MNA Disaster Response - Midwest Region

We're in Rome, GA at the MNA Disaster Response Warehouse for the annual Staff meeting. It's one of the few times we all get to be together in the same place.

I have the pleasure of visiting the meeting of the Northern Illinois Presbytery today. It's been a few years since I've seen many of these fine brothers and it's great to see so many familiar faces. It just to happens that Exidos Presbyterian Church in Springfield is petitioning the Presbytery for permission to form a particular church! That's exciting to me because it's another church sharing the gospel but also because it's another partner in Disaster Response.

HAWAII WILDFIRE RESPONSE - Your Help is Requested! “And the crowds asked Him, ‘What then shall we do?’ And He answered them, ‘Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise.’” — Luke 3:10-12

Hope everyone is OK after the storms rolling through the Midwest. Time to get the chainsaw out!

April 29th an EF3 tornado hit Andover, KS. Approximately 100 structures were damaged including both local business and residential areas. We are working with Kirk of the Plains, a new PCA church in the area who is responding with local volunteers and is not currently setup for outside teams.

In Disaster response there is always a mixture of excitement and sorrow. Excitement for the opportunities for the gospel to reach people whose hearts might otherwise not be open to it and sorrow for the loss and devastation people experience. Please pray for Kirk of the Plains and the local volunteers as they share the gospel as they serve.
https://youtu.be/MfmlJnQ8uHQ

Andover, Ks Drone video shows extensive damage from tornado 4-30-2022 A strong tornado ripped throught the city of Andover, Ks a suburb of Wichita damaging numerous homes and throwing cars.For licensing inquiries please email ...

Let me introduce you to one of our most versatile pieces of equipment for Disaster Response, the Bobcat MT-100. It's a mini track system capable of maneuvering into tight spaces and safe enough to use that many volunteers will be bale to become proficient users in a single day of training.

We have bucket, grappling bucket and fork attachments for them making these things useful for many jobs in a disaster area.

If you have a group of up to 6 - 18+ year Olds interested in being certified get in touch with me and we'll find a time to get it going!

Catching a flight to Atlanta this morning to spend time at a "Train the Trainer" event for all of the disaster response specialists to learn how to train people how to use our smorgasbord of heavy equipment. Final destination for this trip is the MNA Disaster Response warehouse in Rome, GA. Can't wait!

I'm here at General Assembly all week. If your in the Midwest, I'd love to connect with you. Come by the MNA booth in the exhibit hall and say hi!

MNA Disaster Response - Midwest Region updated their website address.

After just getting power back on the people of Lake Charles are being hit again. Please pray.

Hurricane Laura update:

https://resources.pcamna.org/resource/mna-disaster-response-announcement/

MNA Disaster Response Announcement - MNA Resources Hurricane Laura Makes Landfall Hurricane Laura made landfall as a Category 5 storm, one of the most powerful storms to hit the US. This storm, with windspeeds holding at 150 mph at landfall…

A hurricane in the Midwest? I never thought to see such a thing but the Derecho Monday was similar to a category 2 hurricane in a part of the country not built for those kinds of sustained winds. This storm caused damaged to a nuclear power cooling tower which meant they had to shut down the reactor so there are a lot of people without power and many of them are expected to be without for 2 weeks or more.

We're working with churches from Iowa to Indiana checking in to see what is needed and how we can help. At this point Iowins are doing a great job of looking out for each other helping remove trees and debris. Those with power sharing cool places to unwind and hot food, those with chainsaws sharing tools and skills, and helping hands shared all around. It's amazing to see first hand that in spite of the pandemic of COVID-19, the Lord works in and through his people to care for people. Even a Derecho in the middle of a pandemic is not bigger than Him.

Update on the driveway project. In-between the rain and the heat we were able to finish the project last week. Now, tractor trailers have better access to the warehouse loading dock. A serendipitous benefit of the project was building a bridge(bottom right picture) across Big Ditch Mitch to the ‘Hundred Acre Wood’ which we will soon utilize for another project Mike is planning.

This is going to be really nice to have the second driveway at the Rome, GA warehouse!

Another day of deadly tornado's yesterday. Please pray for those affected through Texas and Oklahoma and that local response is protected from COVID-19 too.

A beautiful sight on this sunny Wednesday morning!

I'm headed to Bible Presbyterian Church in Merrill, WI today to where I have the pleasure of meeting with the deacons of the Wisconsin presbytery tomorrow.

Tropical Storm Imelda - Beaumont Takes a Hit

Tropical Storm Imelda was the fifth wettest tropical storm on record to hit the US. Many areas in SE TX received up to 40 inches of rain from this storm; Beaumont was the most impacted area with many roadways, businesses, and homes under several feet of water.

MNA Disaster Response has been in contact with our PCA leadership assisting in initial assessments. The initial shipment of MNA DR Sheds of Hope will be delivered to Beaumont this week, with more to be delivered as requested. Information will be posted on pcamna.org as it becomes available.

