Report from Turkey – April 18

Today was my last day. I woke up and the sun was out, weather warm and the villagers scurrying around making preparations to start planting. Tobacco is the cash crop all else is for survival. We visited several families to complete our 25 family assessments. The next team shows up on Thursday to start assembling the shelters. I know beyond doubt that the team will find that all is ready to go. Looking forward for the return trip for phase two. Thank you to all who has helped support this effort.

Kenny

A meal at every turn. 
My host family was stunning. This was breakfast every morning.
The snow is beginning to melt on the mountains. Water will soon come to the fields.

Report from Turkey – April 17, 2023

One of the main reasons I am here is to help train and be trained on the building of a shelter designed by a German engineer. These shelters have at least a seven year lifespan and can carry a three foot snow load on top.

Unfortunately the gentleman’s mother in law passed away and he will show up after I leave. The first phase is 25 shelters and the second phase (I’m sure I will be back) another 25 at a later date.

The project will continue as funds are available from the generous hearts around the world.

We started a list with the most vulnerable villagers. Elderly, handicapped and families with small children. We had a large truck deliver all the material and the local men helped unload and put all the components in a depot. The shelter needs a fairly flat surface that the owners of the land are responsible to prepare. People are helping each which to me is a beautiful thing. The shelters cost about $1000.00 each. Once news came that the engineer was delayed we started encouraging the people to prepare the land and I started gathering materials for each site and delivering it to the family. By staging the material it will help the engineer have a faster start and people can start gaining some dignity back in their lives. We have made three teams of workers with a foreman for each team.

All I know is God is good. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

Kenny

What can you say
I found this lady up the mountain. When you don’t have anything and you lose what little you have this is how it works
Loading material to deliver to each site

Report from Turkey – April 15, 2023

Thank you for your prayers and support for this mission. The Lord is moving and we’ve been burning our candles at both ends. Pray for continued strength in this difficult mission trip.

The small village we are in, which I cannot name at this time for security reasons, was hit very hard. They are not getting the help they need. It’s so important that we are here.

The first two days we worked in the cold and rain (and some snow) to start our assessment of the most needy for shelters. This is a very old village with ancient homes,  most of which were destroyed by the quake. Some homes were 145 years old.

Earthquakes are a daily thing but I feel no danger. I am so grateful to be here and I am very welcomed here. I am staying with a local family and they are treating me so kindly.

This is not a place to where you drop in. It won’t work. The culture is very sensitive. There are a lot of moving parts to get us where we are. We’ve had a few hiccups but that’s fine. God is good and he sees us through.

Please pray for our interpreter. Without her it would not be possible to build shelters for these families.

I will report again soon now that we are gaining ground on the project. Thank you all again for your prayers and generous support.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow,

Kenny

There have been nice small breaks… here we are having tea with the locals.

Lots of Updates from GMSM!

Turkey

Kenny is on a mission in Turkey this month, continuing to help with the aftereffects of the recent earthquakes. He is on a team in a remote area, working with the underground church, to build multiple shelters in areas where half the homes were destroyed.

Please keep Kenny and all the Christian missionaries in your prayers as they continue to serve the Lord and glorify him in dangerous areas where Christianity is hated. May many come to know the truth during this mission.

Mexico

Pastor Felipe has moved from the dangerous border into the small villages in Vera Cruz, where he can build the church with locals and less interference from the cartels. These are remote villages with no electricity. It would be greatly beneficial to the church to have a generator for church services. Having a power source will help Felipe share videos, music, and photographs for slide shows. We would greatly appreciate a donor to purchase a generator. The one available in his area is $900, a DeWalt model shown here. Please contact us if you would like to donate the funds to purchase this generator!


Haiti

The school is going strong and the new latrine provided by Give Me Shelter Ministries supporters is a great blessing to the students. But after 11 years (Wow!) of operation,  Pastor Harry does need to make repairs. A new metal roof, paint, and other small repairs are needed, and we are currently at a budget of $3600 for this project. Please prayerfully consider donating to the repairs of the Evangelical Baptist School of the Trinity!

The Bahamas

Praise God we have BIG news coming from our efforts in the Bahamas. We recently broke ground on the first Category 5 Hurricane Shelter ever to be built in the Bahamas. Much more coming on this mission soon, but we want to thank our many supporters who have given us the opportunity to serve the Lord in places that are much less fortunate than us!

