It was driven home to me when my friend called from India to see if we were okay. She's a half a world away and has seen some of the devastation.
Jake and I have been eager to do something (other than buying pampers, wipes and toothbrushes). We wanted to "get our hands dirty" and be involved in some tangible way. Friday I took the boys to Mimi JuJu's house so that we'd be free all day Saturday. I wanted to be able to spend myself on some service - not just give an hour here or there. When I lead mission trips, I encourage people to spend themselves completely where they are. What are we saving it (our energy, compassion, etc) for?
We headed out the door and met with a group of about 300 to do some work in Concord, AL. I'll attempt to post some photos so you can see for yourself but there was total devastation.
The organization we worked through, Hands On, was very organized. They handed out gloves and tarps to workers that would need them. Tetanus shots were available at the work site. City buses were contracted to drive us in and out of Concord (which is not open unless you are working to clear debris there).
The wait on the buses seemed like hours but around 10:30 or so they dropped us off. We walked to the first area (a carpet business). There were steel beams, trees and remnants of carpet everywhere. We were supposed to take materials and make piles close to the road; metal, wood, carpet, etc. We immediately got to work and it wasn't long before I came across a trail of stamped checks. I asked the leader if I should bag them up so she went to get a bag. While she was gone, I followed the trail which led to literally thousands of checks, papers, files and what used to be the office. I found the microwave (which was folded almost in half) and Christmas decorations, photos, etc. After about 5 giant sized garbage bags, we hit paperwork that was so wet it was indiscernable.
A man drove around in a truck handing out Sneaky Pete's hotdogs that had been donated. Another man drove his 4-wheeler with a trailer behind it loaded down with water for volunteers. After about an hour and a half, the piles by the road were taller than me and the leaders moved us across the street and then up the hill.
We started working on a house where 6 people had survived the tornado by hiding under their porch. They dug themselves out. We loaded bricks, moved snapped trees, Jake was wise enough to bring a hammer and a leatherman that he used to pull larger pieces of wood apart and cut the endless amount of wires that ran through the debris.
I would carry a piece of wood, take it to the road and head back to the general area where I was to get another piece. I was getting tired and stopped to look up for a minute. For as far as you could see there was nothing but the same thing - timber, parts of a home, a baby crib knocked under a tree, bricks. It seemed ENDLESS and overwhelming. It seemed like I had been moving pieces for hours and there was still so much left!
At some point, I began to realize that there were very personal items in the mass of trees, timber, and debris. The men used chainsaws to cut wood. Other men and women would carry the heavy pieces out. I was feeling pretty overwhelmed and found that I felt more useful picking up personal items like teddy bears, barbie dolls, baseball cards, clothes, unmatched shoes, toys and photos,. Another lady and I laid out a tarp and began a "personal" pile for families to dig through if and when they would ever return to the rubble.
As we moved further up the hill we came to a house that used to be across the street. Now it was moved and smashed to pieces. The only discernable part of the house was about a 5 foot section of the shower wall that was not completely knocked over.
I found greeting cards and books and more personal items so I started a new pile. I found a plastic bag full of baby boys clothes. There was a deflated "Happy First Birthday" balloon and party napkins, books and "how to play the guitar" pamphlets. I heard a lady talking to some girls about the house. It belonged to her sister and brother-in-law. They had recently adopted a little boy and it would be her sister's first Mother's Day. The brother-in-law had bought her a ring and put it in his bedside table before the tornado. When the tornado hit, the house was moved across the road and the three of them were knocked out of the house onto the field. When the sister came to, she looked over at her husband and he reached out his hand for her. Then they heard their little boy crying not far from them. They all had broken bones and could not move.
The brother-in-law was released from the hospital on Friday and was headed back to the neighborhood to see if he could find the ring. I went to get Jake to see if he could help us look through the rubble. This was Saturday and Mother's Day was the next day. We looked and looked but the house was in ruins. There was a terrible smell coming from the middle of the pile (either the refrigerator or possible one of the pets the family owned).
As the leaders called for us to load up buses, I tried to find what I could. We saw the sister again and Jake asked if we could pray with her. We did and then started to head off. But she stopped us and took something out of the pile to hand to us. It was a devotion book her sister had published a few years ago. She had gotten family members and friends to each write down something of what God was teaching them and had it published so that she could pass it down for future generations.
This lady pulled a devotional book about the faithfulness of God out of a pile of tornado-ridden rubble and handed it to us as a gift. She said, "I want you to have this".
How humbling?! I'd been sorting through their rubble to pull out personal items to "rescue" for them and we were given a precious gift from that pile of debris.
It was one of the best Mother's Days I have had. I was able to work alongside Jake as we served people whose faces we'll likely never see. I was spent. I poured out everything I had and fell asleep on the bus as we waited to head back to our cars.
I don't know if they ever found the ring. I imagine they look at life differently now, anyway. I know I do.
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