TeamDuggan

I’m used to a cheek to cheek kiss that is the typical greeting between men and women….but between men too?! Now I understand why my wife likes me to shave!

I went to church this morning at Faro where my new friend Ale is the pastor. He gave me a heads-up that this was a typical greeting and sure enough I brushed hairy cheeks with every man at church. Ouch!

Uruguay is hard soil. The president is a declared atheist and most of this population is indifferent to spiritual things. It is in this situation that Alejandro is ministering to those few who choose to follow Christ. I was encouraged to see a number of young people who are on fire for God. They are excited to grow and serve as young leaders.

They were also excited because Uruguay beat Colombia last night in the elimination rounds for the World Cup. This was all the more exciting because they did it in Bogota at over 7,000 feet elevation. There is nowhere to practice in Uruguay that is at that altitude and they have always felt taken advantage of by the Colombians. Go Uruguay!

It’s cold! I mean that damp to your bones type of cold. Low 40s and rain here in Uruguay. It’s quite a contrast from New Orleans yesterday. Alejandro met me at the airport and we’ve had a good time getting to know each other. I’m going to his house shortly to have barbeque with his young family. I’ll try to get some pictures, but cold rainy days don’t make for good shots.

Today was our shortened and intense day of strategic planning in New Orleans and we added in some debrief on the Gustav response as well as some initial planning for Ike. I am now in Miami about to board a flight to Uruguay. Gene is not able to come due to some home challenges (water has a way of causing a lot of damage), and Ike is due to visit Miami on Tuesday, the day I am scheduled to fly through on my way home. So I changed flights to get me through Miami on Monday and arrive home Tuesday morning. What a trip!

I’ve written a bit more about the work in Louisiana at efcacrisisresponse.blogspot.com. There you can find more pictures and what we’re doing. It’s amazing to me that 48 hours ago I was in Costa Rica wondering if this trip was going to happen at all. Now I’m cutting, dragging and talking to people who are wide open to the gospel in a town I’ve never heard of before. Houma took a big hit with high winds from Gustav. From the way some trees are twisted and torn, it appears there may have been some small tornados as well. As of yesterday, we were the only ministry on the ground helping people get trees off roofs and bringing them food and water. A cornerstone principle of this type of ministry is that where crisis occurs a new mission field opens.

Yesterday Mark Lewis and I were searching for the disaster management center that we knew had to be around somewhere. We stopped next to a police car and told the officer what we are doing and asked if we could help him in any way. His eyes told the story of exhaustion and worry. His house was fine but his parents house had a tree on it and he had no opportunity in the near future to help. So he led the way to their home and we soon had a team there removing the tree. Soon the call went out on the police radio that there was a church group seeking to help officers and their families and as we were cleaning the first officer’s parents’ home two more squad cars drove up. They couldn’t believe we were really willing to help them and they were amazed as we took down their information so we could go to their homes. Yesterday morning we had no idea what doors God would open…now we are finding doors open into the law enforcement community. Pray that God would use this opportunity for something amazing.

I’m sitting in a man’s home who has a generator going and amazingly, has Internet working. He has lived here fifty years and says this is the worst storm ever to hit this area. It’s not on CNN, but the drama is real and people are in crisis.

Tonight the team will return to Covington and tomorrow we will do some consolidation of the strategic planning we’ve done as we’ve been together. We had the week all worked out….strategic planning and team building in Covington. God had other plans for the location but both goals are being accomplished.

Be sure to visit the efcacrisisresponse.blogspot.com blog to see more pictures.

See the tree far off in the backgound laying across the street? The day after Gustav hit our Crisis Response Team drove into Houma and saw a boy trying to cut this tree with a little saw. The team went to help but CNN was there first. The CNN crew asked our team to wait before cutting the tree so they could get some good footage. More on Gustav at efcacrisisresponse.blogspot.com

I made it! I changed my flight to go to Gulfport instead of New Orleans and drove in from there. Some heavy rain and winds, but overall pretty good. I saw some trees down and some flooding, but the north side of the lake was not hit too badly. 80% of the parish is without power, but the church base for the Crisis Response Team does have power. And A/C!

The scouting team for the Crisis Response Team got in this morning, assessed this area of town, then went into the Center City area of New Orleans, then headed two hours south to where the hurricane had the biggest impact. For the next two days we’ll be cutting trees, boarding houses and repairing roofs. We’ll work in some strategic planning along the way.

I will update this site with pictures and stories as I can. As you can imagine, Internet connectivity will not be easy.

Known as the Switzerland of Central America, Costa Rica enjoys political, religious, educational and economic freedoms beyond most of its neighbors. But like so many developed countries, this does not apply to everyone. Deep in the rural areas where manual labor is the sole means of support, many people live in a cycle of poverty with broken families, broken hearts and a desperation for that which can only come from a relationship with the Creator.

The Costa Rican church can respond in a way that is so much more effective than outsiders’ attempts through training of leaders and development of new thought paradigms. But outsiders can have a huge impact! Recently some friends came down to partner with local believers to hold four days of a free clinic in a local church in Cariari. Led by a team of Costa Rican leaders and medical personnel, the draw of North Americans and clinical care brought out over three hundred people to receive both physical care and the news of spiritual life. Over 45 people made a life-changing decision (twenty of whom were in church the very next Sunday) and over 70 requested a home visit from the church pastor. Only God knows the full extent of this sacrificial work, but willing hands and servant hearts can be used by Him to impact people eternally.