Joplin Thursday

Thursday was the hardest day, for me, by far.  Our small painting group was divided into one group that would finish the painting, now that the gentleman in the basement was gone, and one group would go with that same homeowner to her storage unit to clean up "tornado vomit" on her belongings.  I would lead the "vomit" group.  This meant I would take a college leader and 8 students or so to the owners storage unit across town. 

The homeowner came with us to the unit.  We were to take all of her belongings out of the unit and wipe it down. There were tiny bits of debris (tornado vomit) over most of her things. I learned so much about the affects of the storm.  She had to throw away all plastic containers as there was fear that asbestos was spread as homes were destroyed.  There was also a concern that nasty bacteria was spread as the hospital was destroyed.  She had to throw away cooking items that could not be properly cleaned. 

I was reminded of how precious little things are.  We opened a box and the homeowner cried as she discovered pictures of a loved one that had recently passed away.  We prayed over her and continued working.  I learned that the homeowner was an artist.  We laughed and she was embarrassed as we found a nude painting that she had done.  She told us the story behind almost every object.  Every object was a little piece of her life "before the storm". I talked with her throughout the day and I was impressed with how resilient we humans can be.

Not only was it an emotionally grueling day, it was also physically grueling.  It was over 105 degrees outside.  We were working on a black asphalt surface with no shade.  It literally felt like we were in an oven. Though we were beyond dirty an sweaty, we met the rest of our group at a local Baptist church where Samaritan's Purse fed us dinner.

The dinner at Samaritan's purse was amazing.  Not only were we hungry, but we had not eaten enough protein through the week.  This has to be fixed the next time we take a trip like this.  I dare say, that chicken was the best I had ever had.  It was wonderful to go eat somewhere and not have to cook for 34.

After dinner, we debriefed with the other two groups at the Samaritan's Purse dinner.  They were from Utah and another group from Colorado. I will never forget this little meeting.  It was there we were told about the "Butterfly People".  Around Joplin there are murals painted on some of the walls downtown.  Many of them contain butterflies.  This was asked about and the reply was amazing.  MANY of the children claimed to see "butterfly people" that protected them during the storm.  So many children saw them. I fully believe these "butterfly people" were angels.  You can read hundreds of stories about this if you put in "Joplin, tornado, butterfly people" on your browser. The story that impacted me the most was about a four year old little boy that was found in a chest freezer, alive, three days after the storm, miles away from where the storm hit.  When he was asked how he got in there he replied, "the man with wings put me in there". 

I missed our own debriefing on this night as I had a student who had had an allergic reaction to a bug bite.  I gave her Benadryl and it basically knocked her out.  I think she needed the rest, but I missed going to the church as I didn't want to leave her alone, in the house.  I stayed behind and did my own reflection. I thought about how Granny would not last much longer.  I thought about how surprising it was that she lasted this long. I thought about how proud she would be to know what God was doing in my life that week.

It turned out that the debriefing I missed was amazing.  One of our students accepted Christ and another shared his personal testimony. It was very moving and I think, one of the main reasons we came to Joplin.