Joplin trip 9/10/11

Saturday, Sept 10, my alarm clock woke me up at 4:15a.m. I am not a morning person and I thought to myself "why am I dragging myself out of bed at this crazy hour??" The plan was to meet up with a local group at 5:30 in order to board a bus and pull out for Joplin, MO. After dressing, drinking some coffee, and gathering my stuff together, I said good-bye to my mom and Daniel and left for a day of adventure.

The group I was going with was working with a non-denominational church in Joplin. The church, Abundant Life Christian Center ( http://www.abundantlifejoplin.org/ ) has been supporting relief efforts by housing people displaced by the May tornado, as well as volunteers who have come in to work, whether church groups, individuals, or secular organizations. In addition to housing up to 200 people each week, the church provides three meals per day and has a warehouse of supplies (toiletries, groceries, etc.) which is open to the residents of Joplin each week.

I was told from the outset that I would find out where I was needed once I got there. On my previous trip in June I had worked with Samaritan's Purse clearing debris at specific homesites. I was hoping on this trip to do more of the same, but of course had to be open to whatever I would be asked to do.

We arrived later than planned and the group that was going out to work in Joplin doing debris removal had already left. Soooo, I was going to be assigned to work at the church. No problem, it was a pretty day and there were interesting people to visit with. Since the church has been housing people and stocking a warehouse with semi-loads of donations, there was plenty of work to organize supplies, stock warehouse shelves, organize pallets of water, and clean in the church.

the bus

We Care center (warehouse of supplies for Joplin residents)

semis with donatations

working

The morning passed quickly and we broke for lunch (provided by volunteer cooks at the church) During lunch the pastor's wife expressed her gratitude and mentioned that they may send some people out to work in Joplin during the afternoon. I thought "great--now I can get out really work!" After all I had come prepared with work clothes, goggles, gloves, etc. I was ready to move debris! She then went on to explain that the church had been really stretched in opening their doors. She was feeling overwhelmed at the amount of work there was to do. The registration area needed to be cleaned, the bunk areas needed to be organized, the prayer room need to be resupplied, basically there was lots of cleaning and organization around the church.

So as she was talking, I was thinking to myself..."I did not come all the way to Joplin in order to CLEAN!! I mean I like cleaning but I do enough of it at my own house.... and organizing just sounds flat out boring!" I figured I would just avoid the pastor's wife after lunch that way i wouldn't get pulled into cleaning bathrooms or anything! Yeah, I know I didn't exactly have a servant's heart at that point!

After lunch I visited with some people, signed one of the large tarps hanging around the church that was for volunteers to sign (and there were signatures from ALL over!) and then I found myself unsure of what to do next. I found my group leader and asked where I should start and she directed me to go find the pastor's wife and work with her!!! Right. I was being asked to do the one thing I did not want to do.

I spent the next few hours working right alongside her, cleaning, organizing, and sorting, with barely a break! At times it was tedious but I appreciated the fellowship as well as seeing just how much that particular church was doing for the relief effort.

I think the biggest lesson I learned was to just be a servant in whatever capacity was needed, whether it was my job of choice or not. I saw how every job whether big or little is important because it is all part of the whole. The church itself was not a large church and yet they are doing so much! It has been estimated that the process up rebuilding Joplin could take up to 5 years. As of now the church, Abundant Life Christian Center, has committed to having their doors open and participating in volunteer efforts for 5 years if it takes that long.

People from all walks of life were there to volunteer. In the group that I went with, there was a mother with her two young children, several teenagers, and even two women who were in their 70s!  The pastor's wife emphasized to everyone that there is still a need for volunteers in Joplin. She asked that we continue to spread the word. There was a huge surge of help following the tornado but it has gradually slowed, though the needs remain.

In October, Habitat for Humanity will be in Joplin for a week with a plan to build 7 homes in 7 days. They are hoping for 10,000 volunteers to help. Also in October Extreme Home Makeover will be in Joplin and they too need volunteers.

Before driving back to Tulsa, our driver took us through the city since several in the group had not been to Joplin. I had been there in June and July, but both times we drove through fairly quickly and did a short loop through the hardest hit areas. This time however the driver took us the length of the tornado's path. There have been many changes since I was there last. There is definitely progress but it still brought tears to my eyes. It seemed that this time I really got a better idea of the enormity of the area of devastation. It is absolutely mind-boggling. We saw approximately where the tornado first touched down. I couldn't imagine how terrifying it must have been.

I did not bring a camera but took some pics on my phone from inside the bus...

some houses appear to be exactly as they were right after the tornado

in some areas all that remains are concrete slabs 

a cross that amazingly remained intact even though the church was destroyed

some areas are starting to rebuild

alot of the debris and rubble have been cleared but a pile remains here and there

occasionally there is a destroyed car just out in the middle of nothing

some of those barren trees are starting to get some leaves



a lesson in painting and patience

I am just not that great at delegating. I usually think I can do more than I really can and once I get an idea of how I want to do something it really stresses me if the plans that I envision get "messed up."

One of the projects that has been ongoing for a couple of years now has been Daniel's playhouse/jungle gym/swing set. When he was two years old some dear friends built it for him from scratch. My job was to paint the part that had unfinished wood. I really don't love to paint so it has been slooooowwwww going. Really slow.
I am finally close to being finished and yesterday I decided that I would do a little more and possibly have it finished within a few days. Then along comes Daniel--Mr. Helpful and full of enthusiasm! Um, the only problem was I wanted to do it fast (it was hot outside), and I wanted it to look good. Including little inexperienced hands holding a paintbrush dripping with blue paint was not going to help me achieve my goal.

So I thought I would let him do a couple of swipes and maybe he would get bored. Plus he was wearing a t-shirt that he insists on wearing quite often--one that I don't particularly like. I figured it could be a blessing if it got a few smudges of paint on it because then I could hide the shirt in the laundry!

He was beside himself with excitement when I handed him the paintbrush. He very carefully started with the drippy blue paint.....and he didn't get bored. In fact he was having a great time! He kept exclaiming "this is fun!" "Look how careful I am!" "This is going to look really good!" "See, I am being really careful and filling all the spots in" "This is going to look great for when my friends come over for my birthday!" (which is still about 5 months away)

Meanwhile it was taking every ounce of self control for me to not grab the brush and say, "I'm going to take over now." If it had been a different project--like a room in the house--I likely would have not let him paint since he is inexperienced and makes streaks and blobs!
Like this:

But, in this situation, it is his playhouse. Why not let him help? Why not let him learn to enjoy work and feel good about his accomplishment in the process? I knew he would be really proud of himself and that it would boost his confidence to do a "real" job like painting and have the finished product standing in his backyard.

As I struggled with trying to ignore drips of blue paint that kept ending up where they were not supposed to, I reminded myself that the playhouse is temporal. It is going to peel, decay, and get old anyway. Whereas the jungle gym is an object, Daniel is a human. This was my opportunity to do a project alongside of him and take the opportunity to begin teaching him a useful skill. It was also a chance for me to grow in patience and my encouraging skills. With every "oops" that popped out of Daniel's mouth I bit my tongue and told myself that he was trying really hard and learning often involves a mistake here and there.

Daniel was extremely focused for the duration of the project, and when his part was completed he was SO PROUD! He kept saying "look what I did!" Maybe he'll learn to love painting more than I do and when I'm an old lady he'll come and paint for me!

In the mean time if you come to our house and see drips, blobs, or smudges you'll know why :)  It was Daniel's adventure into the exciting world of painting and my daily lesson of learning to grow in patience and grace.