Tornado memories - part 2

The week after the tornado was full of amazing instances where we saw Christ at work through His church. (Jesus told His disciples that the world would know they were His followers by their love for one another. We saw that lived out.)

We called our insurance company (who were wonderful!) the day of the tornado. The first adjustor wasn't able to arrive until around 5:00 the day after the tornado.

I told you in the last post that the kids went to spend the night with their friends (who'd planned to spend the night with us that night). One of our girls wanted to be with us so, after we stayed at the house until dark getting things out of the fridge and freezer and packing some clothes for everyone, we went to my parents' house for supper and R went to pick up K.

I think I'll always remember that night. We were in shock - we kept saying "No - that didn't really happen." We weren't upset or anxious, just in disbelief. All night long we layed in bed, not sleeping, and talking about it. At one point I remember I started laughing. R asked me what it was this time. I told him that a little weather station we had (that told the speed and direction of the wind) was on the playset that was gone. For whatever reason I found that very funny. (The playset was one that R had spent a couple months building. It was made of big posts and very heavy duty. After the tornado was over it was gone - 3 posts were about a foot tall and the other 3 were sheered to the ground. All the play equipment and fort wood were gone. The thought of the weather station being taken by the tornado struck me as funny.) The playset was a very concrete illustration of the fact that whatever we do for Christ will last but the things of this earth can be gone in a matter of seconds!

The day after the tornado we came back to the house to clean up a bit and wait for the insurance adjustor to arrive. We were surprised to find families from our church coming over to help us. Some had walked across the neighborhood. The police had the neighborhood blocked off and were very diligent in making sure that only those who needed to be in the neighborhood were there. One family from church who came to help us couldn't get in the neighborhood so they parked at a nearby business and walked in to help us. We were so thankful and humbled for the help.

The whole week was like that. The help offered and given was amazing. My mom took off work and was with us helping daily. My kids had lots of offers for playdates and had great times with friends. R's brother and his daughter drove from over an hour away to help. Our church was there in force. One day I drove to the house after renting a van to find 9 men on our roof helping temporarily patch holes in expectation of more rain. We (a crowd of family and friends) were working cleaning up the house when some ladies from the church showed up with coolers and bagged lunches for everyone. Our youth pastor and music minister spent a lot of time at our house helping. I remember walking into the house one day to find our music minister on his knees vacuuming glass out of the carpet. Another day we'd stopped by the church to borrow the phone to make phone calls and, while I was in another room making the phone calls, I heard the church secretary answer 3 different phone calls of people asking about us. I have no idea who they were but were touched to know that people were thinking of and praying for us. I felt so cherished throughout this whole experience.

God met all our needs also in overflowing abundance. We had multiple offers of places to stay but ended up staying in a local hotel (thanks to insurance) until we were able to move into a rental house. The second day after the tornado we decided we needed to rent a van so the whole family could ride together. (Our van was in the garage when the tornado hit, so we couldn't use it.) Within an hour of calling to rent the van we had two offers of vehicles we could use as long as we needed them! (We only rented the van that one day.) Our local homeschooling group was so faithful in praying and offering to help. I received multiples calls and offers of help. One mom (whom I didn't even know at that point) offered to keep in touch with me daily, post updates to the group, and let them know of any needs. I realized the day after the tornado that I would need to wash my laundry but didn't have facilities nor time to take care of that. Immediately there were over a dozen volunteers to wash our laundry. I was so humbled by the moms who met me, took our laundry, and then delivered it freshly washed and folded. It was a tremendous blessing. People were also so generous in their offers of help - physical and in the form of gift cards. It was humbling and amazing to experience.