Harvey Recovery Information

My name is Dale Sommons. I am putting together a trip to Texas in conjunction with Poured Out US Disaster Response for Hurricane Harvey. I was away for 12 days on a mission trip to South Dakota and am now back to put this trip together. Sorry for the delay.

Here is the information I have so far. We will be working in Port Author, Texas. We will be staying at First Christian Church, Port Arthur, Texas. We will leave on Saturday Nov. 4, 2017 early in the morning. Since many of you are all over the district, I will have to work out a central place that we can meet that morning to leave from. Our church is in Bethlehem, Pa. Let me know if that is a good place from which to leave. If not let me know where we can meet. This is a 1500 mile trip one way, and I would like to stop at a motel on Saturday night and get to Port Author on Sunday afternoon. We have worked with Poured Out in the past in New York City and Moore, OK. One more thing, our church van is old and not up to a trip like this. If anyone of you has a good church van we can use let me know. If not, I will have to rent a van.

We will work from Monday to Friday and leave Saturday morning November 11, 2017 to come home. We will stop again at a motel Saturday night and get back late Sunday November 12, 2017. We will work 8 hours per day. If you are not up to working in the field, Poured Out will find other work for you around the church in which we will stay. Breakfast and an evening meal are provided by the church. Lunch will be on our own. The cost to stay at the church and for the meals there is $25.00 per day. Poured Out has an anonymous donor that will provide the $25.00 per day for meals and lodging at the church. This aid will eliminate some of the cost to you. You may make a donation if you would like to Poured Out. Other costs will be gas, motel, and any snacks you may want to buy. I will book the motels, 2 people to a room, and keep the cost around $35.00 per person per night. Every morning or night, not sure which would work better, I would like to have a short devotion time. I will take the first one and would like some of you to volunteer for the rest during the week.

I will send you a list of clothing, supplies and health and hygiene items that Poured Out sent me. As for tools Poured Out has tools for us but said we can bring our own. I don't know how many people are going, and there will be limited space in our van. Once I know for sure how many people are going, then we can see about bringing tools. One very important thing you will have to do is have an up to date Tetanus shot. One other thing you will have to do is fill out a volunteer application for Poured Out. Go to usdr@poured-out.org to fill out the volunteer application.

One last thing, I need to know asap if you can or cannot go. Poured Out needs a count from us. If you have any questions about this trip, just email me or call me at 610-838-6941. Thank you for your interest in this mission trip and may God Bless you.

In His Service
Dale Sommons