Saturday, May 28, 2011
Staying in touch
On Sunday, May 22, 2011, a deadly EF5 tornado ripped through Joplin, Missouri. As of today, the death toll stands at 142 and 105 people are listed as missing. Our beautiful town is torn to shreds. Many people are using phrases like "war zone" or "it looks like a bomb went off" but to be honest, it looks much worse. The tornado's path goes right through the very heart of the city, it hit both the heart of the residential areas plus the busiest streets, major businesses, and one of the two hospitals we have here.
It is very easy in these circumstances to ask "Why?" I don't know why...the victims include grandparents, children, parents, and recent high school graduates. A popular professor at our local university is missing, and Facebook pages are springing up everywhere, the result of families desperate for answers about the fate of their loves ones. There is grief, chaos, and confusion...
...but there is also a lot of HOPE! Through my family's volunteer experiences this past week, we have personally witnessed an amazing outpouring of support from all over the country. At our church alone, we have seen so many semi trucks, trailers, church buses, cars, minivans...you name it, it's arrived! So many donations that our church's bus and two off-site storage facilities are filled up completely. In our parking lot, there are at least three different groups that are constantly cooking and providing food for volunteers and families who lost their homes. There is a trailer set up to offer showers, a place to charge cell phones, and Samaritan's Purse is sending out several groups a day to help with debris clean up.
There is so much to say about this experience. My thinking is, this is a good place to get everything out for anyone who wants to read it and keep caught up. My main audience will be my friends and family. In the hours and days immediately after the tornado, cell phone service was hit and miss and our home internet was down. Many of the people who care about us had a hard time finding out what was going on. Now they know that we are okay, but I feel like that's not the end of the story. Every day I find that there are new experiences to share. Recovery and rebuilding will take months for sure, if not years. I don't know that we will ever get back to "normal," whatever normal is now...
I intend for most of my posts to be videos, I think they will be more personal, but I will also include photos and written entries when I feel like it. I hope this blog takes all of us from the destruction we are dealing with now, to a city rebuilt and reborn! God is at work here, it becomes more and more obvious to us every day. I look forward to sharing with everyone how He carries us to a new beginning...
"Our town may be torn apart, but our community stands together!" (Borrowed from a local billboard)
It is very easy in these circumstances to ask "Why?" I don't know why...the victims include grandparents, children, parents, and recent high school graduates. A popular professor at our local university is missing, and Facebook pages are springing up everywhere, the result of families desperate for answers about the fate of their loves ones. There is grief, chaos, and confusion...
...but there is also a lot of HOPE! Through my family's volunteer experiences this past week, we have personally witnessed an amazing outpouring of support from all over the country. At our church alone, we have seen so many semi trucks, trailers, church buses, cars, minivans...you name it, it's arrived! So many donations that our church's bus and two off-site storage facilities are filled up completely. In our parking lot, there are at least three different groups that are constantly cooking and providing food for volunteers and families who lost their homes. There is a trailer set up to offer showers, a place to charge cell phones, and Samaritan's Purse is sending out several groups a day to help with debris clean up.
There is so much to say about this experience. My thinking is, this is a good place to get everything out for anyone who wants to read it and keep caught up. My main audience will be my friends and family. In the hours and days immediately after the tornado, cell phone service was hit and miss and our home internet was down. Many of the people who care about us had a hard time finding out what was going on. Now they know that we are okay, but I feel like that's not the end of the story. Every day I find that there are new experiences to share. Recovery and rebuilding will take months for sure, if not years. I don't know that we will ever get back to "normal," whatever normal is now...
I intend for most of my posts to be videos, I think they will be more personal, but I will also include photos and written entries when I feel like it. I hope this blog takes all of us from the destruction we are dealing with now, to a city rebuilt and reborn! God is at work here, it becomes more and more obvious to us every day. I look forward to sharing with everyone how He carries us to a new beginning...
"Our town may be torn apart, but our community stands together!" (Borrowed from a local billboard)
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