We left Little Rock at 8am (2 hrs past our original plan of 6am--but we were up late after an event packing, so the extra hour of sleep was totally needed.)
Our first stop in the OKC area was the Central Church of Christ in Moore, OK. This is where we dropped off the donations that many of our friends and family sent with us.
As you know, Moore was one of the hardest hit areas during the May 20th storm. The church is right off of the interstate and is serving as a distribution center where storm victims can come by and pick up supplies (food, clothes, cleaning supplies, etc), get a free meal and even shower. While we were there we got to speak with some of the volunteers and got to see their system for distributing items as families came in to receive assistance. It was honestly a very emotional experience to witness. To know that these people (one lady in her late 70s or older) had had their entire lives changed in a matter of minutes...and they are now relying on the generosity of others to attempt to return to some sense of normalcy. Thank God FOR the generosity of others! The center seems to be running smoothly. The volunteers have done an excellent job of organizing the donations to make it easy for victims to get what they need.
Driving to the church, we couldn't see much damage. It wasn't until after we left to head to our next destination in Norman, that we could really see the devastation. I didn't get any pictures today because we were on the interstate.
Our 2nd destination was to check in with the Disaster Relief Team (DRT) at Alameda CoC. We were issued t-shirts...
and immediately got to work on an assignment at the distribution facility (which is actually the church's family life center/gym) which is also serving as housing for out of town volunteer groups. Today the organization had over 100 volunteers go out into work zones for storm clean up. Tomorrow they are expecting 238 volunteers!! So our job was to help reorganize and relocate some of the donations to make space for the new people to have a place to eat tomorrow (the DRT is providing all 3 meals for the volunteers).
Once we had enough space clear, the teams that had been out in the field all day began to arrive back at the HQ to shower and get ready for dinner. So we left to go to our hotel to rest and eat, as well.
Tomorrow our day will begin around 8 as we meet back up at HQ for a brief worship service and head out to the field to work for the day. I'm both excited and nervous about what the day holds. I'm excited to be able to be here and help...I'm nervous about how the scenes of the day will make me feel.
Please pray for our efforts, pray for the people who lost everything, and the safety of the volunteers.
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