Still no stomach bug. John and Mitchell have had a little cold the past week, but so far so good. I'm not counting it out completely, because Grandmother kept Trevor last Wednesday and Thursday and she ended up having it a couple days through Saturday night, then Mitchell was over there yesterday, so hopefully she had disinfected her house. HAHA Pawpaw didn't catch it, so I'm sure everyone is in the clear now.
Well yesterday was quite an experience, something I hope to do more in the future on one hand, but on the other hand, you wish devastating things like tornadoes didn't happen. Our church pastors and about 20 others went to Macon County to help out with food, clothing, and clean up. Four of John's FCA girls wanted to help out so they came along as well. When we arrived at the church they took us girls and divided us up. Three of them worked on sorting clothes and then the other girl and I worked on making food kits and sorting through new food that came in. I honestly thought that I would be working outside all day when we first got there, but I'm really glad that I got to help out at the church too because they really needed some help. You would have thought those people had won the lottery when they saw us all coming in. They were so excited. One of the first things a man said to us was..."we were so worried today because we knew we didn't have any help, then you guys showed up." God ALWAYS provides! So us four girls were sorting/packing until about lunchtime, then they all had to leave for a basketball game. The guys John, Daniel, David, Craig, & Tommy were all sent to a church members house first thing in the morning to help clear out some trees, so they all showed back up at the church around lunchtime. I think the rest of the church crew showed up around 10-ish and they headed down Akersville Rd, which was where most of the devastation was. So after our bunch all ate we headed back out to the same area. The first place we stopped was at a house that really didn't have that much damage to it, besides windows, doors, shingles, and some foundation problems, but FEMA declared it liveable. But their main issue was trees. It was on four acres and i think about 3 of those were all trees in the back. Noone actually lived in this house. The man that did live there passed away about a year ago, so his family members were there. But the lady said that they think the tornado sort of split there in the backyard once it hit all of those trees, so everything it had been carrying along for who knows how many miles was dropped in their yard. So there was a lot of tree cutting and raking to be done. Side note: FEMA will only haul stuff off if its right next to the road, so everything had to be hauled to the side of the road.
I'm so glad God lead us to the next ladies house. Us 6 were the first to arrive at this house. As soon as we asked a lady if they needed help, her face just lit up and said sure (it wasn't even her house, she was the cousin of the lady who lived there) So when we get out the cousin is telling us how they were just talking about how big of a project it was going to be getting the fence row cleaned up and all of the trees/limbs hauled to the road. She said all her church could really do was pray, and she said we just needed hands. Well we brought them hands, about 40 hands I would say. Later on the same lady was telling us, with tears in her eyes, how we couldn't have picked a better person to help, that she had been a nurse for 35 years (the caring kind of nurse everyone would want), that she had overcome leukemia about four years prior and that she had been a widow for a couple years now. I would guess the lady was in her mid 60's and she didn't put down her rake and wheelbarrow the entire time we were there and to beat it all she had a smile on her face the whole time. Had we gone up there and only helped this one lady out it would have been well worth it. Everyone just kept telling us thank you, thank you, but its really a basic principle. Do unto other as you would have done to you. If my family and I were in the same situation, I would hope there would be someone caring/giving enough to lend us a hand and I know there would be, because God is good. We heard so many other stories from people, but i've written enough. I'm not writing this blog to give myself or my church praise (our reward is in heaven) but just always remember to treat people like you would want to be treated, no matter what situation you are in. Have a great day!
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