I've arrived in Freeport, IL for the Northern Illinois Presbytery meeting tomorrow at Grace Fellowship. There was a great view of a beautiful sunset on the way. I look forward to a great day of fellowship tomorrow!

Good day to you all!

I’ve been largely incommunicado for the summer and I realize I probably should have posted some updates as to where we are throughout the summer so I apologize for the radio silence. Since my last major post, we’ve sold our house without having to do the rather huge amount of work we thought would be required. It’s been a bit of a rollercoaster ride as we don’t have house lined up to buy and will soon be entering month 3 of living with a family who has so wonderfully offered their finished basement and a room upstairs for us to live in.
We worked on the former brothel of a house for 15 yeas and still had work to do so there were two parts for our desire to move. The first was our recent experience with the school system in St. Louis. We did end up finding good schools but after we had already agreed to sell the house. The second was the realization that a 140 year old house (in spite of a gut rehab) might continue to require a large time commitment on my part and I’ve spent the last 10 years missing vacations that Holly and the kids went on and having to spend nearly every Saturday and many evenings working on the house. We, as a family want to be able to enjoy each other more and spend more time in ministry though MNA Disaster Response. It’s with some great relief in not having to do the work but also with great sadness at the loss of a home we though we would be staying in for the rest of our lives that we have moved and are still looking for a new home. The move itself was crazy. After 15 years of rehab work, I filled a 40 yard dumpster with stuff from the large 3 car garage and our basement and it took 8 days to move out, 6 of those were 12-14hr days of working non-stop.

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Please pray for us as a family as we continue to seek to follow our father wherever he leads. We have found a house that we really like and would be a low maintenance house but it is involved in a bankruptcy with a very large back tax bill that may make it unaffordable. It’s a long and drawn out process but we are waiting on the Lord and His timing because the only way we will get in is if He moves the mountain of a bank involved.
I am planning a fair amount of travel over the next month and hope to be settling in to a new schedule as kids schools and our home schedule settles down. So you should start seeing a lot more of me again. The weekend of 9/14 we are planning to visit the Northern Illinois Presbytery meeting to talk about disaster response on Saturday and then on to Grace PCA Freeport Illinois for a Sunday morning talk during Sunday school. Then the 9/28 I’ll be at the Wisconsin Presbytery meeting talking to deacons about a presbytery wide response plan. I’m really looking forward to these opportunities! It’s always a great encouragement to be asked to join a group like these eager to hear more.

I'm in Rome this weekend for a meeting of the specialists to review the responses efforts to hurricanes Matthew and Florence. What a great group to spend time with. I'm so thankful for each one.

We are working with churches across the upper Midwest now to see what will be needed. Please pray for all of the people displaced by flooding as the water recedes and people get back to their homes, they will need a lot of help. Stay tuned!

Please keep those in the tornadoes from yesterday in your prayers, 23 died on the deadliest tornado since 2013.

A good word from Pastor Ron and a short video of MNA Disaster Response Specialist Logistics Marty Huddleston unloading Sheds of Hope in Panama City. Won’t you come and help us put them together?

On Monday the team started out at a home of a family preparing to go to Japan as MTW missionaries, carrying everything out of their home to the curb. In the afternoon we helped install a ramp for a member of the church so his wife can access their home.

This is cool!

January has flown by. It’s been quite hectic personally, so much so that I’ve had to take a step back from Disaster Response work as we are struggling through finding decent schools in St. Louis City. There has been lots of web searching, applications, tours, late nights etc. and we think we’ve got 2 of 3 in decent schools (assuming we an afford to pay for Wyatt to go to private Christian school). Finding a decent middle school for Clay is the last piece of the puzzle and it’s really tough for middle school. There is ONE public middle school in St. Louis City that gets higher than a C rating and we haven’t been able to get him in there. It’s to the point where we are looking for a way to move out of the city.

On the point of moving:
As I try to move towards full time work with MNA we are working towards moving out of the city, one of the reasons is for schools, another is so that I am freer to do Disaster Response work. I can’t be continuing to build a relationship with my wife, raising a family, rehabbing an old house, fighting for services in the City and traveling for MNA so one of the things that will need to happen beyond raising the funds is to move out of the city (not far though).

Please pray for us that the Lord will make a way somehow!

I had a great visit today at covenant PCA in Chicago. Thanks for the warm welcome and to all that took the time to stop and talk!

This Sunday I’ll be in Chicago stopping in at Covenant Presbyterian Church! If you happen to be there, please find me and introduce yourself! I’m always ready to talk Disaster Response and share the vision and build the network of people interested. I'll be in my DR Red jacket.

Now this is cool! I never immagined this would happen so quickly after getting warehouse space. We dedicated the warehouse in August and December, we've got heavy equipment! We will be doing training on these some time after spring so if you are interested in being trained to use these, let me know!

Rhinehart Equipment would like to thank the Mission to North America for the purchase of a T650 with grapple, bucket, and forks and MT85 with grapple, bucket, and forks.