10/25/07
We are planning to offer to our community a pre-Thanksgiving dinner, including roasted Turkey plus trimmings, on Wednesday November 7th at 6pm, at the Frances J. Chandler Family Destiny Center, 5817 Shortcut Rd., Moss Point (where Calling All Christians Church also has services).
For as long as supplies last (last year we fed about 200 people with the donations offered by River of Life Church, Columbus, MS.), we will offer both spiritual food (the Gospel of the Kingdom) in worship & word, plus the aforementioned dinner. Assembly of Praise Church of Pascagoula has also agreed to partner with us in this outreach and we also welcome any other individual, church or civic group's help in the form of: prayers, finances, food, or personal volunteers.
There is a volunteer team coming in from our partner, Alive Church, Tucson, AZ. that is bringing a few turkeys with them, and they've agreed to help also. Perhaps your church or group already have something similar planned and the best you can do is pray for us -- that's great and we appreciate it! But if you do not have any thing specific planned and you would like to join into this opportunity to be a blessing to our local community, then please consider how you may participate. You may contact me via email or phone with any further questions. Don't wait too late, we moving on this now.
Blessings & Peace In Christ,
Palma Chandler, Ph.D.
Founding Bishop, Calling All Christians Church
The Destiny Foundation CDC - Board Member
JCR3 Long Term Recovery Committee - Board Member
InterFaith Disaster Task Force - Board Member
Rebuild Jackson County LTRC - Member
P.O. Box 8550, Moss Point, MS. 39562
228-475-1103 (hm/off)
228-990-3235 (cell)
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(3/14/07) Michelle spoke with Bishop Palma Chandler and he
requested chairs and tables light weight plastic will do
best. He said thank you so much for the toys that came in
and he said they were a blessing to all the children.
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We evolved into Camp Destiny purely by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. My family and I began to help our neighbors with emergency supplies of food, ice, water, etc. Then, more unsolicited supplies (over 100 tons) came in and was distributed within 8 weeks after Katrina struck to over 6000 hurricane affected persons. We were blessed to be able to share many resources, not only with individuals and families, but also we networked our sharing with other shelters. We also received and distributed over $25,000 in gifts cards and other forms of direct services and supplies to Katrina survivors.
We do all this via only one salaried person, myself, and 10-12 others that make themselves available for volunteer service from time to time when we are having a distribution or a ministry of some kind. So there are no staff regulary (daily) at the Camp. Our plan is to recruit & train some more Case Managers and extend our Camp Destiny for walk-in applicants during scheduled office hours.
Also, FEMA came in December of '05 and built an Emergency Group Site (a trailer park for displaced families with infrastructure for about 80 trailers/mobile home units) on our church grounds for 2 years(we have 20 acres of land in the City of Moss Point). Of course,we have periodic outreaches to these displaced families whose numbers shift up and down often.
Then, from October '05 we got involved in the long term recovery efforts, of which affordable housing is the number one priority. This includes housing and feeding up to about 100 volunteers at a time who come from time to time from all over the USA to help in the rebuilding of the Coast.We have basically worked with UMCOR teams, but we are open and available for any group to use our Camp Destiny. We only have 2 showers, so we plan to have more built. In the meantime, we can use existing showers at other facilities. We do have 100 cots but most volunteers bring their own air-mattresses or sleeping bags to be used in three rooms or existing floor space. We also plan to obtain more bunk beds for
the three rooms.
Our main focus lately has been to attack hunger, one meal at a time, via building a new commercial grade kitchen which we finished in October '06. $45,000 was donated in cash, materials and labor to birth "God's Kitchen" which has already fed about 400 persons via the Grand Opening, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's outreaches/distributions we conducted. As of January 16, we also began to offer hot meals from 11:30AM - 12:30PM every Tues. & Thurs. Our plan is to accurately survey the current need and adjust our program accordingly. This also located within our Camp Destiny.
We are blessed to be partnered with many area churches, the City of Moss Point, World Vision, AmeriCares, the Interfaith Disaster Task Force, Jackson County Resurrection, Relief & Recovery (JCR3) LTRC, Rebuild Jackson County LTRC, Forward Edge, Wal-Mart, Lowes, MS. Home Again, UMCOR, LEDR, American Red Cross, Convoy of Hope, and the Foundation for the Mid-South. We are networked with Needs Assessment, Case Managers, and the UN-Met Needs Roundtable for the entire county.
We are humbled to have been honored with recognition and awards both from the Governor's office and the City of Moss Point for our volunteer efforts for which we praise our Lord Jesus Christ and give Him all the glory.
So, we started with the most important group, family, then we worked through our church, Calling All Christians (of which I am the founding bishop), and expanded the services through our Community Development Corp., the Destiny Foundation, and other partners, all working together to glorify our heavenly Father and help as many people as we can for as long as need exists.
Our overall Camp hours are flexible depending upon what the current operation requires. We also have church services in the same facility 2x/week, Sun. 10AM, and Wed. 7PM. Everyone is welcome to Calling All Christians.
I work mainly out from my home office and am in the field often.
I meet with clients, take applications, & manage cases by appointment only.
(Bishop Palma Chandler)