And so, it ends.

Yesterday was my last day in the DRC. During my 62 days here, I have experienced heartache, joy, and the entire spectrum in between. 16,315 people have been served. I am humbled. I'm sitting in my hotel room this morning and the feeling I have is bittersweet. tonight I will be home with my wife and babies, the anticipation is so strong is almost physical. But I'm leaving behind a group of friends that have helped to change my life. The final moments last night in the DRC felt like graduation day...you hope to see them all again, but in your heart, you know that this parting is final for most of you.

I can say in truth that the residents here were both blessed and a blessing. They are survivors. They got help, but for the most part, they helped themselves. Their spirit brought them through. Most of them thanked us not only for helping them, but for giving of ourselves to help their neighbors. Many waited weeks to get assistance for themselves. They helped others first.

The work is not finished, but those staying will see it through, and well.

For me, I'm looking forward to a period of depressurizing, and getting back into the flow of the normal. However, that may be short lived. FEMA declared the New York, New England area as a disaster area. This entire trip may have been training for doing this all over again..back home.

Pray for my trip home..it's snowing in NY (surprise!).

I am thankful for this opportunity.

Happy Hanukkah and Merry Christmas.

Light the candle, daddy's coming home.

Going shopping for strangers in need

The Salvation Army is doing their "adopt a family" very actively in Galveston. At our G12 meeting, the leader brought it up. It struck me and I adopted a family of four (Dad, Mom and 2 children). It was cool. I went shopping for them with one of the SA workers (she had a wish list). They will wrap them up and make sure that their Christmas is much more merry than it may have been.

I have been so busy, that it has been hard to get into the Christmas spirit. This has helped a lot. I also bought a santa hat, and wear it every day as well as keeping a bucket of candy in my work area to give away to the applicants. It's amazing to me that how much joy something this simple brings.

I've got to ready now. As you go through your day remember this that the SA worker said to me.

To be blessed, you must be a blessing.

Amen!

Victories

I have been here since Oct 20 and have worked in 7 different DRCs. All have their own personalities, but none compare to Galveston 12 (G12). It is the main DRC in the area and we still average over 350 applicants a day. The others are averaging about 25. The hopelessness is pretty much gone among the applicants. Now it's fear and distrust. In G12, we have a great team. I have at least 5 other workers that are born again. We meet before opening and ask the Lord to help us be His face to the applicants. He is faithful. Even the most difficult situations are getting solved. My HUD co-worker, Kathy, and I have been able to figure out the biggest roadblocks to getting applicants through the system. When we arrived last week, the applicants were constantly being sent back and forth between FEMA, HUD and the Galveston Public Housing Agency (PHA). We compared it to a blocked up pipe. By last Thursday, our hard work started to pay off and the flow began. Yesterday, we saw the flow open up entirely. The hardest cases (which we are doing now), have become just cases, and we are seeing the system work. The applicants come in with an attitude, and leave smiling, with their faith restored. It's only by the grace of God that we were able to ID the problems and broker solutions. We have a great team.

I have 5 DRC days left and I am training my replacements this week. On Sunday, I get to hop a jet home. This entire trip has flown by, but these last few days are going in slow motion.

Ike's final blow...SNOW!!!!!

It's been a while since I blogged, and I apologize. I changed DRCs and now work out of the Galveston DRC. We work from 7:30am to 7:00pm six days a week. Where I was seeing maybe 25-30 people a day, I now see 275-300. The good news is that it's working. We got a report today that said that an estimated 1,000 to 1,500 family's still need permanent housing. We started with over 500,000. Wow.

My drive home tonight was a riot. I stopped at Walmart, and when I came out, it was snowing. I mean really snowing. The last time it snowed was after TS Alicia in 1983. The locals say that after every major storm (Hurricane or TS), it snows. People were making snow angels in the parking lot and driving about 30 mph on the interstate.










I can't wait to get home. Only a few days left until the 21st.

Winding down

It's December 1 and we got word today that the DRC's are starting to close down. We've worked our butts off to get it done, and it's time. My DRC will close on the 12th. Too bad I won't be there to celebrate. I start at the main (and still very busy) Galveston Community Center on the 7th. I'll be there until I leave on the 21st.

The numbers have dropped off since Thanksgiving. We have found thousands of housing units and placed people.

Colin is still driving home from her Kansas trip (to see Pappy at Thanksgiving). She's coming down here this weekend. I can't wait to see her.

Three weeks left...then NY in Winter. Yeahhh!