Christian and Missionary Alliance

We are an Alliance of evangelical believers, joined together in local churches, dedicated to fulfilling the Great Commission given by Jesus Christ. We maintain a "big tent" stance in reference to many doctrinal matters, encouraging believers of diverse backgrounds and theological traditions to unite in an alliance to know and exalt Jesus Christ and to complete His Commission.

It’s a boy! No, it’s a girl! No it’s both! Well what is it? It is a church plant! Camp Katrina has given birth after nine months of intense labor to a new church. On July 1, Camp Katrina will be turned over to Christian Life Center (CLC), a ministry of the Christian and Missionary Alliance in the Southern District.
What a transformation! Pastor Rick of Christian Life Church (non-C&MA) and I decided that it was time to see a church started from our early Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. We have been praying and seeking God for the right pastoral couple to take this ministry to a church-plant level for several months. Every time we thought we had a couple, something would change in the last minute, and we would be a ground zero again.
As we continued to pray, it became evident that the C&MA has been a prominent partner in helping us get the needed relief to so many people in Waveland, Mississippi. Over half of the volunteers that come weekly, are from Alliance churches throughout the United States. More than $300,000 has been donated from C&MA sources. The current leadership team of Art and Pat Baruffi, along with Shannon Lenox, are all Alliance people. So it became evident to us that God was leading us to turn over the leadership and coordination of Camp Katrina and this new church plant to the C&MA.
The Baruffis have been ministering to about sixty people for the past several months. They still have 400 projects that need to be completed and from those, many more people will come to the Lord. They are expecting twenty kids at the three-day VBS on site.
Art and Pat are scheduled to stay through August and are seeking God about living her for another two years in order to help plant this new church. Shannon Lenox has been asked to stay to coordinate the volunteers that will be needed to continue the ministry. Pastor Rick and I will be available as coaches and mentors as needed. We do not want to walk away from this new birth. We will be aggressively seeking funds to keep the ministry going. It will take at least $12,000 per month to operate. So please PRAY with us as we seek God for the financial needs.
Since we are changing leadership from Gulf Coast Disaster Relief to the Christian Life Center, we are asking that all volunteers coming to serve be prepared to help with the daily expenses of operations. It is for this reason that, beginning July 1, all volunteers will be asked to bring $25.00 per day, per person to help with the expenses. This will cover their room and board as well as help with operating costs.
Many of you know Meg Wilson. She has done a tremendous job coordinating the volunteers. She has been on staff at Christian Life Church. She will be moving to Auburn, Alabama to take another ministry position in media. Meg has turned over the volunteers to Shannon Lenox, and he can be reached at the same address, CampKatrina @gmail.com. We at Gulf Coast Disaster Relief are so grateful to Meg for her sacrifice of love. Pray for her during these days of transition.
With the changing of the guard at Camp Katrina, we will focus our efforts on getting ready for the next storm. We are building a large warehouse in Orange Beach that will store our equipment and tents. Thanks to you, we have come along way from a back yard grill and a tarp. Pastor Rick and I have come to the conclusion that we are better equipped to be a first-response team rather than a stay-a-year-long team. We want to come alongside churches and help them to respond to their local needs. So we continue to prepare for the next crisis. We realize that Waveland was different. After the terrible storm, there were no churches able to do the work of the church. So we responded and became the Church in action. Now God is raising up a church, and others that we have helped are now strong enough to continue on. What a blessing!
What can you do? Glad you asked! Here are a few things:
• Pray for the transition between Gulf Coast Disaster Relief and the Christian Life Center of the C&MA.
• Pray for the needed volunteers to do the continued relief ministry of rebuilding homes and lives. We need fifty volunteers per week. Pray for Shannon Lenox as he takes over this ministry.
• Pray that God will provide the needed funds, $12,000 per month to cover operating expenses.
• Pray for Art and Pat Baruffi as they seek God about continued ministry as lead pastor of this new work.
• Pray for Pastor Rick and Pastor Don as they prepare for the next storm or crisis.
• Pray for the 400 families that have applied for help from Camp Katrina. These families represent a tremendous opportunity to serve a broken community and share Christ.
Until we get a bank account set up under the name of Christian Life Center, please continue to send any gifts to Gulf Coast Disaster Relief c/o Genesis Church, 3100 S. McKenzie St. Foley, Alabama 36535
I can never thank you all enough for all that you have done in helping the many thousands in Waveland. What a blessing you have been to them. Eternity will tell the whole story, but we see the many chapters daily. Without you, little would have been accomplished. With you great things God has done!
Thank you.
Pastor Don Genesis Church, Foley Alabama

