On Wednesday (Sept. 21st), we left for Joplin around 7am. It was a pretty long drive, but I got to see a lot of Missouri. (I also had an amazing salad at Wendy's - Apple Pecan Chicken Salad during the trip). There were 13 of us on the trip from my church. I was the youngest of the group which was made up of mostly retirees. Around 4pm, we made it to Joplin and our home for the next few days. We stayed at Abundant Life Christian Center in Joplin. It offered us a place to stay, (outdoor) showers, and 3 meals a day. After we checked in, we had a tour of the town (some of my pictures are posted in my previous post). It was crazy to see. I obviously had no idea what the town looked like pre-tornado, but I had seen a lot of news coverage post-tornado. We were there exactly 4 months after the tornado hit. Most of the debris had been cleaned up. There were a lot of foundations around the town that no longer had houses upon them. The trees were also really interesting looking. The tops of the trees looked as though they had been pulled off with ease leaving just the larger extensions from the trunk. You can see the signs of growth and renewal though. Many of the trees are covered in new leaves. The leaves have not just sprouted from the top but from all parts of the existing tree - they look like something in a Tim Burton movie or Dr. Seuss book. A lot of the damage was cleaned up and they had recently put up the power lines again. Some roads were still without street signs though so they were labeled with spray paint on the ground, retaining wall etc. Many damaged businesses had new location information spray painted on their damaged buildings. Some houses also had house numbers or other information on them. The biggest damage we saw that had not been cleaned up was probably the high school. We also saw the hospital - we could not get as close to the hospital though. The damage to the big buildings was insane. It was so odd to see such huge buildings torn apart. It was also strange to compare different areas where the tornado hit - in a few places one side of the street was totally empty and the other side looked relatively unharmed. After our tour and many pictures, we had dinner at Panera and went back to ALCC to get settled and to have devotions.
The first morning (Thur) was a bit confusing. We thought that ALCC would have more things for us to do, but we learned that they provided some information about opportunities, but we had to contact the leader and figure out what work they needed from us. The group split up that morning. I went to a meal site started by a pastor that had been serving meals since the tornado hit. We helped to unload some donations (so many toothbrushes (seriously, I should have taken a real picture of all of them) and tp!). We also helped with lunch (well, we tried - they usually have a lot of construction workers and volunteers that come, but it was raining that day so we had a very low turnout. We worked with Chef Bob that day. Bob had been traveling and doing different service since he lost his family and home when Katrina hit. We also met a women who told us a lot about her tornado experience. She showed us pictures, answered our questions, and told us all about it. She could not stop talking about the tornado - she talked about her mother that still had nightmares about it and could not move back into her home after it was repaired. I think my favorite part of the trip was hearing people's stories. I wish I would have asked people more questions, but now I know that for my next mission trip!
In the afternoon, we met some other members of our group at a warehouse that was setting up for a school supply/book "sale" for local teachers. We got to open and organize boxes and boxes of books. We also met a few volunteers from CA that day as well as some local teachers. Some of their schools did not suffer damage, but some of them were shopping for their students who had lost their homes. It was neat to hear their stories.
After a lot of book-sorting, we headed back 'home' for a pasta dinner (yum!!) (well, after stopping at Culver's for custard).
http://rebuildjoplin.org/
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