Dedicated to Joplin, Missouri

Joplin, Missouri is a resilient city. I visited Joplin with a group of 10 individuals from the Presbyterian Church in Morristown two weeks ago. It was an incredible experience. The city faced a devastating level 6+ tornado. For me the surprising part of being in Joplin was that like many other social situations, such as poverty, homelessness, etc, one could avoid seeing the impacts of the tornado. The storm only hit part of the city. However, unlike other types of social situations everyone wanted to work towards rebuilding the city or at least helping those who were aiding in the clean-up effort.

We split up the type of work we did throughout the week. In the morning, we were out in the field sorting through the remains of individual houses and separating materials (wood, metal, vegetative debris, household items) and valuables to be put back on the foundations of the houses. Often we could not go onto the actual house foundations, we needed special permission to clean up the actual house. We did this for a couple hours. Then we went to lunch which was distributed by local churches or restaurants. One day we had Jambalaya: a chicken, sausage, rice dish. It was good! In the afternoons, we usually went to a distribution center and helped sort and/or organize donated items. On Wednesday, we went to plant a rosebush in  memory of Trig--a tornado victim. We expected to stay for an hour or so but stayed all afternoon. Our day ended at a ranch in Oklahoma that hosts camps for at-risk youth.

Check out this video of before and after the tornado: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWLvve8KN20&feature=share.
*I have to note that there were hundreds of volunteers in Joplin. We were but one group! Thank you everyone who joined in the "miracle of the human spirit."
*Here is a link to pictures: https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=CallowayPastorRN&target=ALBUM&id=5623362867743826625&authkey=Gv1sRgCLvU0pGNrYnlEg&feat=email