A Week Ago Today. Friday.

This is our last day on site. It weighs in the back of everyone's mind to do all that we can. We are 2 people short as Andy is out with a shoulder that he aggravated destroying Sams computer yesterday. Ricky is still out with a stomach bug. The crew is strangely determined on the road to Joplin. We arrive at Sam's Place just after 0815. We start back on all the jobs that we left yesterday. Sam shows up and brings with him that inimitable spirit. That drive. That thing that gives me the utmost confidence that Joplin will continue going strong. The town and it's people have taken a hit, but it's getting right back up and moving on. He gets Josh and Joseph to help him out in the basement, where his life was saved just over 2 months before. He shows them the spot where he stayed with his hands over his ears for what seemed like an eternity. He stops several times to examine things that have been damaged, surveying, deciding what to keep and what to throw away. He gives Josh a couple of old books. The smell is overpowering and they all three must don face masks. They keep bringing up box after box of stuff, some staying, most going. The guys that have been working on the backyard are keeping a great pace. It creeps into my mind that maybe we won't finish today. But we all decided early on that we were going to finish what we came to do.
The morning ends rather quickly, and suddenly we're back at the high school for our last lunch there. I see a guy with a shirt that has a ministry name and logo on it strike a match and light a cigarette. I shake my head at what I think is an incorrect picture. However, after lunch as I ask around as to who the owner of the ministry that is providing the lunches for all the volunteers is and I am pointed in HIS direction. I begin to taste a little bit of my own size 10 shoe. I walk over to hand an envelope with a donation to him, and I note an elderly woman talking to the founder. She keeps questioning him about something, I am trying not to intrude, but being outside in a relatively small area I can hear that she is crying and asking about cost of something, and insurance worries. He keeps telling her that the shed they are going to provide her is completely taken care of. Their ministry is going to all the ravaged homes and picking up any reusable wood and making storage sheds for them. They are putting solar panels on them for power, since much of the city is still without. They are providing them to anyone who has had a house demolished by the storm as quickly as they can get them made. The list is long. She then asks how she is supposed to get the shed to her land, and he tells her that it is taken care of, as long as they have her address, she will have a shed, at this she bursts into tears and thanks him over and over. I stand back as she hugs the owner, whose name I can't recall, and he just holds her and comforts her, and I just stand back and watch this pure ministry. He may have a habit that disagrees with me, but this has shown me a bit of something else; just because someone doesn't come in the cookie cutter image of what WE think they should be doesn't mean that God won't use them in a mighty way. (I included that little bit because due to the work that I do it's become VERY easy for me to box people up in neat little categories and write them off, and God showed me here that I still have SO much to learn.)
I get the crew back to the work site and the fact that we actually have a deadline today sets in. If this crew was a group of fighters before, they are absolute WARRIORS today. They tear into each job that they have been assigned with a fervor that I have never witnessed. They aren't doing it for pay, or for recognition, they are doing it to help a man they have known for mere hours. We all are MOVING. Bricks are flying and piled and thrown away. The mortar is piled and shoveled and thrown. Wheelbarrow load after wheelbarrow load is piled high and disposed of. I literally have to pull people to take breaks. To drink water, to get something in their system. It's the coolest of our 4 days on site but their shirts are the most drenched that I have seen them. They take short breaks and even as the clouds gather over head (the first in more than a few days, Sam tells us) the sweat flows. We're working like madmen trying to get as much done as possible. A man drives up and asks if we can sweep off his foundation next door, Josh jumps on that with Ian and Will. The rest of us are either helping Sam or clearing his back yard. The huge pile of bricks is gone and the deck is disassembled. The trash has been raked from his place and the curb is full of all of his belongings that were too big for him to mess with on his own. Young lady and Man alike, all are FILTHY and the sweat leaves little mud tracks down their faces and arms and legs. Shirts that started the day stark bleached white are brown to the last thread. Shorts and pants are sweat through everywhere and dirty from the dirt. Then, right at three oclock, on the button, a bright flash of lightning splits the sky and after a few seconds thunder shakes the ground. We survey the yard and side lot, every bit of what we could have accomplished is done. The only thing really left is for Sam to continue to sort through the belongings that are all on his foundation covered in tarps or in his basement. We begin to contemplate leaving, the circumstance being that we are on the upslope of a hill and being the tallest things in a 2 mile radius. As tho punctuating our reluctant decision to call it a day, lightning strikes even closer and the thunder is IMMEDIATE and amazing. The power behind these things is no longer lost on me. We all say our goodbyes to Sam and get handshakes and hugs in return. His last words to us are cut short by another booming, blinding display from the sky and rain starts to fall. As he turns to leave he tells us that this is the first rain they have had in weeks. As we board the van we can see for all around the dryest dirt rising from the ground as the rain hits. The deluge begins. We head home.

We arrive at the church just before the storm. We all opt to stay at the church and get some rest that night, and we have another worship time and go around the room talking about the things that the Lord has shared with us on this trip. I am humbled and amazed at the things that this group shares. I will try and get some of the youth to send me a small piece on what they learned and shared and get it on here for you. We start to get  everything loaded up into the van except what we will need in the morning. The elation that we will get to see our families and friends tomorrow are dampened only by the fact that we all (to the last person) wish that we had more time here. More time with Sam, or Mr. Smith his neighbor. With the Atteberrys. Even after I watched them give their all, this group still wants to give more. I could not be more proud. Our God is such a Good God. We hit the hay. Sleep comes quite easily.