Our daughter Christin recently led a group of college students on a short-term mission trip back to Chattanooga, Tennessee where we lived for 18 years and she went to middle and high school. Planning for the trip took about a year. She arranged for the group of 32 students and chaperones to help at a children’s home, a homeless shelter, a nursing home, and a rescue mission. What they were unable to plan for was the timing of the tornados that ripped across the southeast 5 days before they are arrived. Chattanooga took a severe hit from the storms. One of the areas hit was Cherokee Valley not far from Christin’s school. Here are two of Christin’s stories from their trip.
When we arrived in Chattanooga we began to follow our plan by going to the ministries that we had already arranged to help. Since we had a large group we split into two teams and met with the leaders at the nursing home and children’s home. All of our team was really motivated and we rapidly completed the tasks that were given to us. At the children’s home there were a lot of tree limbs and clean up from the storm, but nothing like what we were to see a little later.
Because we made such good progress in our tasks, the suggestion was made to provide some storm relief in Cherokee Valley where a tornado had actually touched down and destroyed many homes. So the next day we split up again with a group heading to Cherokee Valley the next afternoon. When we got there we met at the small local church that had just barely been spared. We met with the pastor and offered our services. He was cautious at first and only gave us some “safe” jobs. As we earned his trust he took us to an area of the valley that had been badly damaged.
It’s hard to describe the damage and the overwhelming sense of loss. On the side of the hill was a home that had sustained some damage, a little lower down was a home that was about half gone and across the street was a concrete pad and some cinder blocks where a trailer home had been a week prior. In the matter of a few seconds these peoples’ lives had been radically changed, in some cases forever. It was very sobering. Our instructions were simple. Pick up whatever we found and put it into one of three piles. Anything wood that would burn was one pile, whatever was metal was a second, and anything that was of a personal nature into the third. While the scope of damage made this daunting, we simply laid our hands on the first thing that was within reach and we began.
With 7 willing souls we made better progress than we initially expected. Before long we had the grounds around what had been a home sifted into the three piles, but we had a problem. The front wall of the home had fallen over and was covering material that we couldn’t reach. The wall was essentially intact so we all got together and began lifting. Although it was hard we were able to flip the wall over and continue our work. About this time the owner of the home arrived – Ms. Bryson, the “mayor” of the valley. Ms Bryson is 86 years young and I hope I am as spry at 86 as she is. Ms. Bryson was called the mayor for the simple fact that she had lived in the valley longer than anyone else having arrived in 1949. And for the entire time, 62 years, she lived in the same home… the one that was essentially a pile of ruble now.
We said we were sorry for her home, but we were glad she was unharmed. Then she told us how she came to be alive. Even though she had lived in the valley the longest she was by no means one of the old folks. She said that it has been her habit to visit the old people in the valley to sit with them and provide the care that she could. On the day of the storms she left her home at 4:00 pm to go sit with an elderly gentleman of 89 years. By 4:30 pm her home was no more. But by the grace of God she would have been in her home and in all likelihood would not have survived.
She went on to relate about another one of her neighbors in the valley. This friend was actually in her home when the storm struck. She had been reading her bible and had knealt down to pray when her house was blown away. She was lifted by the tornado and carried outside, but she was not seriously injured. When the neighbor went back into her house looking for anything that she could salvage she found her bible with a nail through it holding it to the floor so that it did not blow away. It was open to chapter 1 of Job where she read – The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.
As Ms Bryson was finishing this story Kara, one of our team, came up with a bible she found in the midst of Ms Bryson’s home. It turned out to be the bible of her deceased daughter. What a blessing to Ms Bryson and a blessing for us to be there to help and celebrate with her.
Well after these encouraging stories we moved on to help in the clean up with renewed enthusiasm. Ms Bryson had a cinder block storage building against the hill at the back of her property. It had been knocked over but it wasn’t shattered. (BTW – I found what I now consider one of the neatest tools ever – a sledgehammer. I think a sledgehammer would come in handy during exam week for stress relief.) With it we made short work of the cinder blocks. And under the walls we found TREASURE… we found glass momentos that weren’t shattered, pictures, and other momentos. In the midst of all the devastation we joined with Ms Bryson in celebration of His Grace… for the sparing her and her neighbor when by all rights they should have died, for providing these two bibles, and for new friends who were expressing their love in a tangible way by helping the people of the community begin to recover from their loss.
Christin has several other wonderful stories from her trip. The point that I take from this is that the most important ability is often Availability. These young people made themselves available to the Lord and specifically asked for Him to use them. And He honored their request. When we are obedient we can be confident that God will use us in HIS ways to accomplish HIS marvelous purpose.
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