Category: Archived Posts – 2007-2016

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Hurricane Helene – Steinhatchee Update

Praise God that Hurricane Milton had little effect on Steinhatchee. It slowed the effort down, but we are headed back this morning (Saturday, Oct 12) with a pallet of tarps and donated supplies.

This coming week we will be collecting non perishable food, paper goods and hygiene products. There is also a need for jackets and blankets for the cooler weather coming this week. Drop off locations are open Monday- Thursday 9:00-5:00, and are 151 Mary Esther Blvd. suite 503 and the Santa Rosa Beach Ace Hardware

Goods are then delivered on Friday to Friendship Chapel Church of God and we deliver from there. We always can use volunteers at drop off points and for loading supplies, so if you would like to help in person, please send us an email at info@givemeshelterministries.org and let us know your availability.

Thank you all for all you’ve done for His people. For this storm recovery effort, you have donated over $8500, including kind strangers walking up in the hardware store and pitching in as we bought supplies. We have a long way to go, so please continue to share and help us find contributors who want to help out. Our PayPal donation page is here.

Keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we move forward one step at a time. Steinhatchee is so grateful for all the help.

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Hurricane Helene Update – September 28

On September 26th Hurricane Helene poured through the Big Bend area in the late evening. Give Me Shelter Ministries started mobilizing relief effort on Friday the 27th with the help of Calvary Chapel of Destin and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.

By 2:30 AM on the 28th we headed to Steinhatchee which was close to where the eye of Helene made landfall. We trucked in water, tarps, ice, gas, muck-out buckets and chainsaws. We will add hygiene products on this next trip down. I have dealt with disasters and response on many levels and for many years. This area is almost 100% done. People are bewildered and desperate. As all know, this destruction continued through many states leaving many homeless.

We spent the day giving out our supplies and cutting paths so people could get in or out of their homes. After an 18 hour day we headed back to Destin and Fort Walton Beach. I’m spending today gathering supplies and making plans for another 18 hour trip tomorrow.

Props to ACE Hardware of South Walton  for supplying all tarps, water, gas cans and chainsaw supplies. Thanks to the crew, Garrett, Riley, Lance and Tristan.

We need your help! Please consider a financial gift or a gift of labor. Prayers are also appreciated.

Kenny Phillips Founder/Director GMSM



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Hurricane Helene Relief

Give Me Shelter Ministries is heading to Florida’s Big Bend Saturday, September 28, to provide tarps, ice, muck-out buckets, and gas and oil for chainsaws. We will be with members from Calvary Chapel Santa Rosa and Coastline Calvary Chapel Destin, with support from the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.

We are very thankful to ACE Hardware of South Walton for donating tarps and chainsaw oil.

If you are available to join us and bring ice and water, please fill out this form.

We are assessing the area and will find smaller communities to serve over the next several weeks. Please prayerfully consider donating to this effort. We will need to purchase many tarps, tools, chainsaws and parts, and gas.

To donate, please click here:



Please share this with your family, friends, and church. Every dollar donated goes DIRECTLY to the people affected by Hurricane Helene.

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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

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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!

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The Work Has Continued!

Dear church and friends,

They say sometimes you need to step back and look a little harder look at our lives and calling. That’s what had happened in my life in late 2019. We had a major family set back that pushed me into a much needed sabbatical of sorts. And then Covid struck. In early 2020 I was in Nicaragua to start a new project when COVID started making its rounds against the world. I was fortunate to get out as I was on one of the last planes to leave before the country was shut down.

I will admit that between the sabbatical and COVID that I fell into a deep funk. Because of not being able to travel and have my finger on the pulse of our projects my blogging came to a halt. I know God has a plan through all this and trust me, Him and I have had many prayerful conversations about all this. All though the giving has dropped off a bit (as with most churches and non profits) praise God for those who have continued to be faithful.

The work has continued…
Your giving has allowed ALL our work to continue while our in-country partners have carried on while I stayed on the sidelines. This is why I spend so much time with the people building solid  relationships. It’s been truly amazing how the work has continued. It’s been slow but it has moved forward. 

