More Pictures. . . .

Maui shower

Dr. Glen and Yvonne
Mad Max and his cutting crew
Tina and Yvonne hauling steel

Black Canyon Road, Ramona, CA Day 4. . .

Max cutting some I beam













Max, Tina and Edwina working













The Tide Trailer - free washing of clothes













Looking down Black Canyon ST.













Saving a carport roof to move to camp.
We had an awesome work day today. We went back to Oak Tree Ranch, where 41 homes in one area burned down. Everyhone of the homes in this section burned completely. Jewelery in boxes was reduced to molten metal. Dreams of the future there have ended and new dreams have to be made.
We finished our first job today. Mary Ann's house is now complete. Max, Arts, Paul and I joined together and cut the I- beam structure apart. We used a 14 inch gas powered grinder. It was indeed a manly job. Glen could not operate the heavy duty machine because he had on his girly looking capri pants. Max's pant caught on fire at one point, no real flame, just alot of smoke. Max had some hot pants on, Jeanette knows what I mean.

Shelley's lot is almost complete. We have about six more cuts on the I-beam and then we will be finished. We sifted more of her property today and found several former pieces of gold. Shelley is ready to move forward. May God bless her.

Sue's house is next on our list. I walked the property with her, she is still in shock as she looks around at what she thought would be her retirement home. Her husband and her have made some of the most beautiful landscape features I have ever seen on one small lot. There were water falls, plants park benches and many other items that made the place their dream home. Now they are looking at moving to a senior mobile home park in Ramona, in town, not in the country. Sue could not believe that we would do the work for free. She kept commenting, how much is this going to cost? She also would ask what the catch was. I told we were here because Jesus Christ had sacrifed life and blood for each of us, we felt it was the least we could do to clear a lot full of fire debris for his glory. She started crying and sobbing. She composed herself and said she knew Jesus and God, and knew that better days were ahead and someday she would be able to see the good God had brought to Ramona through all of this.

We actually got a referral today from a group of Chaplains with Billy Grahmn's Crisis Group. They had visted us earlier and came back with a job that Samaritan's Purse could not do. We will help a boy's and girl's club position themslves to rebuild.

We shower at night at the Maui shower. These showers come out of Minnesota. This is a big rig, full of stainless steel showers. Normally the cost is $5 for five minutes, we are using them for free. What a blessing to have a good shower at the end of the day.

Yvonne leaves us tonight for the airport, we will miss her useful therapy of massage, and her hard work behind shovels and wheelbarrows. We all prayed together, she cried and I had a moment of eye watering allergies. We have jobs to do for God tomorrow. Pray for Him to use us and for us to be willing to do it his way.

Buddy Gray

RAMONA RESPONSE DAY 3. . .

Today was a great day of work. We finally got into the field doing the work we came to do. The first house we worked on was Mary Ann's house. Mary is single and has lived in her house for several years. This was the fifth time her and her family have been evacuated for a fire, this time the fire came with vengence and destroyed all 41 homes in this small subdivision. All the homes were manufactured homes, all were burned up completely. In fact nothing was left but the I- beam frame. Mary Ann gave her 60 day notice to the landlord at the park today she never wants to live there again. Like many other disasters I have worked, she has the defeated look in her eyes, her eyes say that it is time to move on and be free from the pain of the present. The only thing we were able to salvage was the melted gold from her jewelery box. We sifted through the ashes on the ground underneath where here bedroom used to be to find the remnants of many good memories.
Shelley's house was around the corner from Mary Ann's house. Shelley works at a local bank in town, she will not return to live in the subdivision again. She has lived throught the evacuations and now the fire has consumed the last eleven years of her life's possesions. Her attitude is positive, she will someday move to Oregon and be near family, right now she has to stay and negoiate with insurance companies for her nestegg that is due her. Shelley walked me around her property and described the beauty of her property, at one time she was caught up in talking about how she had her morning coffee on her back porch that opened out her bedroom. As she described this vividly she was holding her hands as if she was sipping the coffee one last time. Next she walked down the ravine and described the way the fireflighters had explained how the fire consumed the neighborhood. There are two 3ft diameter culverts for the ravine waters to cross the road when it rains. The people in the park were called by reverse 911 and told to leave within five minutes. Shelly's daughter was leaving as the fire was arriving. The fire raced down the ravine driven by seventy plus mile an hour winds. The flames came down the hill in less than five minutes and consumed all the houses in less than fifteen minutes. The charred area by the cluverts shows that the fire was coming through the tubes like fire through a rocket engine. The fire shot out over 150 feet. I prayed with Mary Ann and she asked us to sift her bedroom where her grandmothers jewlery was kept. We found the charred box of jewelry with everything in it melted. Sheila Smith and I took the box to her at the bank. She thanked us for our effort and said she would always keep the box to remind her of these days after the fire. We found one other keepsake for her. 18 years ago her daughter made a vase for her in third grade. I dug it out of the ashes for her, she already had it on her desk at the bank.
We prayed with and for both families today for God to heal the hurts that only he can heal. Later tonight I will post pictures of both sites.

