A Message from Conlee and Signa Bodishbaugh

September 8: Greetings to all our dear friends and family around the world!

Conlee and I want to thank you with all our hearts for your prayers and concern. We have been blessed abundantly and would like to bring you up to date with what has been happening here on the Gulf Coast as a result of Hurricane Katrina.

Our Personal Experience

We evacuated on Sunday night, the night before the hurricane. We truly expected to find a severely damaged house or possibly even none at all after listening to the reports on a transitor radio. We were able to return home on Tuesday afternoon. Much to our surprise our home on Mobile Bay is intact with only very minor damage. This is a miracle considering our neighborhood on the water.

Our property is a different story. There are many large trees down, much erosion and debris. The boat house is gone - who knows where? - and the land is all undermined up to the pool, leaving the concrete decking around the pool hanging out in space. Perhaps the pool saved the house? There is much clean-up to do.

Our son, Matt, flew in on Thursday from Arkansas. He was wonderful, working outside with Conlee from dawn to dusk. They did an incredible amount of work in four days with a chain saw, tractor, rakes, and other machinery, hauling enormous amounts of trees and debris out to the street. Our street is now lined with mountainous amounts of debris waiting to be picked up.

Matt was much more than a welcome helper; he was a calm, objective presence for us. Even when we would think we were doing well, there was an element of shock and lack of focus as we attempted to perform the most simple tasks. This is common when one goes through such an experience. Matt made good decisions for us and set us on a productive course until we could recover. Besides all that, he loved us and prayed with us. It was great to have him here!

We have a generator that could keep one refrigerator, a freezer, a fan and a television going. The heat was intense and the humidity was very high. Water was the most precious commodity. We were without power for a week and the phones have come and gone, mostly gone. Cell phones are unreliable because many towers are down or damaged.

It has been extremely difficult to find gasoline although it is getting better now. One day Conlee drove around for four hours without finding gas. On the next day he waited in a line for two hours and got some. This became very important to keep the generator running.

Hard work is really beneficial to reduce stress. We should be stress-free by now! There is still much to do but right now we are waiting for contractors before clean-up can be completed.

We are very blessed to have our home and some sense of normalcy back to our lives.

Our Neighborhood

Walking the beach alongside our home makes you want to cry! All the houses south of us are damaged, some destroyed completely. The house next door has a large tree on it and is creased down the middle. The next three were flooded out by storm surge. And on it goes... One frantic young woman whose house is no more than a shell was attempting to recover filthy sheets and hang them to dry. Others were looking for momentoes. We found lots of photographs of people we don't know on our property, along with assorted household equipment and clothing. I'm sure someone, somewhere, found our boathouse, garden urns, iron trellises, etc. It's all a big hodge-podge.

Our Church

Only three families in our faith community suffered serious damage to their homes. This is miraculous! One elderly woman who had evacuated out of town had flooding. The youth group has been working there, moving out furniture and retrieving personal belongings. She has not returned home yet. Another single woman had her ceiling fall in part of her apartment, with extensive water damage. Many of the young women in the church have been helping her and she is now staying in the home of a young family and has had her belongings moved to a storage facility. Another family who lives on the Bay near us had extensive flood damage. Members of the church moved their belongings out to a storage facility. Other less drastic things such as roof damage, lost shingles, broken windows, etc. are being repaired.

The Convention Center where we meet on Sundays was flooded and is still closed. We were graciously invited to use the facilities of another church on Sunday night and we had a glorious service. There was wonderful worship of our Lord, great testimonies, scriptures shared that God had given to individuals during the storm, groups of prayer for others and a celebration communion. Teams were organized to move out to minister to others in our community and in nearby areas.

The Ministry to Others

South of Mobile is Bayou LaBatre, Alabama, a small shrimping community, heavily populated by Vietnamese. It took a very hard hit, leaving many people homeless. Relief workers have swarmed this area with their presence, food, water and necessities. Some of our people went there for a short time.

Many of our people have been going on day-trips to Pascagoula, Mississippi. This is a good place for us to minister because it is only about an hour's drive and doesn't use too much gasoline. Also there are no places to spend the night anywhere when you go west. Most of the relief organizations are concerned with New Orleans, Biloxi, Gulfport, etc. There are many small communities along the Mississippi Coast that are in great need as well.

Conlee spent the day there on Tuesday with a team from church visiting with people, shoveling out filthy, smelly mud, moving furniture outside, helping people find momentoes of their lives, talking, listening, hugging, taking hands and praying. These people didn't need work crews yet - many have to wait for insurance adjustors before they can begin any repairs. Some have no repairs to make. There is nothing there. Mostly they needed godly presence. Often they would say to our team, "Now I know what an angel looks like!" or "I was feeling so abandoned and then you showed up!" or "I know God heard my prayer when He sent you." Sometimes our teams just needed to give people permission to cry. That is really important!

Today several teams have gone back to Pascagoula working as needed. They also took large grills and are barbecuing hundreds of hamburgers and hotdogs for anyone who wants to eat. They plan to keep going back to give godly moral support, clean-up, provide whatever assistance they need and supply them with personal items. The construction phase will start much later and they will need help then as well.

We are also supplying new backpacks for evacuee school children with the supplies they need. They are continuing to come into Mobile. School starts on Monday.

Your Requests

So many of you have asked how you can help in ways other than through the standard channels. We have a Hurricane Disaster Relief Fund established at our church out of which much ministry is going forth. You may contact us by email at mail@christchurch.com or send a check to:

Our requests

We would appreciate your continuing prayers for us and for all the leadership of our church, that we would stay healthy and have supernatural energy beyond our years to accomplish the work that needs to be done.

We ask for God's prompting all His people to pray and sacrifice after the 24/7 news coverage diminishes. The work will not be done for a long, long time.

We ask for godly stewardship for those in leadership who use the financial gifts given and that they meet the needs brought forth.

We had to cancel The Journey to Wholeness in Christ conference which was to begin today. There were no hotel rooms available due to FEMA presence - even those with confirmations lost their rooms. Our team is worn out with other responsibilities. Please pray for God's wisdom about rescheduling this Journey.

We thank God for the prayerful coming together of Christians in this area. There is wonderful support of churches working alongside each other. We continue to pray for spiritual cleansing and revival in this area and in New Orleans, Biloxi, Bay St. Louis, Pass Christian, Gulfport, and all along the coast.

In Closing

Blessings upon each of you for standing alongside us during this time. We love you. We will try to stay in touch via our church website once it gets back online. www.christanglican.com

In Jesus' love,

Signa and Conlee Bodishbaugh