Sweet [Tornado Ravaged] Alabama

A couple months ago, Alabama was ravaged by a deadly tornado outbreak.  A couple weeks ago, I joined a small group from my church to go there to help with disaster relief efforts.It was very heartbreaking, perspective shifting, and rewarding. 

My favorite part of the trip was spending two days helping a sweet man named Larry in the tiny town of Webster’s Chapel.  He was older and had had open-heart surgery and a hip replacement right before the tornadoes, and his (uninsured) home was completely blown away in the storm.  Webster’s Chapel is off the radar compared to some of the larger cities that had been hit (like Tuscaloosa), so it has much less volunteers, and therefore, sweet Larry had been working on cleaning up the remains of what used to be his home all by himself (so sad!).  He was so grateful to have our help and our company, and we instantly become huge Larry fans.  Despite his horribly unfortunate situation, he had such a positive attitude.  It was so inspiring! Fortunately, he wasn’t in his home when the storm hit, so he didn’t get hurt.  (He kept saying… “I’m alive. That’s the main thing.”).  He is now living with his friend, so thankfully he isn’t completely homeless. 

Our team with sweet Larry (in the striped shirt behind me) and his cousin, Mr. Maxwell. We love Lar!

The second day, Larry’s 77-year-old snarky cousin, Mr. Maxwell, came to help as well, (which was really encouraging to know that he had other people to help him). We were able to make significant progress in sweet Larry’s clean up efforts, but there is still an overwhelming amount to be done.  It was hard to say goodbye to sweet Larry, but we got his mailing address, so we plan on sending him cards from time to time. He definitely will be in my thoughts and prayers for a really long time. 

We also partnered with Samaritan’s Purse and volunteered in Tuscaloosa one day. It was also very sad; entire neighborhoods are just gone.  Somehow the University of Alabama campus barely missed getting hit. We spent the day doing more clean up work for an elderly couple named Charlie and Mary whose home was completely flattened.  They weren't there at the time, so we unfortunately didn't get to make the personal connection with them like we did with Lar.  

The best part of our day in Tuscaloosa was that I got to have a wonderful reunion with two of my darling friends from the Costa Rica summer project I went on in 2008, Wesley and Emma! 

Don't be alarmed... he always makes weird faces. 

After 8+ hour days of intense manual labor in the humid 100 degree heat, I was emotionally/physically exhausted, but so very thankful to be able to help.  I truly had never seen devastation like this. Even if you can't make a trip to Alabama (or Joplin or Oklahoma or anywhere else affected by these deadly storms), here are a few ways you can help. :-)

• You can donate to the "Storm Troopers" (clever name, right?) which is a community led group leading relief efforts in small and severely-in-need-of-help Webster's Chapel by sending contributions to 

          Regions Bank
         510 W. Main St.
         Glencoe, AL 35905
         (256) 492-1361

• You can donate to larger organizations like Samaritan's Purse who have a large team of volunteers set up there. (You can also partner them to come to these affected states and volunteer).
• You can pray for all the people who lost loved ones and everything they owned in these horrible storms (like Larry and Charlie and Mary!). 

Overall, this trip was amazing.  I wish I could go back and do it again. 

Our wonderful group, wonderfully led by Matt and Ellen.

xoxo, 

Annie