Being the Church after Disaster Strikes

Overwhelming Love

For almost two weeks we’ve been helping an elderly couple named Gene and Judy dig out of the destruction left by the April 27th tornado.

Another group first started cutting up fallen trees with chain saws and hauling them to the road while we worked on their nephews property, then our team started repairing their house.

During this time we all became great friends and shared many wonderful stories, and we were able to pray and minister to them.  

This past weekend, they told us that many years ago they were very active in a local church, but when they resigned from one of the church ministries, the elders kicked them out of the church. 

They haven’t gone to any church since then, but now they were both overwhelmed with the love and concern that so many Christian brothers and sisters have shown them.  

Through the wreckage and financial devastation, Christ has been faithful to his word, and brought something good into their lives.

There has been healing and a new awareness of God’s love, demonstrated by ordinary people being the hands and feet of Jesus.

One Big Family

It’s so amazing how this tornado has brought such a diverse group of volunteers together and wielded them together in friendship and a strong since of becoming a real family. That’s exactly what’s happened at one family’s house.

Elaine and Edward are in their seventies, and Edward has been incapacitated from a car accident since last September. The tornado hit their property so hard that it looked like an atomic bomb had hit it. There were over 30 trees downed in the yard. 

Elaine was already stretched to the limits of her ability just taking care of Edward, and now this disaster seemed like the end of the world for them. They had no insurance or money available to repair their house or remove the debris.

Days after the storm many different church groups along with our AIM team started working on their property. Those on the ground have quickly formed a bond and sense of family in the group.

Elaine was so loving and grateful that everyone “adopted” her, and treated her like their own family or mom. Her love brought all of us together like a family, and we all worked hard and side by side, and our different denominations and cultures didn’t separate us at all.

This stood out to me and caught my attention, making me grateful that God allowed me to be a part of it.  

This is how the church should be. And it really worked up on Sand Mountain in May 2011.