Hope in Rubble

On May 22nd, 2011, Joplin, MO was hit by a massive EF-5 tornado. With winds surpassing 250 mph and the twister reaching one mile long, this destructive force of nature wiped out half the city of Joplin within a very short time. Now 3 months later, the city is still in need of a lot of help. Although the majority of clean up has been done, the task ahead to rebuild seems a little daunting.

(The back of what's left of Joplin High School)

I was at the Americorps office at a little after 7 AM, gross, and quickly was paired up with a volunteer Lutheran church group from Dubuque, Iowa. Sometimes it seems like the media portrays Christians and just a bunch of hypocritical and judgmental bible-thumpers and it's easy to start believing this stereotype. However, all the volunteers and volunteer groups outside of Americorps and the Red Cross were all Protestants or Catholics, whether going solo or in a small group. I honestly was surprised by this. Without knowing who I was or anything about my history, this group of short term 'missionaries' took me under their wing with the hospitality of the Good Samaritan. They gave me a place to stay, giving up their own bed, bought me dinner, and sent me away with little care package items.

The girls of the group decided to spend the second half of the day out of the sun doing data entry. The whole morning we were lifting cinder blocks, chimney bricks, dry wall, 2x6s--whatever was left of a demolished house. The heat index was over 100 and we were all covered from head to toe in dirt and sweat. I decided to finish the manual labor with the men and I'm sure glad I did. The original owner of the house had come by during our lunch to pick up a piece of pipe: a souvenir of the work he had spent in putting the house together. Now he was standing over a barren lot with only a few bits and pieces of insulation and porcelain. I can't imagine the grief. At 76 years old, he isn't the healthiest men, he explained, so that's why he had been unable to do the clean up himself. He teared up when he pointed out where they put the Christmas tree during the holidays. He talked about how his kids and his grandkids and great grandchildren had been raised in this house of love and how how broken he was that it was all gone.

However, he didn't break down until he talked about how *grateful* he was. "I'm just gonna have cry, I'm sorry. God's love..." He stopped to wipe away his tears, "I'm just so lucky. God is so GOOD to me. This is just a house. But he changed me. My heart. God is good." More tears followed.

A man who had lost the house he had spent decades in all in the matter of a few minutes, could not contain the tears because of the hope he found in God.

I'm not retelling this story to try to preach and demand conversion to whatever branch of Protestant Christianity this man was a member of. I even debating retelling this story due to that reason exactly. But this man's joy, despite obvious pain, was too incredible not to share. An evangelical Christian in Joplin was the first person to ask me why I had religion in my survey of happiness. It seemed like he wanted to add in why you should be Christian in one of his sermons. I said honestly: It doesn't matter what religion you are. As long as you are faithful to that religion, you will love longer and happier. Why?

Hope changes everything. Therefore, live in hope!