Post Sandy Update from Keith Miraldi

I received this email today from Keith Miraldi, a former Five Oaks staff member who now serves in an EFree church on Staten Island, NY.

Hey Henry! 

I just wanted to give you all an update as to how we were as a church and how you can pray for us.  We are in the middle of a pseudo war zone here on Staten Island.  As you have probably seen on the news we had some pretty incredible damage on Staten Island with homes washed into the ocean, massive flooding, an ever growing death toll, and over 10,000 trees down. We have power at the church but almost 75% of the Island doesn't have any power.  For once I don't think the media is overhyping a situation, we actually feel it is way worse than what you see on TV.

Here are few things to pray for us as a church

1.  That we would be the hands of Christ to our church and community. We have multiple families that have lost houses, had their houses completely gutted, or have lost their source of income (we have a truck driver whose whole trucking company with all their trucks was washed into the ocean) from this storm.
2. That we would find that ONE thing we can do for our community. We are thinking right now we can best serve as a hosting and launching point for teams that travel in for rebuilding.  However, this fits into more of a longer term role.  What is something that we can do for the next 2 weeks to make a difference? 
3.  That we would have the sustained focus and energy to run this race. This is not a short-term calling to needs of our community.  We know that this is something that we will be working through for the next 6-12 months (and potentially beyond).  We have a lot of momentum as a church and want to leverage it for the gospel as we touch our community.  We also just have the everyday needs that every urban church deals with.  We can't take our eye off the ball!

Thanks for your prayers. 

Keith