Pray for God to use us . . .

Buddy Gray

All in a day's work

Excellent day today. The team was ready to roll at 8 a.m. after getting our work orders from Corky, the Hilltop camp "El Jefe." We were assigned to an area where 40 plus mobile homes bordering a ravine were completely burned to the ground. The fire came down from the ridge above, and when mixed with the 90 mph Santa Ana winds and the drainage pipes that were at one end of the ravine, it made for a turbo like effect, shooting a torrent of fire through the 3 foot diameter pipes a full 150 feet. With a firestorm like that, it makes total sense that 41 homes were lit up and burning to the ground inside of 15 minutes. The homeowners were given the 911 call to leave and within 4 minutes the fire was down the ridge and starting on the first homes. Twisted metal, melted glass, and remnants of people's lives lay on the ground like scattered leaves. It was quite a sight.

Our assignment was to clear the burned debris close to the street so that it could then be hauled off. After seeing all the burned nails, screws, and metal I'm glad I insisted that everyone get their tetanus boosters! The homeowner, Mary Ann, wanted us to save as many of the paver stones as possible...she was going to rebuild her life somewhere, just not in Ramona. A few months prior to the fire she had invited one of her loved ones to come move in with her...she agreed, moved all of her belongings into Mary Ann's house while she awaited her move and then the fire struck. Mary Ann said to me in tears, "I asked her to come live with me to have a better life and now look. What kind of life is this? I'm just so hopeless."

Hopelessness? That was the opening I was looking for. As she went around to each of us to thank us for all of our help, I asked if we could pray for her. She agreed and we prayed for her. Prayer for not only a place to live, but for hope, support, and something better. The something better we know comes from a saving relationship with Jesus. When the final amen was said, she said "The best thing in all of this is finding out that there are people out there who care. Thank you." She walked off slowly, clutching the bust of a china doll covered in soot, softly crying.

After lunch, we went back to the mobile home park to clear off another homesite. While there, one of the crew members stepped over the metal frame of the home and cut the inside of her knee. As a physician, I'm tasked with providing medical care to our team of volunteers. As it turns out, the one who cut her knee was Yvonne, my wife. I washed her bleeding leg off with some cold water, put some neosporin on, bandaged it, and told her to take it easy until we got back to camp. What I didn't tell her was she needed stitches. (She doesn't really like needles so I didn't want to unnecessarily freak her out....what a nice husband, huh?)

Back at camp, I took off her bandage and told her of my plan. Word got around that I was going to suture Yvonne's leg so Tina, Edwina, Christie, Chrissy, and Sheila all eagerly asked Yvonne's permission "to watch." I've been in medicine for nearly 2 decades and have taught medical students, nursing students, resident physicians, and other medical professionals and I have never had a bigger audience for a procedure than I had today. All for a whopping 2 stitches! Oh, I failed to mention that Gary, one of the other Hilltop volunteers, kept me company talking my ear off as well. (Buddy asked if he could learn how to suture...after some thought of about 0.2 milliseconds, I said no, possibly because this was my wife. More likely, I didn't want to incur the beating that Yvonne would inflict on me had I said yes. He pouted, went in to the dining hall, and refused to participate in the growing debacle...I mean minor surgery.)

