Earlier this month we had the pleasure of working and enjoying fellowship with a group of volunteers from Pine Creek Church in Kittanning, PA. Even though they could only be with us for five days, we thoroughly enjoyed every moment, and saw a multitude of work accomplished within the New Orleans area.

We were blessed to have many willing hands, and a few skilled men in the areas of carpentry, electrical, plumbing, and general construction too!

Some of you may remember Mr. Dave and Mrs. Carol Arnaud. Its been a long haul to get them back into their house, and you’ll pleased to know that with this crew, we were able to completely gut their house, install hurricane clips thoroughout the house, install insulation, and begin the work of installing drywall.

Both Mr. Dave and Mrs. Carol were elated with expectation and joy at seeing their home, which has been sitting untouched since Katrina until recently, finally being fixed up and catered to.

With the help of this crew, we were also helped Ms. Jane Wilson in the city. Ms. Jane’s home was flooded after Katrina, and her house had been gutted by a previous group of volunteers. During that time, they moved all of her belongings to the backyard and put tarps over them where they remained until now.

We were able to construct a large shed in her backyard to house her belongings. As a bonus, the group trimmed some of her dead trees (the house looks a lot better now!), began repainting her wrought iron porch railing, and do some minor electrical and plumbing work in her house. All of these were a surprise to her and she was very encouraged!

Some crew members had the chance to visit two of our partnering organizations in the city: Unity of Greater New Orleans, and the Community Center of St. Bernard.

Unity of Greater New Orleans exists to aid the homeless in finding temporary housing, and over at the warehouse Mr. Joe takes in volunteers to help create starter kits. Starter kits have the necessary supplies for a previously homeless person to immediately be housed, with such things as blankets, towels, kitchen supplies, and hygiene products. While we were there, we were able to help make 15 starter kits for Joe to use for that next week!

Another group headed over to St. Bernard Community Center, which provides aid to many people throughout the year, providing food, clothing, computer services, etc. While there, our group assisted with the food pantry and clothing store on site. They had a lot of fun helping people get fresh produce and canned goods to take home.

On our home base, Sovereign Grace Fellowship, some of the gentlemen in the crew helped to fix up and reinforce one of our gates on the side of the building. What a blessing!

To cap it all off, we acquired three chickens and a coop for our property. Part of our mission is to be self sustaining and teach others to do the same in an urban environment. In conjunction with growing our own produce, we can now add fresh organic eggs to the mix!

Even though they were only here for a short time, we were incredibly encouraged by the amount of work that was accomplished and the joy of getting know them all!

We pray to see you all again soon!

Early Thursday morning the I-10 east-bound highway was the site for a 40 vehicle pile-up, killing 2 men, and injuring 25 other people.

Many of these people were making their way from Slidell to New Orleans for work. It is a sobering thing to realize that we at Homeland Missions often take that same route to New Orleans, and how easily we could find ourselves here one moment, and gone the next.

Please pray for those people who are involved, as well as their families, as they handle the devastating news.

For more information, read this article in the Times Picayune.

As Islam continues to be the fastest growing religion in the world, it is imperative to not only understand Islam and its followers, but it is also key to know how to question and answer muslims.

ISLAM: A TO Z with Dr. James White is an educational and apologetic event that will take place over two evenings at the Lakeview Christian Center in New Orleans.

To Register for the event, visit IslamAtoZ.eventbrite.com

Its been almost six years since hurricane Katrina and there are still 43,000 buildings that are abandoned in the Greater New Orleans area.

People have not returned to their homes for many reasons, but the buildings still stand, waiting to be rebuilt or torn down.

In the meantime, some of these dilapidated homes have become a makeshift shelter for many of New Orleans’ homeless residents.

The following video follows a young man who works with UNITY, a local New Orleans nonprofit organization that is committed to providing homes for the homeless.

Pray for those in this area who have no where to call home, and pray for those people serving them everyday.

For the full article in Time click here.  For more information about UNITY click here.

This video from The National Geographic features rare footage and more comprehensive information surrounding the recent Japanese earthquake and tsunami.

Continue to pray for the small country, and her people.

We are gathering information for a relief drive that we are putting together for the recent victims of tornadoes. If you know of anyone in the Body of Christ that directly affected by these storms, please contact us at media@homelandmissions.org or just leave a comment for us here on the blog.  It is our desire to deal directly with a church in those areas and collect things/funds for them that will be used by them as it fits their specific needs.

So if you know of anyone in LA, MS, AL, MO or OK etc. put us in touch with them. We pray for all those involved. May the LORD’s comfort be with them as they seek to recover from these tragic losses.

The world, and certainly Japan, are still rolling in the aftermath of the largest earthquake to ever hit the small country on March 11, 2011.

The tsunami that quickly followed incurred even more damage on the northeastern coast, and caused unprecedented destruction.

Since then, Japan has been hit by many more aftershocks that continue to strike fear and anxiety into the hearts of the Japanese, and cause even more damage.

Today, April 7, another earthquake -with a magnitude of 7.1  (the largest aftershock since the earthquake on March 11th)- erupted just off of Japan’s northeast coast.  Another tsunami warning had been issued, but thankfully no tsunami arrived, and the damage caused by this most recent earthquake was minimal.

The death toll has risen to approximately 12,500, with 15,000 people still missing.  Authorities are expecting the final death toll to reach 20,000 people.

160,000 are homeless, and are currently residing in temporary shelters.

Among all of this heartbreaking news is the continued threat of nuclear explosions within three of their nuclear reactors.   Many Japanese families are being shuttled and quarantined to hopefully quash the spread of radiation, while all the while Japanese and American personnel are searching for victims of the quake and tsunami.

Please continue to pray for the Japanese, that the Lord would use this devastating time to bring more of his people to Him.  Pray that they would not only receive worldly comfort, but the peace and comfort that only the Spirit of God can provide.

For more detailed information, and a timeline of the events since the earthquake, check out the New York Times article here.