A TRIP TO JOPLIN

Thursday, May 26, 2011
On this morning, Chris Gerber, Dakota Holder and I headed out to Joplin, MO to provide and give forward some of the help that we had received here in Dade County.  We loaded the truck with bottled water and a cooler of drinks and snacks and headed out at noon. 
We headed west and Chris drove the whole way and we arrrived at the Mt. Hope Church of Christ in Webb City, MO (just out side Joplin) and got in to the fellowship hall and joined a group of about 20 men who were sleeping on air mattresses and sleeping bags and went to sleep about 11:30 PM CDT. 
Friday, May 27, 2011
Got up at about 6:00 AM and got to have coffee and visit with some of the other folks that had come to help.  The atmosphere is something reminesent of being at a Christian summer camp.  At about 7:30 breakfast, cooked by the ladies there, began to be served and after a short devotional period, we left with a group and we headed to Steve and Mary Ann's home, one of the Mt. Hope elders, that was destroyed in the tornado 5 days earlier.
As we rode in, we skirted the perimeter of the damaged area and it really didn't appear any worse than the areas in Trenton or on Sand Mountain that were slammed by the storm.  We worked all morning at the Sloan's house and across the street removing trees from a man's house.  About noon, the Mt.Hope ladies had brought sandwiches and drinks and we took a break for lunch.  There were LOTS of trees on the lot Dakota and I were cutting on, while Chris spent the morning helping them load a dumpster with the trash that a week ago had been their home and possessions.
We went back and started clearing more trees and continuing the cleanup, when just before 1:30 PM, we got word that a Severe Thunderstorm Warning had been issued for Joplin.  It did not take much to get the group from there or us, to close down and head for a safe location at the church building.  While we were at the building we were asked to ahve a special prayer for one of the members there whose father in Texas had jsut had a major heart attack and was in surgery.  It is great to be part of God's Family.
We spent about two hours listening to it rain at the fellowship hall and then at about 3 PM headed back to the Sloans' to continue there.  When we arrived we got out and slogged through the back yard but it was so muddy and soft we couldn't get the tractor in or really even walk much with out sinking in the mud so we had to head some where else.
We went to the house of a man who was not a Christian, but Richard was really a good guy.  His house had been devasted by the storm and now he needed some help in cleaning out the shell of his home that reamins.  When we got there, soon there were about 35 of us who had come to Joplin to work wearing the bright green Joplin Church of Christ Mission shirts and we went to work.  It was really sad in so many ways to come across the things that had been his family's life of memories and now they were just a soggy muck that had to be loaded in to wheelbarrows and taken to the road to be hauled off. Richard worked for a constuction company and they had brought a Bobcat over to help with the clean up and Dakota was happy to operate that for them!  He is pretty amazing on about any machine!
In about 3 hours we had pretty well cleaned everything out of what remained of his house and a great deal of what was in in his yard.  As we began to load up to leave just before the curfew took effect, we met together with him for prayer and after he had shook and hugged everyone there, we had a prayer and he sobboed through it.  He could not say enough times how much he appreciated it and what it meant to him for people he didn't even know to come and help like that.  I think a real opportunity is there to influence him to follow Jesus.  And that's what it's all about.
We returned to the Mt. Hope fellwoship hall and the ladies had prepared a wonderful supper of bar-b-que and the fixins and we enjoyed it and got to visit and clean up.  The church building had hot water but no showers. So I was getting instructions from some of the folks on the best way to clean up without a shoower including being told you could take wet wipes and put them in the microwave for 15-20 seconds and get a warm clean up!  Then I found out they had portable solar showers outside (like for camping).  Well, now things began to make sense!  Hot water from the kitchen and portable showers meant I was going to be clean tonight!  And I did!  It is was a little like showering in a phone booth, size wise, and you had to change clothes inside the booth, but it felt pretty good to have warm water washing the mud and sawdust off!
We jsut visited until about 10:30 PM and then the group from Ralla, MO led the devothional and it was a quick trip to dream land for me!  I'm still not completely used to running a chain saw for 4-5 hours a day!
SATURDAY, May 28, 2011
Woke up about 5:30 and got the coffee with the early crew and got to visit and really enjoyed that. There was a large group from Ralla and they were a lot of fun and great people.  After a breakfast of pancakes, bacon and scrambled eggs, we had a devotional where Greg Spann, the preacher at Mt Hope spoke.  His wife had been trapped in the Wal-Mart and first he was told she was not among the surviviors.  He went home and told his kids then they returned to the store ruins to search for her.  This time a store manager told him he remembered someone matching her descripion and she was injured with what appeared to be a broken back and headed to a nearby hospital.  On his way out in the car, his kids saw her and jumped out of the still rolling car to find her safe and with just minor scratches.  Not many dry eyes left in the room as he told that!
We then helped move some supplies and Dakota sharpened some chainsaws. We decided that it was too wet to get the equiptment running and they had a large contingent to do the clean up work, so at about 10:30 AM we decided to head home a couple of hours early.
It was a wonderful experience to be able to help and realize how that even in the damamge we suffered here, God in His divine providence still blessed us!