Westminster First Baptist Church Blog

This is going to be an exciting time at WFBC.  We have 20 volunteers for Good News Club.  God is going to do great things this year.  We hope to see many children saved,  families join us in church, and lives to be changed (including the volunteers).  Please keep the GNC in your prayers daily.  I will be posting specific prayer requests.  God is up to something big.  I can’t wait.

Ansleigh Elaine Owen came into the world on August 8, 2011 at 10:22 a.m.  She is such a precious blessing.  Meagan is great, and they are home.  Ardon, the older brother, is getting use to the idea of sharing.  Caleb is a terrific dad.  We are so excited to have this wonderful addition to our family.

Thank you your open arms.  We enjoyed our trip and work, but being back home at WFBC was terrific.  You have been such a blessing to us.  It was great to be back in our places for the last two Sundays.  We are truly glad to be home because we see your beautiful faces, hear the sweet music of the congregation and the choir, and enjoy your hugs.  It is nice to travel, but there is no place like Westminster, South Carolina.  We speak with the same accent and always smile and speak.  We did not always witness that.  It is a JOY to be home.

Thank You for the Welcome Sign

We have finished here in Joplin.  We are ready to see South Carolina.  We are about 850 miles away.  We  plan to leave in the morning.  We are going to have church at Holiday Rambler Baptist Church in the morning.  Joyce will have Sunday School.  John and I will lead the music.  Kenny will have the message.  It will take several days on the road.  We will probably travel about 250 miles a day.  we will take our time because of the heat.  It has been 105 degrees today.  Pray for us as we travel.  We are SO EXCITED to be back at WFBC.  We have truly missed all of you.

I am including a picture of Kenny fishing.  He loves to fish, but

Fishing

never takes the time to fish.  We are staying at the Shoal Creek RV Park here in Joplin.  We tried to stay at a church, but we did not have enough power to cool the motor home because Sally stays in the motor home all day while we work.  I don’t think we could have stood the heat without enough power.  This park has a lake.  We got a lake front lot the second week we were here.  When we come in after working Kenny has been fishing.  He has loved it, but we won’t be having a fish dinner because he has only caught a couple of tiny brim.  Bless his heart.  It does not get dark until about 9-9:30.

Sorry this has taken so long.  We have worked long hours this week in the kitchen at the New Creation Church.  It is a distribution center for hygiene items, groceries, pillows, household items, housing  for volunteers, and kitchen serving 3 meals a day.  We have served lunch and dinner (supper as we call it).  We would go in at 10 am and leave about 8:30 pm.  We have really introduced southern cooking and sweet tea.  Kenny has about 10 gallons of tea daily.  Everyone loved the tea.  He even taught the folks from Colorado who will be cooking this weekend how to make sweet tea.  They have food in the freezers so we have to come up with our own menu.  We could never fix enough food.  We were constantly adding to the pot.  We fed about 75 people at lunch and 100 for supper most days.  One day we were looking for plastic knives in every place we could think of in the kitchen and distribution area.  Several hours later a pallet of plastic knives, forks and food was delivered.  Tell me the Lord did not hear our prayers.  Thursday, the ladies doing breakfast could not get bagels in the toaster.  They said they sure could us a toaster oven.  Within the hour a toaster oven was donated.  I could feel the presence of the Lord—we were on HOLY GROUND.  God is so good to us.  We have so much to be thankful.  Joplin needs our prayers.  They are removing debris to get ready for construction.  So many people came in to eat that had lost everything.  They even lost birth certificates and drivers license.  The couple we helped with the mobile home wanted Kenny to marry them, but they did not have identification to get a marriage license.  We are praying they will marry soon.  We take away memories of the rubble.  Joplin High School and the hospital totally destroyed, not to mention the homes and the lives of these people.  I pray for the children who are still having bad dreams. The emotional toil is incredible.  I purchased a t-shirt that says Restore Joplin—the O in Joplin is a broken heart with a bandage around it.  We will never forget Joplin.

I am including a picture of the kitchen crew.  John, Joyce and their precious granddaughter Maddison worked so hard in the kitchen with us.

Kenny and I both worked 9 hours Friday in the kitchen at the New Creation Church in downtown Joplin.  They are sleeping the volunteers and feeding the volunteers and as much as we can

Apartment Complex

figure many homeless people.  We

Close Up of the Apartment

fixed lunch and supper.  We fed about 50 for lunch and 75 for supper.  We have met people from California to North Carolina.  We attended church there this morning.  I believe they are Presbyterian that wants you to come as you are.  They are trying to reach the ones that seem unreachable.  They are also a distribution center for food, paper, hygiene needs, pet food, and just about anything you need.