So back to the procedure. The lighting in the building was bad, so I did what any sensible physician in the field would do...I lay my patient down on the tailgate of my Toyota Tundra and operated on her in the parking lot. Given that our medical supplies are mostly donated, it shouldn't surprise me that my glove size is 7, but the gloves I had were a 9. Who ever said fit was important? I anesthetized her wound with some 1 year old Lidocaine (she'll never know), sutured her with 4-0 Vicryl, slapped a bandage on it and called it good. After taking a bow, I waved to my impressed gallery of 10 viewing members, including my patient Yvonne and yours truly, and rode off into the sunset.

All in a day's work.

More Pictures

Ramona Pictures

Ramona Response Day 1

After arriving yesterday we went out to eat at Mama Rosa's Restaurant, which I had pegged for a fairly nice place for Mexican food. To my surprize it was Italian. While at Mama Rosa's we met a couple who were still recovering from the previous fire here a couple of years ago. I told them what our group was doing and they nodded and thanked us for caring and being here in Ramona. They left soon after that and within a few minutes we were told by the waitress that the couple was paying for our meal and that we could add anything else we wanted. What a blessing for us. A couple we had never met decided to pay for 12 meals. It was cool and we all were greatly blessed by the event.
Today we made the obligatory tour of destruction as we traveled to Escandido, CA. The fire swept through the valley and burned most of everything in its path.
When arrived in Escandido we helped offload a 53' trailer from the Disaster Relief Effort of Nashville. I was extremely happy to see the back wall of that trailer when we finally finished.
Tonight we ate at the Mountainview Community Church, they are hosting a group called Christ in action(CIA). CIA is from VA and is currently providing our morning and night meals. CIA also has shower trailers that are out of this world. Tide detergent is providing a trailer of washers and dryers.
Tomorrow we go to work at our first site. We are eager to go work and be the hands God wants us to be.
Glen (Dr. Glen) was wearing his capri pants that he wore during the Katrina relief effort. The only thing missing was his robin's egg blue crocs that he wore as we arrived in Slidell. Funny how he seems to fit in so well in CA.

Ramona Response

We arrived last night after an eleven hour journey on the road. We arrived safely and all is well. Today we will help unload a truck load of items from Disaster Relief out of Nashville and set up camp at the Ramona Church of Christ. We have homeowners ready for us to work at their places and we are ready to roll. We will blog more later today.

we seek your prayers,

Buddy

Homeward Bound. . .

I walk away from San Diego tomorrow morning and head home. For the most part SD seems to be moving forward well. We are eager to move on to the next phase of service delivery. Going home to home and making life a little better for people who have lost a lot.
I was out in Ramona today with Savita and Corky from Hilltop. We had a very good meeting with Dave Ash from the Ramona Church. We had 50 cots delivered by the Red Cross along with blankets. We are in need of a shower trailer if anyone knows someone with one.

I will post more tomorrow. . .

I am ready to see my dear family and my brothers and sisters in Christ.

may the lord bless you,

Buddy Gray

San Diego Fires Day 6

We (Wayne and I) continued working at HQ today. It is apparent the Red Cross has plenty of people on this job. Today the Damage assesment crews hit the road to determine the extent of the relief dollars to help the people of San diego County.

Ramona, CA is the site of the Hilltop Rescue and Relief push to help in this event. The Ramona church of Christ is the staging area. This little church of 30 is ready to reach out to their community. They have opened up their building and their lives for the next 90+ days. Hilltop has a video interview on their website. Wayne and I visted the area where the interviews were conducted. There is a great need for the hands of Christ to arrive in this area and work. Look at your hands and see if yours are the ones some person who lost their home needs to help them recover from the loss of a home and then find Jesus Christ.

Here is a copy of the list from Hilltop that are their and ours needs for this effort.


