POB 551065-1065 Jacksonville, FL 32255-1065

Special Edition September 18, 2005

Hurricane Rita Relief Preparations

Just as we were getting on top of relief aid for Hurricane Katrina then came along RITA. Mission Harvest America has already prepared relief shipments in anticipation that aid will be needed. We will hold the support in reserve for deployment when and where most needed. Mission Harvest America has responded to national and international emergencies such as this since 1996. Our primary mission on a daily basis is the receipt, processing and staging of relief supplies for the next event while responding to current events. From Tsunami to Katrina and now Rita we are posed to support as needed. The below report on Katrina was in the processing of being sent to you as Rita became a threat to the Florida Keys and now into the western Gulf of Mexico. Your continued support and volunteer help is needed, now more than every before.

Hurricane Katrina Relief Update

No one was expecting the degree of devastation in the Gulf Coast Region in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The reports coming out of the area are horrifying: Hundreds of people dead, thousands left homeless, cities flooded, entire towns simply wiped off the map. The refugees come streaming in from New Orleans, Mobile, Pascagoula, and surrounding areas. Most of them have nothing but the clothes they were wearing when disaster struck. Looking like they are shell-shocked, they are looking for food and water, clothing, and household items, whatever they can get to try to begin putting their shattered lives back together.

Mission Harvest America sent out our first press release asking for assistance for the victims of this terrible storm on August 28th. This is what we do, week in week out, year after year since 1996. MHA responds to disasters like this year-round and worldwide. Our primary mission for the past eleven years has been humanitarian aid; therefore we were prepared to offer immediate response.

The community here in Northeast Florida and Southeast Georgia has responded beyond anything we could have anticipated. The relief materials started to flow in, and the flow became a river, and the river became a rushing torrent! Fortunately, at the same time, the people started calling to volunteer their time and labor to help sort, process and pack the donated supplies of food, water, clothing, first aid supplies and toiletries into boxes which were then loaded into trucks.

The first truck backed away from our dock to go to Jackson, Mississippi on September 1st. As of the date of this writing, September 16th, Mission Harvest has sent 64 trucks into the Gulf Coast’s hardest-hit areas. Several large transport companies such as Hill Van Service, which is a Mayflower agency, CSX, Hedrick Trucking, Banner Transport and others have pitched in to help, along with many owner-operators who have volunteered their time and their equipment, but Mission Harvest is having to provide the fuel and meals for the drivers. Some of these folks are making run after run, loading up here at our warehouse and heading west, unloading at their destination in Alabama, Louisiana or Mississippi and rushing back to Jacksonville to load up again for another run.

In addition to aiding the victims of the hurricane, we have also done our best to help those that are working hard to rescue them. Policemen, firemen and other service personnel from many states have flocked into the devastated area to assist local law enforcement. The normal disaster relief going into these areas does not include aid to these local agencies. Mission Harvest received an urgent call from the Law Enforcement Center in Brunswick, Georgia informing us of the hundreds of law enforcement personnel in the area, many with only one or two changes of clothing and limited personal support items that they brought with them. These, along with local police and fire departments, were working practically around the clock, trying to save as many as possible. Within 20 hours of the call, we were able to send two truckloads into Southern Mississippi in support of these agencies.

We have also worked closely with the U.S. Air Force Auxiliary Civil Air Patrol that is doing Search and Rescue in the area. At the request of Major General Tony Pineda, National Commander of the CAP, Mission Harvest shipped relief supplies to the CAP headquarters in support of the Mississippi Wing. Dewey Painter, the founder and president of MHA also serves as Southeast Region Deputy Chaplain in the CAP at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.

The U.S. Navy has also pitched in to volunteer time and hard work in this effort. On two occasions, we have had teams here from NAS Jacksonville to help, including a group of over 100 soon-to-be Chief Petty Officers to load trucks. When the Navy went home that day, we welcomed a whole football team, including the coaches, from a local high school.

We have had Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, fraternal organizations such as the Moose and the Eagles; veteran organizations such as the American Legion and American Veteran Advocates, corporate groups and others who have stepped forward to volunteer. We are grateful to all these people, as we could not accomplish our mission without them

Mission Harvest Needs Your Help

We would ask our many friends and networking partners to pray for us. Our staff has been working very long days, with only one day off in the past three weeks. Dr. Dewey Painter especially has worked beyond the point of exhaustion. Please ask the Lord to strengthen him and the rest of the staff for the work that needs to be done.

The relief effort into the Gulf Coast area will continue for some time to come. Mission Harvest is paying for the fuel to keep the trucks rolling. Given the high cost of fuel, with no reduction in sight, we also need to ask our many friends for help with funds. We are a faith ministry and all volunteers. We trust in the Lord to provide for our needs, and in an emergency situation such as Hurricane Katrina, the need is much greater than usual to enable us to keep the desperately needed supplies flowing. The next shipments scheduled will go into Gautier, MS, Slidell, LA, Crystal Springs, MS, Ellisville, MS, Zachary, LA

If you would like to help provide funds shipping expense, you can do so in one of three ways:

1. You can send a check in the envelope provided to Mission Harvest, marked for hurricane relief. Mission Harvest POB 551065, Jacksonville, FL 32255-1065

2. If you are here in Jacksonville, Florida, you can make a donation at any branch of The Jacksonville Bank. Tell them you want to donate for Hurricane Katrina Relief into the Mission Harvest Community Fund Account.

3. You can use your Visa or MasterCard by calling Mission Harvest and speaking with Pat Peterson, who will fill out our telephone credit card donation form. All donated funds will go directly toward fuel and the expenses for the shipments. We appreciate any assistance you feel led to give. Or you can go on line to our web site: www.missionlogistics.org for the donation form and fax it to us 904-356-3564.