  • Our school in Haiti continues to stay open, however resources have dwindled and we need you to prayerfully consider supporting this school monthly. 
  • Our  roof project in Haiti has continued. 
  • The housing project in Guatemala continues with 12 houses now completed.
  • I am working on a disaster relief project for Nicaragua.
  • My in-country field work for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship has kept me busy state-side and I’ve been asked to help oversee the construction of a community center project on Grand Bahama with the vision of one on Abaco also. Hurricane Dorian brought all this together. This will act also as an emergency relief center in times of need which unfortunately may be often. 

Back in the field…
Now that travel is starting to become a tad safer and easier we are beginning to jump back in full on. As you may know by now our most pressing issue is this earthquake that has just hit Haiti. This thing has struck smack dab in the middle of where our roof project is. I am planning at the moment to get down there ASAP if I can. Pastor Harry and I have been in constant communication and he has sent me some horrible pictures. Looks like the 2010 earthquake we went through down there. We are asking for much prayer and support as I will be tasked to figure out how we can help our dear Haitian brothers and sisters. Please pray for my safety and pray how God may allow you to help. Hey, it’s been a while but we are back in the saddle. I was headed down to Guatemala but the earthquake has changed that plan. 

Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

Kenny

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Guatemala Land Purchase

July 6-10

I arrived in Guatemala on Saturday totally exhausted. The last couple of months have been brutally busy. The one and only purpose for this trip is to finally get this land gig squared away. Doctor Kenny called me last week and told me all the papers were ready and there would be no issued this time. So I scrambled to get a ticket and headed south. We have a scheduled appointment on Monday at 10:00 AM to sign papers for the land purchase. I chilled today and caught up on some much needed rest. I got up Sunday morning and went to church with Doc Kenny and Maco. After church we did a little driving around towards Antigua to look at some potential places for teams to stay in the future. On Monday we all meet at the  Puertas’s house with the lawyer, the land owner and proceeded to chicken scratch signatures. Six months of trying to put all this together and it took like 5 minutes to ink the deal. The next two days I stayed with the Puertas’s (this is the rancher dude I meet on the plane).There is know way we could have done this without their help. They have spent their personal money on so many little fees so the deal could keep moving. As Victor says, this is out contribution to the project. They are 100% behind this housing project. He will also be very beneficial on the amenities to the land. He has many high profile Guatemalans friends whom he says will help keep some of the cost down. Without this Guatemalan team that I have been blessed to assemble, this project would have at least been twice as much. It was great hanging with the family and getting to know each other better. They have been so good to me. Now the real work starts. We have a lady who is involved with the Fuego refugees doing social work who has volunteered to do the case work and interviews on the families to be candidates for re location to new homes. We actually have 7 homes committed to be built. That leaves 3 homes left to complete our goal of 10 homes. So, what are you waiting for. Dig deep and let’s get this $15000.00 raised and get er done. Three homes for 15 grand is a deal anywhere. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

Kenny

  • At the signing table. Me,Lawyer Willy and Macco Director for Sahre4Life.
  • A nice glass of champagne from Spain to celebrate this long awaited day. The sellers, us and the Puertas’s. Many people worked very hard to get all the pieces of this puzzle put together.
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May 1 & 2, Guatemala

These next two days were a whirlwind of anticipated knowledge, experience and humility. We started out early morning on the 1st towards Guatemala City the capital. I had a scheduled appointment with a lawyer recommended by Doctor Kenny. This firm does all their legal junk for their in country organization Share4Life. We are working on some legal documents that Jim requested I deal with. The lawyer was also scheduled to go over the survey for the land purchase. So we headed out early for the big city with survey and other legal docs for the land in hand. We arrived at our appointed time for our meeting with the lawyer. We talked about a contract for the land and a contract between Share4Life and CI/GMSM. These are to legally protect all involved. A smart move on our part.

As our focus moved to the land and also another contract between us and buyer, she realized after doing further research that there is a discrepancy between the new survey we had and the legal survey that’s in the municipal office. So this put a halt to any property purchase at least for today. We had a meeting later on that day with Guadeloupe the land owner and her representative. We talked about the issue and both sides agreed to move forward and get this deal done. We contacted the lawyer and they agreed to see us again the following morning. We decided to stay in the city this night so we could make the 7:00 AM appointment. Kenny and our driver dude each went home and I stayed with my friends Victor and Monica. This is the guy I met on the plane and who helped us locate this jewel of land.

