Thanks again for everyone's prayers this past week. I have been emotionally and physically drained these past couple of days. And since I took part of Friday off to find my New Orleans relatives, I'm here in the office on this beautiful Labor Day Monday.

Yesterday a few of us got together to try to help the Katrina refugees in some of the shelters here in Austin. Unfortunately they had asked volunteers not to go to the shelters for security and health reasons. We called the check-in point for refugees, the Austin Convention Center, to see if they were taking volunteers there. We were directed to a Red Cross number which we called. They said that they had so many volunteers that there were 100 people on the wait list waiting to volunteer. Praise God for that, but unfortunately it meant that we weren't able to help out. We ended up putting together "care buckets" for the refugees. At church yesterday they had given us a list of things that could be put together and given to the people at the shelter. These things were like toiletries, toys for the kids, snacks, essentials, stuff like that. Each bucket has about $30 of things in it, which is pretty good considering that it is for an average family of 4. Also, if we had gone to Costco, the per bucket cost would have been even less.

For those who are interested in putting together a bucket, I'll type up the list for you later. The buckets should be dropped off at EV Free by Sunday, September 11.