10 things we miss most about Portland and Oregon (In no particular order)

10. Peets Coffee

9. Stumptown coffee

8. The Horsebrass Pub

7. A day where the high temperature is less than 90 degrees

6. The good live music ( especially Jackstraw , Tuesdays at the Laurelthirst)

5. Family and Friends ( Paka the cat included)

4. Imago Dei

3. Powell’s books

2. The Beach

1. Evergreen Trees, Mountains, Rivers that aren’t brown, trade up Music, lush forests, golf with Julian, Trader Joes, Micro Brews, thrift stores, American Spirits, Ole Ole’, Independent films, McMenamins, the Urban Grind coffee shop, the Parks, the Gorge, Bobs Red Mill, Burgerville, Flying pie, Music Millennium, Bulk mushrooms, sprouts, Hollywood bowl, Mississippi Pizza pub, Saturday Market, and Stumptown Coffee. (did I mention that?)

I learn from them I dress like them, I love old people.

This is a photo of my new friend John Lovelace and I. John organized and brought down a work group of 60 people from Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Over the past week they worked on rehabbing 2 homes owned by our foundation. In the next few weeks’ families forced by hurricane Katrina to leave their homes will move into these homes. John and I became the “moles” for the workers. For most of 2 days John and I made non-stop runs to Home Depot for supplies. Back and forth we went, with each trip learning a bit more about each other and before long we’d become great friends. John’s the kind of guy that I could spend weeks with just asking questions and hearing stories about his life. He’s a no nonsense guy who struck me as bossy old dude at first but as time went on and I saw his efficiency in organization, I came to understand that he was just a good leader. He told me stories of his 40 plus years working with poor people all over the country and in Columbia. He will be back with another group in November and I look forward to seeing him again.

We’ve had another group here from California who have made several trips south to the city of Laurel. Laurel was hit harder by the hurricane and will be in need of cleanup for a long time.
The past week was incredibly busy around here. Not only did we have the two groups working and staying at the center we were also hosting a prescheduled intimate leadership retreat with John Perkins. We had five people come for the retreat and they all stayed with us at Antioch house. We enjoyed getting time with all of the people. Then to top everything off we hosted The John M. Perkins Foundation board meeting on Saturday. Things have been going non-stop and we’re really looking forward to a few days of relaxing at some point. Even John Perkins, who is a workaholic at age 75, said he was tired and needed a few days to rest.
Our good friend Lowell Noble was in town for the leadership retreat. He was a great help in accommodating the people who were staying at our house for the retreat. On Thursday we took the group south to tour the some of the harder hit area's. We didnt ven get to coast but could see the massive destruction. Tree's everywhere snapped in half like toothpicks and others on houses. After seeing the damage I got a deeper understanding of what a long term process the cleanup will be.
Now its Monday morning and things don’t stop. This afternoon our after school program will start for the first time since the hurricane. It will be great to be with our young friends again. Hope y’ all are doing well.
Thanks for reading
Johnny
Elizabeth, John, and I with the folks from Food for the Hungry a few weeks ago.

Update from Emily

( John Perkins , Johnny, and Emily outside the coliseum shelter after visiting with evacuees)

The activity surrounding the Perkins Center hasn’t slowed as we drift from the immediate crisis stage of Katrina, into development. We’ve been able to attend various World Vision and Food For The Hungry meetings with John Perkins this week, which have been fascinating to take part in. Those who meet with JP, and witness his vision and inspiration firsthand, invariably latch on with enthusiasm. It is exciting to see that several organizations seem eager to partner with the foundation. JP says that he’s never chased money. He doesn’t determine where the money is and then create a proposal accordingly. Instead he comes up with a plan and depends on those with financial power to catch the vision-it seems to have worked to far. People love a leader. Presently it looks like there will be several areas where funding is needed that we are focusing on. 1. Tools, supplies, and professional services for volunteer groups to rehab and rebuild houses. 2. Housing and employment for newly placed families to our neighborhood from hurricane-effected areas. 3. The training and equipping of other leaders, local organizations, pastors and churches to implement this community development model. This will include JP conducting intimate leadership trainings and various speaking engagements throughout the state. 4. Education (After school tutorial program, Girls and Boys Groups, and Good News Clubs). Not only do we hope to enroll some of these new children in our program, but also JP hopes to encourage, support and help fund other programs to do the same, on a grassroots neighborhood level. Poindexter, the grade school down the street where I work full time, is going to be a high priority school for newly placed children to Jackson due to our low enrollment. Though it’s unclear just how many new faces we’ll see Monday morning, I’m excited by the possibility of some of them joining our program. The foundations plan is to house and employee up to 10 families, so naturally the children in these families would be part of the program as well. Funding for the education aspect would be used for computers, general supplies, snacks, training and maybe even a salary for Johnny. Throughout the meetings we’ve attended, the organizations have emphasized the need to have a full-time paid staff member to steadily lead programs and volunteers.
But the area we will focus most on is volunteer groups which come nationwide to offer their services. This has been the core and engine of the Spencer Perkins Center over the years. Now more than ever groups are expressing a desire to come be involved. They will rehab houses that the foundation owns (which we need to house families), fix homes that have been damaged here on the grounds, and also travel to southern counties to rebuild. There are many areas between Jackson and the Gulf Coast that have suffered major damage and aren’t a top priority of government and other relief organizations. The focus here will be to work from North to South. Next week we have two groups of 30 people each coming from California and Chicago. They’ll fill up the volunteer house, intern house and even the clubhouse in the backyard. Here at Antioch, we too will have a full house. There will be 13 guests here from all over the country and even from Ghana for an intimate leadership retreat presented by JP, Lowell and others. We’ve been busy preparing guest rooms as well as hosting others in the meantime from New Orleans, Food For The Hungry, an architect from Chicago, and now several contractors from Ohio.
Currently we have one “evacuee” family staying in JMPF housing. The father plans to work for the foundation with housing and volunteers, and will earn a salary each month until he finds other employment. There are several children in the family.
We are grateful to be closely involved with such a visionary as John Perkins, and to be in a place where the opportunity to learn is great. If I didn’t deeply believe in the idea that tribulation develops character, faith, and growth, this stretching time would be more difficult. I’m learning, among other things, to let go of individuality and submit to community.
Thanks to all of you who we love so much, that steadily support and encourage us.
Emily

