Faith Journey Life Journey

I’ll just dive right in with today’s entry, dear reader, as we did with today’s work. After breakfast and after the men moved all their gear out of the sanctuary so HUMC could have Sunday morning worship, we had a bright-and-early 7:00am start at Jim’s farm. We spoke with him for a moment as he expressed his gratitude for our service, then we headed down to his ditches and a field to sweep them for debris.

Someone’s Life in the Ditch

We pulled beams, boards, sheetrock, branches, roots, rocks, twisted pieces of metal, cookie tins, furniture pieces, shoes, clothes, underpants, toys, and a lot more out of those places. It’s a testament to one of the great truths of a tornado: when it enters your life, it truly does spill it all out for everyone to see. We were pulling items out of the ditch three months after the tornado; imagine how much was already removed before we got there. Now think about all of the stuff in your house, all of it, splayed out for the neighbors to not only see but for them to pick up for you. A tornado makes your life an open book and that’s out of your control. I get the sense that the loss of control is one of the most difficult things to struggle with in the midst of such tragedy.

John’s Show

Next, we headed over to John’s farm just down the road. We’d been told ahead of time that John intended to “put on a show for us,” tell us his story. It’s exactly what he did.

The night of the storm, John was in his home, his wife in Arizona visiting their grown children. He saw there was a storm coming but didn’t think about heading to the basement until his neighbor, Jim, called him and said he’d better head down.

Good thing, too. The storm took away nearly everything. Machine shed was gone. Grain bins were gone. Implement equipment mangled into useless pieces. John called his children from his spot underneath a heavy, slatted pool table. That’s where he took shelter when the first tornado hit. He looked up at the rain and watched it clear until he could see the stars and feel the calm quiet. It was quiet enough his children on the other end of the line could clearly hear the bricks falling one by one. Then the line went dead. That’s when he knew something was really wrong – the second tornado was on its way.

What didn’t get wrecked by the first one did by the second. All that was left was the remnants of the house, now uninhabitable, and two old corn cribs, the sort of older grain storage buildings that don’t get used by farmers anymore – the sort you’d wish had been blown away instead of the rest of the buildings and grain bins. But that, like so much in the midst of a tornado, is not something one has any control over.

“It was just like you see on TV,” John added. “Just like it.”

John couldn’t get out of his house on his own. The house shifted, torn from its foundation, leaving John with a view of the stars but no way to leave. The bricks of the basement caved in all around him. Neighbors came after a half hour or so spent in isolation, praying, and dug him out of the basement. When he finally emerged, John saw much of his property torn up and saw a lot of his neighbor Jim’s farm strewn throughout his own fields.

Down the road, his brother, Gerald, lost everything. As for John’s wife, she went online while she was in Arizona and found a house in town to buy. John took a look at it, cashed the insurance check, and bought it. When John’s wife came back into town, she went right to the new house and helped get it ready. Finally, she came back out to the farm and cried for an hour. She saw their whole life and the arm her husband was born in completely wiped out.

John added two more pieces to the story before we cleared out his fields. He said the reporter from the Pocahontas Democrat who said his shoes had been sucked off by the tornado was a fabrication. True, he’d emerged from the basement without shoes on and without a coat (his brother, Ben, worked at the Town & Home and opened it up so people could buy midnight provisions). He wasn’t wearing shoes because he didn’t have time to put any on. The other thing John said really sticks with me:

“I spent a year in Vietnam,” John said. “This was scarier. Over there, you were with friends. Here, I was alone.”

The Roof! The Roof! The Roof Is All Finished!

A small crew including Loretta, Molly, Jacob, and Jake headed back to Verina to help Chris, Geri’s son Luke and one of his friends, and others finish up the shingling job on City Hall. The job was completed faster than the team expected and it felt good to get the surprise of actually not having to leave the job half-finished before we left.

Several Verina residents drove by, too, honking their horns and waving in recognition of the group’s hard work. Some residents even stepped out to personally say ‘thank you.’ It was a rewarding time, fully understanding how people have been watching us work and appreciate what we are doing.

Hospitals and R&R

I took a quick trip into town to drop Dan off at the hospital after getting a small foot puncture from a nail while cleaning up Jim’s ditches. At around that time, Brenda bid us farewell and headed back to Minnesota to help prepare for Vacation Bible School at Excelsior UMC (which we’ve since come to learn is, unfortunately, having to be postponed due to anticipated outdoor heat levels this week). Meanwhile, the crew finished at John’s and I brought Dan back in time to head back to Jim’s and do another sweep of both the ditches and fields.

Lunch was at the coveted Pizza Ranch restaurant, a beloved pit stop of many LYFE Camp counselors. The field crew went after showers while the roofing crew went before, swapping the shower key as one group entered and one group left. Also leaving was Jake and Justin, brothers, who had to head back to Minnesota a little early.

The afternoon was going to be filled with activities and a trip to the pool. Instead… the group was dog tired, once again. After some napping, some laughter playing electronic Family Feud, some friendly competition with Catchphrase, a group of folks swung over to the Dollar General for snacks and shopping. One youth rented Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 7.1 and the group watched it (I wanted to but a nap culled me away; I have yet to see it, so no spoilers in your comments!).

Dinner was another epic-sized meal provided by members of HUMC. The menu consisted of lasagna, garlic bread, salad, and more dessert bars than anyone could ever handle in a lifetime. We spent some time relaxing after dinner and had our processing meeting / worship before the evening was through. We talked about trying to be “little Christs” in the world and take our ability to do good care for others back home with us in our everyday lives. Hopefully, we can live up to that challenge as much as possible (though parents, perhaps go easy on the chore list for the youth for at least 24 hours; let them catch up on some sleep!).

More Hip Hop Than You’d Think…

The evening ended for Steve, Dave, Dan, and Kent with around 700 pieces placed in a 1000-piece puzzle. The evening ended for Loretta, me, and a majority of the youth at the Teen Dance at the County Fairgrounds Expo Center, now clear of all of its exhibits and vendors. Everyone danced the night away (well, an hour of it, anyway) before we headed home, tired out and ready for our final day of work.

Tomorrow, we rise up for a 7:00am start and once again, working a few fields for farmers. As always, your comments are appreciated and read to the group as “letters from home” and we’ll probably have time to read them before we head out at around 1:00pm on Monday.

Regards,

Nate