Mayor Longo Thanks Hoosiers

11/8 Longo Wins Primary
He'll face two challengers
By RYAN LaFONTAINE
rlafontaine@sunherald.com
WAVELAND - There was no need for expensive, touch-screen voting machines here Tuesday.
Instead, Democratic voters used paper ballots in the primary election to give incumbent Mayor Tommy Longo the party's support in the Dec. 5 general election for the city's top office.
"I'm very humbled and appreciative for the vote of confidence from the citizens," Longo said. "We've made positive strides (in Katrina recovery) every day and together we are going to see this thing through."
According to complete but unofficial returns from Tuesday's primary, Longo won the party's backing with 51 percent of the vote, beating former alderman Milton Bernard, who garnered 30 percent, and Joan Coleman, who scooped up 18 percent.
In an election filled with uncertainty over voter turnout and how post-Katrina voters would react at the polls, Longo said election night was hardly a walk in the park, especially since he had little time to campaign.
"Every election is tough," he said. "The opponents were all good people, but unfortunately this is not the opportune time to hold an election, because we go to work again early tomorrow morning rebuilding Waveland."
For the most part, the mayor's camp broke up about a half-hour after the tally was announced. There were no late-night victory celebrations.
After visiting with reporters and thanking a few of his closest supporters, Longo and his wife and children headed home.
He was scheduled to be awake shortly after sunrise this morning and on a plane to Washington, where he will lobby for additional funding for AmeriCorps, a group knee-deep in recovery in Waveland and dozens of other towns in the storm zone.
There's hardly time for door-knocking and cold-calling to drum up support for the Dec. 5 general election, Longo said, because most of his schedule is filled with recovery work.
But the mayor said he would welcome a debate or community forums with the two mayoral challengers, Republican Craig Cameron and independent Santo Saucier.
"I would love to do that," Longo said. "As soon as I get back from Washington, let's have a debate."
Cameron, who hopes to become only the second Republican to hold the city's top office, won the GOP nomination with 62 percent of the vote over William "Wild Bill" LaPrine.
Though Cameron's 62 percent may seem like substantial support heading into the general election, the total number of Republican voters Tuesday was far less than half of the Democratic turnout.
Just 210 Republicans voted for mayor, while nearly 1,000 Democrats cast ballots in the party's primary. Currently, Democrats control every political office in the city.

Found on Gulf Coast News and WishTV
Video also on http://www.wishtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=5215140&nav=0Ra7
It was called one of the worst natural disasters in America's history. Hurricane Katrina devastated countless communities.
Saturday night, the mayor of Waveland, Mississippi was in Boone County to say "thank you" to a group of Hoosiers who helped them pick up the pieces.
Dozens of folks who either live in Waveland or have been there to help in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina swapped stories Saturday night.
"Our old downtown, where our historic city hall was built in 1877, every building in our old downtown was destroyed," Tommy Longo, mayor of Waveland, said.
Longo said help from folks in Hendricks and Boone counties gave them hope.
"For somebody that's 1400 miles away and doesn't know a person down there they just knew these were fellow Americans that got hit with the worst natural disaster in the history of America and we need to get down there and see what we can do to help," Longo said.
He said when folks back in Waveland talk about the disaster relief group from Lebanon and Brownsburg, they do so with a smile.
"It's a tremendous uplifting feeling. We've got an affectionate term for them, it's the boys from Indiana are here," Longo said.
"On a small level I think we did help and it's Americans helping Americans," retired Brownsburg police chief Dave Galloway said.
Galloway was one of the men who organized the relief group. "We ended up, we made four trips where we had people go down and help people at Waveland, Mississippi."
"Our entire town, 95 percent of our structures were substantially destroyed so to have these men with heavy equipment that knew what they were doing was just an unbelievably uplifting experience," Longo said.
Mayor Longo said they still have an overwhelming amount of work that needs to be done.
The group from Hendricks and Boone counties says they plan to go back.