VOLUNTEER AND LEADER FACILITIES
Trailers for long term volunteers 4
Sleeping cots 50
Hand washing stations 2
Port-o-let facility 4
Large garbage cans 7
Large dining table 8’ 2
Folding chairs 50

COOKING FACILITIES, SUPPLIES AND EQUIPMENT
Large ice chests 4
Warming oven 1
Garbage bags 70 ct. 10

OFFICE FACILITIES AND EQUIPMENT
Office trailer 1
Printer 1
Copier 1
Computer and monitor 1
Leadership notebook computer 1
Portable hard drive 1
Badge machine 1
Satellite equipment 1
Wireless router 1

VEHICLES
15 Passenger vans 2
Full size work truck 1
Covered work trailers 2

OPERATING EQUIPMENT
Washing machine 1
Dryer 1
Computers (for volunteers and victims) 2
Printer 1
Telecom software and equipment 2
Power supplies and misc. 2
Chain saws 2
Shovels (scoop) 8
Shovels (square) 8
Hoes 2
Sledge hammers 4
Wheelbarrows 8
Tool Boxes 2
Misc. tools to fill boxes 2
Large crow bars 2

MISCELLANEOUS EQUIPMENT AND INFRASTRUCTURE
Large first aid kit 1
Fire extinguishers 2
Fire hose 1
Small first aid kit 2
Power strips 4
PA equipment 1
50’ extension cords 5
Video projector 1
Jacks and spares for vehicles and trailers 5

MISCELLANEOUS MAINTENANCE AND REFRESHMENT
Chains saws (sharpen/oil/replace) 2

The needs can be met by in kind donations or with cash sent to Hilltop.


Buddy Gray

Firestorm work day 5

Today I worked out of headquarters with Wayne Smith doing special assignments. The nature of this emergency caused some mass confusion and alot of information was lost. Wayne was put in charge of finding the information and bringing it back to headquarters. Once that was completed we went to the closed staff shelter and helped close it down. The cots were scrubbed, rinsed, dryed, folded and boxed for future disasters. All 800 of them. Luckily we had 25 other people helping.
We surveyed the damage in Ramona today and conferenced called with Hilltop. What a great group they are. Ramona will be the target of the work the response team now we will establish where the work camp will be. If you can take time off work start looking for time off, we will try to be in Ramona from Nov 3- Nov. 10th.
The damage there is much different from Katrina, but from the sounds of things was frightening in its own way.

Buddy Gray

San Diego Firestorm Day 4. . .

The community of Poway is getting back to normal. Most of the people at our shelter were gone by the time we arrived at 5:30 a.m. this morning. Today we spent the early part of the day cleaning and saying good bye to our friends in Poway. We develop a bond with the LDV's everytime we enter a community andwwork at a shelter. Sheila the tireless worker, whose kitchen we used in the shelter was a great volunteer with a lot of heart. Her boy friend has cancer and is undergoing chemo, pray for him when you can spare the time. Greg, Crystal, and June from the City of Poway were great to work with. Greg and his family were displaced for three days and finally found out their house was OK. Belinda also with the city was great to work with. All in all the City of Poway people were great to work with. Their outpouring of love and service was overwhelming. One day we had over 300 volunteers while only having 120 shelter residents. Right now I am working with our own Wayne Smith. Wayne got me and nine other people a job working with HQ this afternoon. Wayne is a great asset, today he wore his Team Red T-shirt.

We are going to try to go to Ramona, CA to check out the need for a response. We are going to meet with Kevin Wise and attempt to come up with a way to honor God in this community. Pray for us as we prepare to bring the message through hands on service. I am worn out and need to get some rest.

I miss my wife, my son and all my brothers and sisters in Christ. I am praying for all of you.


Buddy

Community Response Team Alert

If you are interested in doing relief work here is some information.

We are considering a trip the starting the week of November 3 - November 10. If you are intereted please email me. I am somewhat busy before 6 pm if you call call after 7:00 p.m.

We have talked to Hilltop and are trying to gear up. More Info tomorrow.

Buddy Gray

San Diego Fires Report 3 . . .

