"I Know the Plans I Have for You" (Day 3 Thoughts)

I thought I might blog about some of the thoughts I've had swirling around in my head. As I have told many I have talked to; pictures, movies, etc. do not come close to describing the devastation I have seen. The way steel beams can be bent and folded like a piece of bread leaves me flabbergasted. I will not forget the devastated looks on the faces of people as they attempt to dig through their homes for any property that is salvageable. We couldn't even bring ourselves to take pictures of people as they rummaged for their belongings. This would have been like taking pictures of people through their windows at night. BTW, there are no windows anywhere within the tornado path. All of them were blown out. Not by the force of the wind blowing them out, but by the force of the wind sucking the windows out. This is why pictures like that of the hospital look like things were being sucked out. The lawn of homes about a half block from the front of the hospital had absolutely nothing on it. The grass looked like someone had been there raking it.
I volunteered at the shelter the Red Cross set up at Missouri Southern State University. In the afternoon we loaded up about two hundred sandwiches and took them out to a church to be distributed. Sadly, the sandwiches could not be used because the temperature of each sandwich had to be 40 degrees. The sandwiches were left there but had to be pitched. The rest of the lunch included a piece of fruit and a bag of chips. These were gladly accepted by the church. We then took some bottled water out into the 'debris field' and drove up and down the streets asking homeowners if they wanted any. Most said no thanks. Almost all of them were happy to see pastors (we wore our clerical collars).
I was also able to help Glenn Merritt who is coming to Joplin as the LC-MS World Relief and Human Care representative. He was having difficulty contacting the pastor at Immanuel Lutheran Church to let him know that he would be arriving late because he was also going to stop at a Oklahoma church to assess damages. I told him what I knew of the area and offered any help/contacts I had at the Red Cross shelter. We will meet with him at the church tomorrow morning.
The sign on the tree next to the flag is a good way to finish up the day.
Peace in Christ, J
p.s. The first picture is of the apartment'st S&T lived in when they first moved to Joplin. Click pictures once and then again after they open for a zoomed in view.