Joplin: Day 2

There are more guest bloggers tonight from the Youth that are on the trip here in Joplin. Here's what some of them have to say about today.


Name: Chayne Standage
Age: 16
Blog Post:
Well, I wasn’t sure if I was up-to-date on my tetanus...a nail head broke skin so I got my shot. I had fun though, I never realized that sledgehammers are great anger management tools!


Name: Isabella Ulesich
Age: 15
Blog Post:
Mike did the work of 20 people. He is a man.


Name: Christopher Dade
Age: 15
Blog Post:
Two more people have been shot. Lunch time seems to be the time to get shot.
Total number of people that have been shot now stands at 4. The nail club now has six members. Today we worked on pulling apart a house that got blown against the one next door. This involved standing on an unstable mountain of debris and pulling everything from boards with lots of nails to odd items such as a sink from on top of the other house. We wielded sledge hammers and bashed up parts of the floor with gigantic boards. We also employed a rope several times to pull down several walls. Almost everything we pulled was boards, and almost all of those were filled with nails. It was bound to happen that someone would step on a nail at some point and, in fact it happened several times. My prediction came true. The question is now who won’t have to get a shot.


Name: Aralai Chowfin
Age: 17
Blog Post:
I’ve lost count of how many little injuries there have been so far! Lots of people have been attacked by nails and Tony now has a tiny scratch above his ear, but thankfully none of them have been serious and we’re making progress. Mike is a beast and has pulled down a few walls with his own brute strength. He’s officially our youth group’s version of Chuck Norris. Patty Is wonderful and talked to us during devo time, which was really great. She shared a few of her life experiences and the lessons she learned from them: trusting in God through the toughest times, pushing through them with His help, and continuing on to do His work in our lives. It’s always good for us youth to meet other members of our church who can pass on their experiences to us, so thank you Patty and Mike!


Name: Anthony Rios
Age: 18
Blog Post:
There are a few things that stuck out today to me. One was Patty’s devotional talk to our youth. One of the major things that I took from her message is: Why are we down in Joplin? And trust God through all the tough times. Another thing that I saw today was our house, or shall I say houses, that we worked on today. We worked on a house that was taken by the tornado and blown up against another house. The site was unbearable to see. What did us youth do? We immediately formed an assembly line and started taking debris and other items to the curb. The technique and the team work of SUMC Youth was amazing! How can I forget MIKE! Do I get started on our strength of the pack. There are no words to explain the brute strength and faith that Mr. Lenahan has for working here in Joplin! There is also another thing that I read today. It read: HOPE HIGH SCHOOL. This was at what was left of Joplin High School. The sign was missing the J, I, and N. But in place was the H and E. Unbelievable!


Name: Hadley Lunn
Age: 17
Blog Post:
This week has been extremely powerful so far. When I began raking debris and remains of the house at our first work site, the first major thing I noticed tangled in the rubble was a little girls princess dress. I was amazed at how such a small, insignificant thing could have such a powerful impact on me. This is so real. We recognize how horrible this event was from the news and reports, but it becomes so much more real when we were able to dig (literally) into the lives of those effected. I definitely feel like our group has grown closer this week to each other and to God and I can’t wait to reflect on the week as a whole to see how we were each impacted by this experience.


Also, Patti Randolph wanted me to give a quick shout out to two certain, very important people in her life.  I'm sure you know who you are.