Headed Back

Wednesday, June 1
     Headed out with excitement and trepidation.  The kids and I were up early to go to Joplin.  They were pumped and ready to go because they love helping people, however, they didn't quite understand why all those people needed food and such.  Sometimes the pictures on tv don't really help in the understanding process.
     Here's the trepidatious part:  I drove them through the destruction path.  While I worried how they would react to this and that it could be painful, I knew that this was the only way I could truly get them to understand the depth of the despair these people were feeling and the purpose behind our trip to help.  As we drove past the hospital, the stores on Rangeline and the rubble of what used to be homes, their voices went from excitement of seeing the tv pictures for real to awe to horror.  I'm hear to tell you, it is not fun for a parent to listen to those voice changes nor the looks upon their faces.

     Clara and Timothy processed this destruction in different ways.  For Timothy it was seeing some little boy stuff in the mess of houses (although I don't know exactly what it was he saw).  He looks at me with deer in the headlight eyes and says, "Mom.  Did all the boys lose their Wiis and cars?"  When I said yes and told him they'd also lost their trucks and books and beds too, he looked at me and said, "It's good we came to help them shop then."  Clara, my tenderhearted girl, took it all in pointing out the pieces parts and noting what stores were what.  About halfway through the path she looked up at me with tears streaming down her face and said, "Mom.  I think I've had enough.  Can we go now?"

Tents where the families shop!  There are ten large ones!

  For the next eight hours my precious children helped families shop. They made other kids laugh. They prayed with them. They sweated, drank gallons of water and were good as gold. They went out with an adult shopper and I wouldn't see them for an hour. Suddenly, they'd turn up at my side and tell me how their shopping experience had gone. By the end of the day, Clara was good enough at it to take out a young woman and her baby shopping all by herself. My, oh my, how my little girl grew today!

     I grew a bit today too.  My greatest fear is losing one of my children.  Everyone who knows me knows I am super overprotective.  After listening to story after story of how God had spared lives in this tornado, how He had protected them, and how He had provided for them, it came full circle that God could take care of my babies much better than I ever could.  Yeah, yeah.  My DUH moment.  I guess I just needed to see that bigness of God in action.  I allowed my kids to roam around with total stranger and I didn't even know (other than the general vicinity) where they were and they were just fine.  Shoot, maybe even better for it. 
     God tells us in the book of Matthew chapter 7, "(25)For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on.  Is not life more than food, and the body more than cloting?  (26)Look at the birds of the air, they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your Father feeds them.  Are you not worth much more than they?  (27)And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life?" 
     There are a couple of lessons in this passage which I saw in action today.  First off, God's people were feeding and clothing those who had nothing.  While nature took everything away, God was and still is returning it to them.  While they have no jobs, money or places to lay their heads, God is providing for them.  How much are they worth?  Everything in God's book.  Secondly, I learned that my worry will NOT add time in this life, nor will it save my children.  That's God's job.  And that was a huge step for me.
     This video is one I shot in the car just after we had finished our day of being personal shopping assistants.  It's awesome to listen to the kids as they tell me about their day (with a tangent or two) and how it was for them.  From the mouths of babes!