Report from Turkey

Days run into each other and hours seem to not matter. The work is serious and daunting. I returned to Antakya ( modern day Antioch) today to go into the most heavily hit area in the middle of the city. This area is horrific. The devastation and lose of life incredible. There is a soup kitchen set up to help survivors with much needed meals. We were able to bring in supplies for the kitchen. I witnessed what I believed at the time, a survivor being pulled from the rubble. Twelve days, 288 hours after the quake. This was confirmed this morning on the news. It’s crazy that there are still finding life in this graveyard of rubble. We made our way back to the Ilk Umut field hospital and dropped off the rest med pacs. Once again they were very happy to receive them. We headed back to Adana to catch our breath.

 

Report from Turkey

Made it smoothly without incident on the med pacs. Got about 3 hours sleep and headed out at 6:00 AM. We hooked up with a German group called the Awakening. We hitched a ride with them to Kahramanmaras where the epicenter of the quake is. This area is very devastated. Tomorrow we head to Hatay to bring the med pacs. This area is a network of villages where much destruction and death is very high. Our partners have a great connection with hospitals and field clinics.

Report from Turkey

Yesterday was a day full of strategy meetings discussing the shelters and how to improve them. We also came up with a generic field survey to interview the refugees. This will help in the future as the shelter project moves forward. Today we went south to Antakya to where the damage is astronomical. We interviewed several refugee families and discussed the shelters with them. The field survey will help us to now how many shelters the families will need. We also hooked up with the in country non profit ilk umut
at a field hospital and handed off two boxes of meds. Needless to say they were very stoked. Today was a long and hard day.

GMSM Going to Turkey Today

Kenny is flying into Istanbul today and will be delivering medical packs to field hospitals in Adana this week. Kenny and GMSM has become a go-to source for multiple Christian organizations who need workers in the field in times of great disaster resulting from the Kahramanmaras earthquake. We thank you, our supporters, for all the years of contributions to make this happen.

If you would like to support this week’s mission trip, please prayerfully consider donating today specifically to the relief efforts in Turkey.

We do not know the conditions of cell towers in the area, but Kenny will send reports this week if possible. Otherwise we will post reports here next week.

Please share this with your church, friends, and family so others may contribute. The medical kits have antibiotics and other supplies that are urgently needed in Turkey. Your support for this trip will be helping survivors who are in a terrible situation, dealing with injury, loss, and fear of what’s to come. Please help us TODAY to be the hands and feet of Jesus in a land filled with darkness and pain.

Thank you supporters of GMSM!

Dear family, friends and church,

Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

This past year, 2022, has been a very different year. Most Covid restrictions are gone and we were able to pick up the pieces and move about freely. Your contributions have been a huge Blessing this year and I thank you for all the financial and prayer support.

With your gifts we were able to help start and support an information center on the Romanian and Moldavian border for the Ukraine refugees fleeing the war. In addition GMSM built a latrine at a small school in Grandou, Haiti, a very remote village damaged by the earthquake. In addition we are supporting a small multi purpose building in Tulear, Madagascar, continuing our Hurricane Dorian relief in Abaco, Bahamas, continued support in Mexico  with Pastor Felipe’s family as they plant churches in southern Mexico.

Thank you again for all your support and gifts. Please share our mission with others so that they may explore how God will allow them to become part of His mission.

Peace and Blessings,
 Hebrews 6:10

Kenny Phillips
Founder/Director
Give Me Shelter Ministries, Inc.
P.O. Box 864
Shalimar, Fl 32579

Report from Fort Meyers

Upon arrival at Rick’s house in North Fort Meyers, Ellen, Rick and I unloaded muck out buckets, ice, gas, tarps and a new generator. I grabbed some coffee and breakfast then headed to Immokalee to meet Lupita at her home.

From there we went to Missio Peniel pantry to drop off all food supplies, more ice, buckets and tarps. We immediately hit the ground and started accessing the local area. We did find an enormous amount of damage mostly clean up type stuff. We cut a few trees off fences, surveyed some damage to the mission an helped prop up a fence at Lupita’s mothers home. Pretty much what you might expect. Long day.

We were up early and headed up to Arcadia to meet Adriana, who helps with the mission. We met at her mother and father’s home and began the survey. Totally different situation up here. Lots of standing water, home damage and thousands of downed trees and still no power. This is a very underserved out of the way area with mostly Latinos, African Americans and Haitians. We were able to give out ice, tarps, buckets and cut down a few trees. A very needy area but could be logistically challenging. But a great fit. From there we took a ride up to Wauchula. Other than flooding in the town it self, it seemed to have fared well.

We need your prayers and financial support. For all affected, but especially the people in Arcadia. We greatly appreciate all the donations!