This will be a little unusual. I just received the daily email from the church office. It does a pretty good job of showing what life is like around here. So I thought I’d post it and then add a couple of brief reflections. I’ve replaced personal names with “***” for the sake of privacy.
ALL OF YOU –VOLUNTEERS ARE NEEDED TO UNLOAD AND SORT WHEN THESE TRUCKS COME IN:
**WED: A truck will arrive about 9am from Indiana
**WED: C of C Disaster Response semi trucks will drive in about 9am.
**FRI: Feed the Children semi trucks will be here at 9am Friday. We can use volunteers to help unload.
**SAT: A semi is coming from Tennessee.
Also on Friday, a load of hamburger patties and other food is coming from Franklin, TN.
CELEBRATE RECOVERY will meet tonight, 6:30PM, CVA.
UPDATE ON MEMBERS AND FRIENDS:
Contrary to what was in the Missing Persons list in the morning paper, *** is alive and well! She has been helping with relief.
The trees that fell on the homes of the ***, ***, ***, ***, *** have been removed.
***’s home was destroyed and she plans to rebuild. She is staying with her sister.
***’s apartment was destroyed. She and her husband *** (he’s in the service) were here this past Sunday.
***’ home was destroyed. They have had several offers of apartments or homes.
***was evacuated from her home in Alberta. She is staying with the ***.
The Victory Harvest Center was severely damaged. The men have been housed at ***’ home.
FREE CLEAN-UP AND REPAIR SERVICE next weekend:
About 500 men will arrive in the area next weekend to offer help and relief to residents who have property that needs to be cleaned up or made ready for eventual restoration. They will have chain saws, axes, rakes and other tools. They are offering their services at no charge, but an ASSESSMENT AND WORK ORDER must be filled out. We have forms in the office. Please take advantage of this if you have a need, or tell a friend they can pick up a form at the building.
SYMPATHY:***’s father, ***, passed away this morning at UAB. We extend our sympathy to *** and their family.
THREE SHELTERS NEED THESE ITEMS. Please take directly them to the shelter (not our building).
The Belk Center at Bowers Park needs hand sanitizer and Clorox wipes.
Daystar Church (3975 Watermelon Road in Northport) and Holy Spirit Church (733 James I Harrison Pkwy in Tuscaloosa) need these items: Diapers, diaper bags, wipes, infant Tylenol, gas relief drops, bottles, powdered formula, razors
And I also received this email:
If people call and want to know what to donate, please tell them (nicely) we are not accepting any more donations this week. We have reached the saturation point and do not have room to store items. We WILL accept monetary donations.
Please thank them and ask them to call next week because the needs in the community keep changing.
Finally, I’ve also been told that we can no longer accept donations of clothing. (They may be donated to many other churches and charities in town.) We’ve received more than we can sort and distribute.
Now there are several subtexts you won’t see in the emails unless you know the people. The sharing of homes crosses racial and economic lines. Victory Harvest Center, destroyed by the tornado, was a residential addiction recovery center — and one of our families took their residents in.
Daystar Church, mentioned in the first announcement, is Pentecostal. Holy Spirit Church is Catholic. Everyone is cooperating without regard to denomination or who gets the credit.
We are literally receiving more truckloads of donations that we can sort and distribute. It’s all needed, but we need to slow the pace or else keep the trailers on site until we can free up some storage space. I knew my brothers and sisters to be a generous people, but I never imagined we’d receive so very much so very fast — especially given how many other communities are also in need of aid. I’m just amazed.
I can’t adequately express the gratitude of my church, its members, and those receiving this aid. It’s truly overwhelming to see so much generosity bestowed on strangers in the name of Jesus. And it’s just so encouraging to have so many people show up eager to work, asking for nothing but a floor to sleep on.
Drive around town (if you have the patience to fight the traffic), and you’ll be astonished at the number of Christian relief organizations. Indeed, nearly every organized volunteer organization has Christian roots. Ask anyone with a chain saw why he’s there, and he’ll tell you about the love of Jesus and explain the importance of loving our neighbors. Jesus is alive, well, and working hard in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
I just loved this! You guys are sooo pleasing to the Father and the Son!
The Son of Man Will Judge the Nations
31 “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. 33 And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. 34 Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: 35 for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; 36 I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’
37 “Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? 38 When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? 39 Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ 40 And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’
41 “Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: 42 for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; 43 I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’
44 “Then they also will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ 45 Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ 46 And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
Jay,
Thanks for the updates and information. You are all in our prayers. I have been where you are now. A little over three years ago a EF-4 tornado ripped through Macon Co. and killing several and damaging over 250 homes. I headed up our relief center at the church and it was an incredible experience.
The church in Lafayette was undamaged which gave us a wonderful opportunity to serve our friends and neighbors. The good that will come from your efforts will be untold but God will know.
Our community was brought closer together than it has ever been and the love and support from those world wide was truly amazing. In the relief center we had our members working side by side with, Catholics, Baptist, Methodist, Church of God and even nonbelievers. Working together for the common good of those in need. It was a wonderful experience and many lasting friendships were forged.
Keep up the good work. Believe me it is far from being over.
PS. There is a wonderful program designed for kids to help them deal with the trauma of disasters. We used it following the tornado here and found it to be very helpful for them. If you are interested in it please let me know and I will get you that information.
Please send me the info for children and I'll forward to the right peopleSent from my iPhone
Jesus is alive and and well in His believers and Satan is trembling!
Jay,
I tried to update you on tornado goings on in north east Alabama but couldn’t get past your security measures. All I have for Internet service is my IPhone so maybe that was a problem. There’s a lot of good work going on at Guntersville CofC. We started a food program and are feeding around 800 people per day. I think we have grilled a ton of chicken so far. We feed anyone who shows up at the building and carry food to shelters, nursing homes and mental health residential centers. Our clothing benevolence house is also busy. There’s just a lot of good work going on at all of Churches in north Alabama.
My house is going to require a structural evaluation. I’d appreciate prayers that we will be able to fix the damage without tearing it down. Thanks and God Bless!
Doug,
Thanks for the update. Readers should recall that there were several tornados and straight-line wind storms that did a lot of damage in other communities besides Tuscaloosa. Tuscaloosa got hit the hardest and so gets most of the press, but Tuscaloosa suffered only a fraction of the total damage that hit the state.
I’ve been impressed at how many Churches of Christ (and churches of all stripes) have opened their hearts and their pocketbooks to help people in need. The Spirit is moving powerfully among us.