Dear Fellow Workers, Feb. 21, 2007
It is time for another report from the mission field of Biloxi about how God is working through His church to rebuild lives that were devastated by hurricane Katrina. Even though it is eighteen months after the hurricane, there is still a tremendous need to rebuild more houses. The last figures reported by FEMA are that over 100,000 families are still living in their trailers. It is very rewarding to be able to see families move back into their homes. We finished work on five houses last week. Also, last week a number of volunteers dined with two families who are now living in homes rebuilt by our volunteers. God is certainly gracious.
We want to share a few personal moments with you. My wife and I for many years desired to go into full time missions work, and we now realize that the Lord has fulfilled this desire by calling us to Biloxi. This letter, for example, is something that for many years I encouraged missionaries to send to their supporters. Next month we expect to attend a mission conference to speak as missionaries. This is a dream come true.
Enough about this, let’s examine what is happening here. Ever since Christmas, we have had all the workers we can use, from 45-75. We have seen tremendous progress made repairing homes, and we are scheduled to be full until Easter. However, beginning April 28-May 26 we have so few workers scheduled that we might just as well close up and go home. We currently have almost no volunteers scheduled this fall. Only God knows how long this work will last, but it would be good if we could end this year with a real strong effort.
We have been much encouraged by the recent involvement of the Christian Reformed Church here at First Presbyterian Church because their denomination has become involved in sending us many volunteers. We have had to rely, for the last year, mostly on repeat volunteers and those who find us on their own. It has been a big boost to this work to receive aid from a sister denomination since they as a denomination can furnish us with so many people. We would welcome such involvement from other denominations.
We have received much support from Rotary. Many of the clubs contribute both money and volunteers. Rotary International gave us a large financial gift which made it possible for us to give away a lot of building materials. We look forward to welcoming several Rotary groups next month.
Our needs are changing as time goes on. You have not heard much about money from me, because up to now we have been adequately funded and we still are. However, in May, Samaritan’s Purse is leaving the area and since they have been furnishing us with the bulk of our building materials, we are in need of large cash donations ( $6000-8000 per week) to keep rebuilding houses. We are working with people who either have little or no money. If you would like to send a donation, make your check out to First Presbyterian Church and send it to my attention, and I will see that it gets to the proper account. We could also use a donation of $100,000 or more so that we could give building materials to those who can do their own work, but have no money. There are many of these people here and currently no one is helping them obtain materials.
Just as we have seen other missionaries ask, so we ask for your prayers. We know that God is doing great things through this work because the evil one fights us all the time. We do have the joy of seeing people return to their houses, but we also have to tell many people that we can’t help them. While writing the last paragraph, I had to tell a lady that her house could not be rebuilt because it is too damaged, and that it needs to be torn down. This is not easy. Pray that I will be sensitive to people’s hurt.
I don’t want to close on a negative note, so let me say that God’s light is shining brightly on the Gulf coast. Many residents here have come to know that, through His Church, Jesus loves them.
In His Service,
Bob and Mary Lee Bolitho
Hello everyone, December 27, 2006
You are receiving this because you have previously expressed an interest in the hurricane Katrina relief work being done through First Presbyterian Church Biloxi. If you no longer wish to receive these mailings, just let me know.
This has been an exciting year here in Biloxi watching God work through this church. We have seen thousands of people and hundreds of churches of all kinds of denominations come together to serve and show God's love to the people of the gulf coast.
The work has changed as the year has progressed. Some of this years highlights have been:
1. Up til mid April a large camp of up to 150 or so concentrating on both cleaning out damaged houses and rebuilding damaged houses.
2. In April the size of the work shrunk to 45 beds and the work became one of only rebuilding houses. The number of volunteers went down drastically with some weeks seeing no volunteers coming and many weeks with 10 or less.
3. It looked by the end of summer that we would soon be closing up and going home, however God had other plans and all of a sudden in late August we saw many volunteers come forth top fill many weeks. Right now the winter has many full weeks of skilled workers coming. We even have some commitments through November of 2007, but we still need many more volunteers.
We have seen many people move back into their rebuilt homes. Their joy at being able to again live in a house is wonderful to witness. Even more importantly we have seen people come to Christ through the work of this church. Just this past Sunday, a 75 year old babe in Christ was baptized and joined our church. The Lord reached her through the work of many of you who reached out to her by rebuilding her house and the friendship we showed to her.
Today Mary Lee and I celebrate our second Christmas in Biloxi hoping to be here for a third one next year. We ask you to support this wish as we see so much need for this work to continue longer. Thus far, less than ten percent of the homes have been rebuilt. We can only continue this work if you will continue to support it with your prayers, money, and your labor.
One of the ways that we know that the Lord's work is being done is that there is much opposition to it. I now know, first hand, what missionaries mean when they talk about spiritual warfare. We need your continued prayers.
Most houses we work on require that we invest money in them as most of the people have spent what little money they have. To donate money, send it made out to First Pres. Church and mark it for Katrina relief. If you put attention Bob Bolitho on the envelope, I will send you an acknowledgment, and see that it gets spent on relief work. I repeat, we also need volunteers to come to work on these houses.
One of the obstacles to the work is that most of the people in the rest of the United States think that Katrina is something that is all over. Sadly the work has just begun.
Bob and Mary Lee Bolitho