Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design

jennifer brown / special to the record

Lisa Ewart, left, a Sandy relief volunteer, visiting homeowners Bob and Beverly Baron in Little Ferry.

Full coverage: Superstorm Sandy, one year later

Beyond the mold-ridden basements, flooded living rooms, destroyed family photographs and other irreplaceable possessions, Superstorm Sandy led to something positive: It created the opportunity for North Jersey residents, who perhaps never would have come into contact with its victims, to form new connections, to carry out acts of kindness and to gain a sense of satisfaction from helping others in need.

Disasters and other large-scale tragedies have a way of doing this. At our most vulnerable, were drawn closer together. And Sandy, among the most destructive storms ever to hit our region, prompted a robust volunteer response. Some 3,400 volunteers from around the country in the past year have spent a total of 33,000 hours helping North Jersey residents bounce back from the storm.

Related: One year after Sandy, 'normal' remains elusive for New Jerseyans hit hardest

There are a lot of big holes where FEMA didnt help, said Marisa Santiago, volunteer manager for Volunteer Organizations Active in Disaster and the Long Term Recovery Committee, which coordinates the dozens of non-profit, civic and faith groups participating in the local recovery efforts. I have yet to meet a resident who said insurance and FEMA covered everything they would need. If we didnt have these volunteers, we would be paying a lot more for contractors to do work. Lots of work would go undone.

The Volunteer Center of Bergen County created Volunteer Organizations Active in Disaster in 1999 in response to Tropical Storm Floyd, and has since been the coordinating agency to respond to natural disasters and events such as the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Leading into Sandys one-year anniversary, offers of help are still coming in. A couple just called from Milwaukee and asked to let us know what they can do, Santiago said. I have groups lined up for the next year.

To house some of these laborers, a guest hostel was set up in Little Ferry called Little Moon House, sponsored by the national charity Project 195. Other groups have stayed for no cost on the Rutherford campus of Felician College and eaten meals in the colleges dining hall.

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United by disaster: North Jersey Volunteers continue to boost Sandy recovery efforts

porch_swing_and_bass.jpeg

Third Angle returns with Porch Music, Saturday, June 14, 2014. (Michael Reed)

Porch Music is back for a second year whenThird Angle New Music presents a walking musical tour of historic Irvington in northeast Portland. Five short, outdoor performances on five porches will tease Third Angle's 2014/15 season.

Audiences can stroll from porch to porch to hear single works by Lou Harrison, John Luther Adams, the 2014 Pulitzer Prize winner, OregonianJustin Ralls and New York composer Jacob Cooper. The performers include Third Angle musicians flutist Sarah Tiedeman, clarinetist Lou DeMartino, artistic director and violinist Ron Blessinger and percussionist Brian Gardiner.

The audience will split into five parts, rotating among the five sites, hearing all five performances over the course of the afternoon.

4 p.m. Saturday, June 14

Begin at 3215 N.E. 16th Ave.

$35; thirdangle.org/2014-15-season/porch-music; 503-331-0301

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Third Angle brings back Porch Music in Portland's Irvington neighborhood

TULSA, Oklahoma -

A Tulsa County man is suing First Presbyterian Church of Tulsa and its pastor, blaming them for publicizing his conversion from Islam to Christianity which he claims led to him being tortured when he visited Syria.

The man is referred to as John Doe in court documents because his attorneyssay using his real name would expose him to physical harm or even death.

According to the suit, which was filed on June 9, 2014, the plaintiff moved to the United Statesat about the time he became an adult. Hehas completed all the requirements to become a United Statecitizen except for taking the oath of citizenship, which he will do as soon as his adopted country schedules it,the suit says.

10/21/2014: Related Story: Tulsa's First Presbyterian Church Begins $33 Million Construction Project

The plaintiff says hebecame involved in the Christianfaith at First Presbyterian Church which led to his decision toconvert to Christianity. The suit claims he discussed his decision with the leadership of the church, including pastor Dr. Jim Miller. It also claims they discussed at length the need for his conversion to remain confidential, becauseSharia law calls for the death of anyone who converts to another religion from Islam.

The plaintiff says he agreed to be baptized on December 30, 2012 only after being assured by the defendants that his baptism would be kept private. He was scheduled to fly to Syria that same day and claims in his lawsuit that the defendants knew that.

First Presbyterian Church published the news of his baptism on January 6, 2013, according to the suit. The suit claims two church leaders told him they were "horrified" that the church had published the announcement and promised to remove it, but the plaintiff says they did not do so until April of 2014.

The plaintiff says he was in Damascus, Syria in mid-January of 2013 when he was confronted by radical Muslims who told him they'd read about his conversion to Christianity on the internet. Even though he denied it, the accusers tiedand blindfolded him and told him they were going to carry out the death sentence.

He was bound, beaten and forced to spend up to 18 hours a day in a 55-gallon "electrified drum," he claims in the suit. He says he was periodically taken out andtortured and his captors told him he was going to be beheaded.

Read more here:
Muslim Who Converted To Christianity Sues Tulsa Church After Torture In Syria

By KATY DAIGLE Associated Press

NEW DELHI (AP) - Forty Indian citizens working for a Turkish construction company near the Iraqi town of Mosul have been kidnapped, India's Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.

Ministry spokesman Syed Akbaruddin said there had been no contact with the kidnappers, and no ransom demand had been received. Over the past week, militants have overrun Mosul and seized wide swathes of territory as they stormed toward the Iraqi capital of Baghdad.

It was not immediately clear when the Indian workers were abducted. Akbaruddin said they were mostly from northern Indian states including Punjab, and had been working for the Tariq Noor al-Huda construction company in Iraq.

Relatives in the Punjabi city of Amritsar said they had received phone calls from some of the Indian workers on Sunday, five days after Mosul was captured.

Gurprender Kaur said her brother called and told her the workers were alone, in trouble and needed help. She did not give any further details about that call on Sunday, or say when she had last heard from him.

Another woman cried and clutched a family photograph as she spoke with Indian journalists in Amritsar about her missing son.

"Our children are in trouble. We want them back safe and sound," Ranjeet Kaur told Indian TV news agency NNIS. "We want the government to help us."

There are about 10,000 Indian citizens working and living in Iraq, but only about 100 are in violent, insecure areas, Foreign Ministry spokesman Akbaruddin said.

That includes 46 Indian nurses working in a hospital in the Iraqi town of Tikrit, but Akbaruddin said humanitarian organizations had been in touch with them and they were all safe.

Excerpt from:
40 Indian construction workers kidnapped in Iraq

ENID, Okla. There was no music, no sermon and no one at Enid First Church of the Nazarene on Sunday morning.

We didnt go to church this morning, Pastor Bruce Johnson said. Ive been preaching to my people about being the church and loving on people, doing acts of kindness. So thats what we did today, instead of going to church and sitting in a building.

The whole emphasis was dont go to church, go put your faith into action.

Approximately 130 church attendees headed to a neighborhood in east Enid to clean up debris from yards, mow eight lawns, clean out a window air conditioning unit and scrape, prime and paint a house.

Johnson said the church also served a free lunch and held a church service for the community at Garfield Elementary School.

Some church members went to a local nursing home, where they held a church service and served communion.

The church started the Garfield Neighborhood Initiative almost four years ago, after the construction of Garfield Elementary School was announced, Johnson said.

We went into the neighborhood and helped them start to clean up their neighborhood and prepare for that new school, he said.

While the church had been working in the neighborhood for nearly four years, the initiative had kind of died down in the past year, Johnson said.

Sunday was a kick-off day to get the initiative going again, he said.

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Church helps residents in east Enid

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