Day 3 - Little Taste of the Joplin Sun!

On day three of our journey, the road took us to a 120 acre farm that was roughly 5 miles from the disaster site.  This field is primarily used for hay and also cattle grazing.  On arrival, the field really didn't look all that bad and we really didn't understand what the need was, but that quickly changed!  In Missouri, they only get one hay cut a year (not really sure what it's like elsewhere, but sounded like a significant fact) and there was no way they could cut the hay with all this debris in the fields.  And once we started walking, we realized there was a TON of debris!  You wouldn't imagine the things we found!  The craziest things we found were three little turtles (alive) just chilling in this wheat field, miles from any water source, crazy.  We also found a ton of baseball cards, football cards, photographs, checks, $10 bill, and probably enough housing material to get a good start on a new (well pieced together) house!  There was actually chunks of sheet rock from someones bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, or whatever many miles away!  It was truly crazy how strong these tornado's are.  We saw a newer car placed in the middle of the soccer field at the high school, we found a car that was lying on it's top and an entire house gone except the front door and on one occasion a porch.

Got a little side tracked there,  but for the second half of the day 1/2 of the team was desperately needed back at the distribution center as they were running behind of getting meals prepared and loading and unloading semi's full of goods coming from all over.  Mean while, Chelsea, Cassie and I stayed out in the field and continued picking up debris.  At one point Chelsea uncovered a Copperhead snake, which got the blood flowing and the excitement up!  But after a few failed strike attempts at the farm hand Trae, the snake retreated and no one was hurt.  We stuck it out in the field until about 3:45 and by that time the three of us were running low on energy and getting headaches, possibly early stages of heat exhaustion (after all it was 95 today and we were in the middle of a wheat field!).  By the time we got back to the Joplin Family Worship Center, Cindy and Ashton were kicking butt in the kitchen helping prepare another 400+ meals along with getting things ready for meals on wheels.  Bob, Dave and Harris were getting pulled from one job to another as it seemed our team was in great demand, whether it was filling grocery carts for people in need, unloading semi's or moving freight.  A little Samoan gall named Kiki was running them into the ground!

After dinner was served and things were under control in the kitchen, we headed out for our second night of Meals on Wheels, and this time we were joined by a family of 5 from Colorado.  Today we split up into two teams and were able to hit just as many houses in about half the time.  Again we heard some amazing stories and some heart breaking stories.  We ran across some familiar faces, and they felt even more blessed today seeing friendly faces someone to talk too.  We got to pray for people, we were able to bless a couple with diapers for the 18 month old, because the parents lost their jobs, tornado destroyed the car and they had few options on picking up supplies.  We also ran into a older man who was trying to side his house and a few of us are heading to his house after work tomorrow to help him anyway we can.  In fact, the man who lost his job and we had to get diapers for, well he is actually a sider by trade so we hired him to come over, bring all his tools and help us out.  We feel it was a win-win situation and these crazy little coincidences only happen because God has a master plan, and by following your heart and his guidance, things will workout.

It was another busy, long, hot day in Joplin, worked for another 12+ hours, but the team rocked again today!

 This is an 80 acre x 80 acre hay farm that we cleaned.  Felt like we were trying empty the ocean using a shovel!

 Watch out for those Tiggers and Chicks...I mean chiggers and ticks :)

 Meals on Wheels with a team from Colorado

Burger King with only Play Land left standing!