Tonight I am writing from a hotel room. I feel guilty about leaving the shelter people behind and coming to an ocean side hotel. This is just a reminder of how it is so real for the individuals who have lost so much, and yet just a temporary event for me. We have seen many great acts of kindness and blessing during this event. People offering all kinds of aid, from housing to catering food for the whole shelter. We have also seen the other side of the coin. The City we are working in gave us 48 hours to vacate their senior center today. We still have over 100 people staying with us with no place to live . Our hope is that the city will rethink their position tonight and allow us to stay until the people from Ramona can go home. I beseech your prayers for God to change their minds.
Dr. Bennie Cisek has put together an excellent medical facilty at our shelter. He was waiting at Qualcom to find some people to help. He came and put together a fully functional medical triage place in a matter of hours. My hat is off to him. He has blessed many lives with his work at the shelter. Its 10:30pm, I have been up since 430am. Pray that God will continue to energize me for His work.

Buddy Gray

San Diego Fires Report #2

The transition from city shelter to Red Cross shelter was the work of the day. We rearranged the set up and added some more services. Poway did a great service to their citizens with the shelter. Alot of excitement with two heart attacks by clients and one slip and fall. Three trips to the hospital in one day for our clients. Everbody survived. Thanks for the prayers. . . It looks like this will be home for a few days.

Hilltop is gearing up and has asked us to partner in a project to be named in the near future. Start lining up vacation and get ready to roll. Team Red is on stand by.

Only 2 hrs sleep in two days. Time for bed. Pray for the fires to end! Pray for God to Reign in the hearts of the people.

Buddy Gray

San Diego Fires

I am writing from Poway, CA just north of San Diego about twenty miles. The shelter that is operating is being run by the city. The Red Cross has flown me in and I am already at work. Pray for us as we figure out what the needs are for the people in San Diego. Hilltop is trying to assess and figure out whatt their response is going to be in the next few days. As they make decisions I will keep you informed. They may be in need of using some of our equipment and we may need people to work with them in the near future. Everything is very fluid and changing as we speak. The coming days will tell what the needs will be. Pray for the people of San Diego County.

Buddy

Family Promise

We are past half-way on this turn for Family Promise. The families are good people trying to get past a bd place in their lives. The program is a no-brainer for a church group. We get to live out Jesus' for these people for one week. We provide food, shelter and drink, 24/7 for a week. We have had over seventy members invloved in the program so far. Most of the people are here for there small group and provide support service from a distance for the people. 5 couples stay over night. The night portion is the easiest, you show and sleep. Have you ever thought about serving God while sleeping? These people have a roof over their head for a night because a few people leave their homes and come to the church building for a night. The sacrifice is not much, but the benefit for the people in the program is great.

serving Him,

Buddy

The Cross and the Towers/ Family Promise

The movie night was an overwhelming success. We had a good crowd for The Cross and the Towers and The Wizard of Ha's. It is always incredible to see so many guests in our building at one time. Many got to hear an inspiring message concerning the Living Message of Jesus Christ. Over 30 visitor families were in the Veggietales premier. Pray that we continue to have fruit from events like this.

Family Promise, a coalition of local Modesto Churches that provide services to displaced familes has come to Davis Park. We are having our first rotation since the re-start a couple of months ago. We have 3 great familes that we are working with this week. Pray for them to find jobs. . . and housing.

Buddy

The Cross and the Towers . . .

On September 29th at 6:00pm we will be showing the movie "The Cross and the Towers". This movie is a documentary that tells of the story of how the Cross impacted the workers at Ground Zero on September 11, 2001. This movie demonstrates the power of Jesus and God to work through the hate and sin of men and provide lives changed for the good of the Kingdom. More on this later

Buddy

The People of the Park. . .

The first book project of the Davis Park Church of Christ is now complete. We have published our first 250 copies and have ordered our second printing of 500. The book is a compilation of Christ Stories specific to the people who are members at the church where they allow me to minister. These stories have a broad range of struggle, from children who have wandered into homosexuality, children lost in a rafting accident, a little girl who had to deal with the molestation of her and her sister by their father. These stories allow us to demonstrate how non-perfect we all are even though we put on a grand facade for Sunday morning. I cannot wait to see the impact for Jesus that this book has in our community. If your reading this and desire a copy please contact the Davis Park Church of Christ, 209-522-7226 and we will send you a copy.