A couple weeks ago, Maddie and I were blessed with the opportunity to go to Washington Il to help with tornado relief. 6 months ago an EF-4 tornado came through and devasted this little town one Sunday Morning.
I have never done something like this and was looking forward to the opportunity.
One of the homeowners we talked to said that only 2 people died in the tornado. He said that there are 11 churches in the town of 15,000 people. Not one of the churches was hit. The tornado sort of meandered in its path and missed all 11 churches that were full of people worshiping God. If that doesn't give you goose bumps I don't know what will!!!
The people of the town have been working through the hard winter but still much needs to be done.
We had a group of about 40 people that went for the 2 day 1 night trip.
We left early Thursday Morning and got back late Friday night.
There were 2 groups. 1 group made up of I think 3 different teams working in the field, and the other group worked in the donation center.
Grace and Maddie waiting to start work.
My co-worker Mary Lou and I. It was fun spending time with her outside of work.
Grace and I trying to stay warm and dry.
I worked in the field. Field work consisted of doing whatever the homeowners needed. Whether it was doing much needed yard work or some home cleanup. Our team mainly did yard work. Imagine fall cleanup but with nails, glass, drywall, insulation, flooring, (really anything a house is made up of) instead of leaves.
Isn't this house amazing? This house has been "cleaned up" but is now waiting to be demolished so it can be rebuilt.
I was amazed that this is 6 months after the tornado and so much work still needs to be done. I think that was a common statement over the time there.
I was also amazed that some houses you could tell that people were working to rebuild and some homes had not even been touched.
Most of the homes carried insurance which is a blessing, but most insurance will only cover rebuilding not the cleanup part.
It was pretty cool to see the community itself come together and help their friends and neighbors.
This is a tree stump. I can't even fathom the wind that did that.
Natalie... aka... Mary Poppins.
I think Maddie had a good time as well. I didn't spend a whole lot of time with her as she was in the donation center.
We stayed at a Baptist church Thursday night. We were for sure roughing it. We all brought sleeping bags and slept on the floor in the basement of the church.
I was thankful for coffee. Lots of coffee. And the fan that Michael and Carol brought ;)
I think one of the things I enjoyed most was spending time with and getting to know God's people more.
Waiting for work to start Friday Morning.
I was kinda amazed at the young people who came along. They worked hard and had fun while doing it.
I did things on this trip I never thought I would do..... like sitting on a dumpster lifting buckets of debris to empty.
or finding a pair of underwear buried in the grass in the front yard.
Some of our group with the owners of one of the houses we worked at. It was such a pleasure getting to spend some time with them and hear their story.
John and Glenda. Like I said before hearing their story was insane. He had been in the garage watching the storm and at the last minute headed for the basement to join his wife. He said that he barely made it to the basement and he said the next thing he knew he was standing in the door frame going into the basement and he felt like what he can only describe as a vacuume trying to pull him up. It took him a few minutes afterwards to realize that he was alive and ok. He could hear his wife asking where he was and all he could say was "I'm here."
If you ever get a chance to do something like this.... don't hesitate.
Just go.
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