They have erected a cross on the pulpit.  It is made of a telephone

Cross from the Rubble

pole, tree, roofing material, tin, a jump rope and a pair of children’s shoes they found in the rubble of the tornado.  The pastor reminded us this morning that it is not pretty, but it is a reminder that Jesus takes the bad stuff and makes something beautiful.  That is our prayer for Joplin.  God is with us in our most difficult times.  We have heard story after story.  A lady that came for lunch said there was 24,000 residents marked by the tornado.  There would be 24,00 different stories to hear.  I am putting a picture of the cross with this blog. (I hope)  Please pray for New Creation and Grace Baptist Church.

We have been doing different types of work for the last two days.  Kenny and John worked all day yesterday and today in the mobile home for the couple having the baby.  They have replaced the floor, worked on the one air conditioner, put rubber coating on the roof, and replaced the hot water heater.  They went into the office at Grace Baptist Church (one of the churches we are getting work from) today.  Jesse, the coordinator for the project, said he had something for them.  He had another air conditioner.  So now the couple has two air conditioners.  The boyfriend who is trying to get the house ready for the baby has been working just as hard as Kenny, John, and 3 adults and 3 teenagers from Colorado.  Kenny and John have been talking to the couple.  They are both Christians.  Kenny even offered to marry them while we are here.  We maybe having a wedding next week.

Joyce, Maddison and I have been cleaning the dining room and bathrooms at Grace Baptist.  Then we went to New Creation Church today to see if they needed us.  We have been in the distribution center checking dates on medications, toothpaste, deodorants,  and anything on a shelf.  Also, the lady who has been cooking is leaving tomorrow and asked me if I would help with preparing meals.  Kenny and I plan to work on meals for the volunteers this weekend and maybe next week.  We are willing to do whatever the Lord would have us to do while we are here.  There is so much need here.  We were at Walmart tonight getting in our car in the parking lot, and a lady asked us for money for gas to get home.  She lost everything in the tornado.  We followed her to gas station, put in gas, witnessed to her (she was a Christian) and prayed with her.  My heart just breaks as we ride through all of the storm area.  We saw 2 schools in rubble today.  Also, a Walmart was totally destroyed.  On and on I could go.  Please pray for these people and all of volunteers coming in to help.  We miss all of you.

There are no words to describe the devastation we saw yesterday.  Huge home, poor home, the hospital, and businesses all gone.  The tornado was half mile wide and six miles long.  It is just unbelievable.  We canvased the neighborhoods today.  A lady was living in a camper in her yard while her house is being worked on.  She said she just needed water.  We  got her water immediately.  Most of the home we checked on were just walls or completely gone.  The church gave us a different job yesterday afternoon.  This family completely lost their home.  They have found a trailer in terrible condition.  She is pregnant.  She gestational diabetes, so the baby will be here soon.  She lost her dad last week.  They are sleeping on the floor at a relatives house.  Kenny and John are going to replace the floor.  There are no words.

We arrived in Joplin, Mo yesterday at the New Creation Church to go to work in this huge effort.  Kenny, Joyce and John have worked in disaster relief areas.  This was my first time.  New Creation was very organized, so we signed in and signed the waver sheets.   We were at breakfast this morning at 7:00 am.  It was so hot, and we only had power, but very little. We did not have water or sewage.  We were taking showers in the church.  We were concerned about leaving our dogs in the coaches during the day because of the heat.  So we moved to a campground this morning.  We now have electricity, water, and sewage.  We will be here two weeks.  There are not words to tell you all we saw today.  Devastating is a mild word to use.  Our job today was to canvas 3 streets to see if the people needed any help.  They were canvased during the days after the tornado.  Today was day 51.  We knocked on doors, left fliers, and helped 3 different families.  A young military woman with a young child needed food.  He husband is stationed in the Navy in Texas.  Another man needed 2 recliner chairs moved because he was handicapped.  An elder woman needed food.  We met all the needs and reported back to the church.  There are many volunteers here.  They need us to find where work needs to be done.  We saw two large schools just as twisted metal.  We saw a church that lost 4 members.  The roof at this church was being replaced and work was being done inside.  On all our streets there were houses that were totally demolished and unlivable.  I will post pictures tomorrow.  We have so much to be thankful for having our homes in tact.  It is so hard to imagine what has really happened.