as I go

Day 3

jeffty — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 04:21:55 +0000

Today we spent the day working in the disaster area. We partnered with Samaritans Purse and we moved debris, furniture and trees.
Being in the thick of it was honestly more intense than anything I have seen or experienced. The destruction and damage was unimaginable. The volunteers and the free services (food, water, tire repair, chain saw blade sharpening, counseling) were overwhelming. But the people of Joplin sharing their stories with us made it all real. As each person shared their story you began to get a glimpse into what that day must have been like. For instance….
Don, he and his wife both 82 yrs old sat down on their couch in the back of their house held hands and prayed together. Telling God they were ready if He was. God must not have been ready. Or….
Barb who was home alone and clung to a pillow in her bath tub praying that God would protect her and her husband Ed. Their house had a 30 foot tree on top of it, their pickup sent through the garage doors and someone elses bathroom subfloor and tile thrown across the front of their house. Both she and Ed were together today salvaging what was left but thankful to have each other. The stories went on and on like this all day.

So how was today? In a word-Difficult! Difficult work, difficult seeing, and hearing the stories and realizing the healing that needs to happen.

Tomorrow we head home and we hope and pray we have been a blessing to those we came into contact with, and that they were able to see a glimpse of the love of Christ through our words, our actions and our compassion for them.

Thanks for all your prayers and please continue to pray for our travel tomorrow and for the people of Joplin.

Catch you on the flip side.

Day 2

jeffty — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 04:02:50 +0000

Well another day at the warehouse and I don’t mean to boast but Nebraska folk dominated!! We unloaded 2 semi trailers, 2 horse trailers, 2 truck trailers and sorted and palletized all the supplies that came into the warehouse! No supply left on the floor, everything in boxes on pallets ready to be distributed. Our team is made up of a great group of workers.
The two main guys running the daily operations at the warehouse were surprised by two things:
1. How hard Nebraskans worked!
2. That we would spend 2 days at the warehouse because as we saw many teams don’t last much more than a couple hours because it is not the most glamorous of jobs.
What makes that even cooler is that one of our objectives is that we serve and be a blessing to the people that will be in Joplin for the long haul and we have been able to do that. Both guys at the warehouse commented several times how much of a blessing we were to them and how we lowered their stress and burden by being there, working our tails off and teaching the “short-timers” the ropes.
Tomorrow we team up with Samaritans Purse and head out to do some city clean up. Please pray for our team tomorrow as this will be the first time we will see first hand the devastation of this city. Pray for safety for our team and all the volunteers that are helping in the efforts.
Gonna sign off for the night, sorry no pictures, refer to yesterdays if you want to see the warehouse and massive amount of supplies that come in to the city.

Thanks for your prayers.

End of a long day

jeffty — Tue, 31 May 2011 01:38:41 +0000

Well we were able to serve in a couple areas today. Most of our team worked at the warehouse unloading sorting and organizing supplies that will be sent to those in need throughout the months to come. A few members of our team went down near the hospital and served food to volunteers and Joplin residence. They were able to see first hand some of the destruction and devastation this storm caused. A couple other team members went and did some clean up throughout some neighborhoods. All of them that went out to the disaster zone were moved by what they saw.
Tomorrow the majority of us will spend the day at the warehouse as there is such a need and only seemed to be a few people that would come for a short time.
I was able to meet some amazing people from all over who were spending their Memorial day serving the Joplin people. But maybe even neater was that every group, every person that we worked alongside were with a church. I was reminded once again of the powerful force His Church is when it functions out of love for Him and His people.
Love to see faith in action.

Enough for tonight, time to rest. Thanks for praying for us and please continue to do so.

Til tomorrow…

Day 1

jeffty — Mon, 30 May 2011 18:06:17 +0000

Here are some pictures of the warehouse we have been serving at today. We have been unloading trucks and sorting and finalizing pallets for distribution to those in need.

Joplin Journey

jeffty — Mon, 30 May 2011 05:17:34 +0000

We have been given another chance to go and serve and so….we have arrived in Joplin with a 14 and 24 foot trailer full of supplies donated from the Kearney and Grand Island communities. We have 20 people on our team and we will stay here until Thursday helping load, unload, sort, distribute and do whatever else is needed to help the Joplin community. We hope to be able to go in and do some clean up work but we will wait to see what they need us to do.
Anyway, we made it and we thank you for the prayers. The vehicles and trailers all performed great, now it is time to go to bed.