The following morning we all meet back at the lawyers office. Guadeloupe brought what legal papers she had, we had ours and we compared notes. We all agreed before starting the meeting that we are all one voice in this and our goal is to help the people and that we are dead serious about this land and they are dead serious about selling it to us. The legal survey shows the land is smaller than what her survey shows.This is not necessarily a bad thing. The legal municipal survey also shows that while it is a tad smaller it’s on the choicest part of the property. It also means we will not have to pay full price. It could be 3-4 grand less. Which will allow us to put that money into electric and sanitation services. The lawyer says she can have this all squared away in about two weeks.

Although they are responsible for these fees, I told them we’d pay half. Guadeloupe is badly in need financially and I know she has been taken advantage of by some jacked up pseudo lawyer she had. We will not take advantage of this situation. This whole process has allowed me to know that God is indeed in control. HE has most definitely affirmed, protected,blessed us with proper council and confirmed this project. This is precisely why I work so hard on a relational process. We are building a great support group of like minded people down here. It’s a small set back for a great reward. Can You Imagine? Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

Kenny

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Guatemala – April 30

After a restful night and a good  breakfast at the guest house, we loaded up and headed to Taxisco. This is the town close to the property. I wanted go to the property and walk the surveyed lot and just spend time doing my own visual survey. This is a beautiful piece of land with huge mango trees. Mangos are a cash crop which in time can benefit the new owners once the houses are built. The property sits in a very lush area set back off the highway. It’s roughly 5 kilometers from Taxisco. We had Guadeloupe, the seller of the land call Francisco to get us in the property. This dude’s been there since the beginning of time I think and is the self proclaimed overseer of this area. He met us at the highway and was kind enough to take several hours of his time to walk the property with us.

We left the property and went into Taxisco. I’ve wanting to check this town out for a long time and this was perfect timing. This town is close enough for the people to get supplies, medical attention and schools are in this area. After talking to Francisco and checking out the community I felt some food supplies were needed. We stopped by a market and picked up rice, beans, flour,salt,sugar, coffee, noodles, oil …..etc. and brought them back to the community. Needless to say, they were stoked. What a great day this was. Can you imagine. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

Kenny

  • This is the surrounding community. Needy and desperate.
  • The road to the property.
  • Francisco leading the way
  • Lush, shady and cool.
  • Some of the many mango trees
  • Francisco, me , two children from the community and G man our driver with some of the food and supplies. Some of the bags had already been taken away but Francisco will distribute it among the neighbors


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Back in Guatemala

April 28-29

Here we go again. Headed south down to Guatemala. The goal is to finalize the  land purchase and move forward for the refugees of this area in Escuintla.

It has been a crazy process so far and I’m not real optimistic that all’s going to be in order. But as my Haitian pastor says “God knows.” I am sure in my heart of hearts that my motives are true and correct and that this is a project that will affect many lives.

I arrived safely and as usual Dr. Kenny and Macco where there to swoop me up and get on down the road. They took me to Antigua, a cool trendy hipster town that used to be the capital years back before an earthquake destroyed it. There is a huge European influence along with expats trying dissolve from life. Hmmmmm, I personally dig the country side of Guatemalan life but it’s a cool place to visit and there is lots of history around. After the Antigua stop they took me to my hotel for some  much needed rest. Got up early and hit the road for Escuintla in hopes of getting started on the land purchase.

This is the holiday season with Holy Week and other celebrations. Today is no exception. Today is their Labor Day which means only restaurants and bars are open. All municipalities are locked up tight. Doc Kenny took me to a huge lake called Lago de Atitlan. We took a boat across the lake to some small Mayan villages that are very traditional. These are areas where the do medical missions with medical teams. It was a huge treat to see this and you can see the need.

After today we should be rolling again. I have several lawyer meetings in the city to work on legal documents for the land purchase. This has been a very different process and prayers are welcomed. Tomorrow is a new day. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

Kenny

  • These two pics are of a catholic cathedral built back in the 1500’s. It was nearly destroyed by the earthquake in the 1800’s. This town was the capital city until the quake.
  • These two pics are of a catholic cathedral built back in the 1500’s. It was nearly destroyed by the earthquake in the 1800’s. This town was the capital city until the quake.
  • Lake Atitlan surrounded by non active volcanoes.
  • Coming down the mountains towards Panagachel.
  • The main road to the Mayan village of San Antonio Palopo.
  • Most women in this small community still wear the traditional and native colors. All textiles in the village, cloths and veramic ware are still made by hand. It’s a hard to reach area and the health need is great.