Eva 1 and Eva 2, thank you.  Thank you for the example you set for everyone who crossed your path.  Thank you for your servants' hearts.  Thank you for feeding the Hilltop Rescue volunteers hot lunches.  We will miss you as you pack up and leave for home.  The volunteer camp has been quiet for a few weeks.  In a few days we will be gearing up for another week of work.  We will be closed for Christmas.  If we get volunteers who have committed to come and serve between Christmas and January 2, we will work during that time and then close the camp.  God has truly blessed us with the people we have met and worked with over the past three months.  The Clear Lake church of Christ and the church staff have been amazing, and we have been privileged to partner with them.  To all of you who have worked side by side with us, cooked us meals, helped with paperwork, made donations, offered up prayers for this ministry . . . thank you.  May God bless you all for the love you have shown and the seeds you have planted.