Photo journal

( tonight we spent the evening at the shelter hanging out with kids and serving dinner. We have 3 people staying with us tonight who fled the hurricane from New Orleans and our now heading back south to see how they can be involved in the relief effort)

(no power means no air conditioning so we spent our evenings on the porch listening to our battery powered radio for updates)

(our housemate, Milton, was well prepared for katrina. On our first night without power he and I gathered togther in the living room with a guitar and wrote a song called "Its getting dark in my neighborhood" )

( Emily hides her fear with a smile as Katrina blows)

we're here

On Monday morning we lost power and it was not restored until last night ( Friday). We caught the west side of hurricane Katrina here in Jackson, which they say is the best side to be on. We have not experienced the devastation of the gulf coast but there has been some major damage done. Trees are down all over town, many houses have had trees fall on them and thankfully only one death has been reported as a result of Katrina here in our county.
This was by far the biggest storm I’ve ever experienced. We sat out on the porch throughout the day and watched as huge gusts blew the trees, knocking braches and leaves everywhere. The storm continued to blow throughout the night and in the morning it was gone. Tuesday morning we began to clean up. Everything was covered in small branches and leaves. As we began to get out into the neighborhood we could see huge trees blocking roads everywhere. Power lines were knocked down all around leaving most of the city without power. Luckily a group that visited us a few months back gave us their portable cd player complete with batteries, which allowed us to listen to the radio the entire time the power was out. The day after the storm it was very hot with intense humidity making it very hard to sleep at night. We have a new appreciation for electricity and especially air conditioning. I’ve become familiar again with a chainsaw, as we have been removing fallen trees around our neighborhood. Four of the Perkins center homes have been damaged.
We began to spend our evenings outside on the deck playing chess, listening to the radio with candles for light, trying to escape the heat of the house. As uncomfortable as it was to go without power, it was hard to be discouraged while listening to what others were going through further south.
John Perkins has begun a campaign that will allow us to host 10 families who have no place to go for up to a year. His plan includes giving them jobs and a place to stay so that they to do not become crippled by welfare. He sees great value in these people continuing to use their skills, thus affirming their dignity as human beings. We are planning on heading to the coast next week to see the destruction and get a better idea of how we can be involved in clean up and rebuilding efforts. John has been doing interviews with local news stations as well as national radio programs that want his opinion on the situation. World Vision has contacted John looking for ways to get involved, so it looks like we will definitely be included in the long process of rebuilding.

Many people have evacuated to Jackson from southern areas hit hard by Katrina. Yesterday we visited the Coliseum, which has become a shelter for 2,000 people. The conditions are set up for temporary stays and seem very uncomfortable for long periods of time. These people may not have anywhere to go for a long time. Most of the people are black, poor, and needy, with nowhere else to go.

It’s been shocking to us how slowly help has been administered to the people in New Orleans. I understand that this is a devastating disaster that no one could be completely prepared for, though I can’t help but wonder-if the people who were stranded we’re white and middle-class, would the aid have come faster? To me, the hurricane is half of the disaster. The other half is the lack of aid (and slowness thereof) to the citizens of New Orleans, most of whom are African American.
Thank you to all who have called or attempted to make sure we are ok. We are doing fine and looking to help here in whatever ways we can. We will be sending out a letter from John Perkins this week detailing our plans for working with displaced people. If you would like a copy mailed to you please email me your address:

( Johnny.Bertram@gmail.com )

Technical Difficulties?

Johnny and Emily would like everyone who reads their blog to know that they are alive and well now that Katrina has passed. They cannot yet update this page themselves, though, as the power is still out where they live. They do have water, and even a small amount of electricity (enough to charge Johnny's cellular phone, at least) thanks to John Perkins' emergency generator. They say that all the food they had that needed refrigeration is rotten by this time, but there are still some areas of town that do have power, and a few stores are still open and selling food.

It sounds like utility workers are having a tough time restoring power. Their trucks are out of gas, and they need the power back on to pump more gas. So, though I have no official time frame, it may still be some time before Johnny and Emily can update this blog again themselves. In the interim, they would like you to know that they are safe and will be back in contact as soon as possible.

-Luke