Even More Challenging by Lathrop Mosley

Today was our second day working in Alabama and it was more challenging than our first day in several different ways.

Yesterday, we had cloud cover, a nice breeze and some trees where we worked. And today, not a cloud in the sky until later on in the afternoon, minimal breeze until later on in the afternoon and no trees to rest under.

Yesterday, we were in area where the damage was more sparse. There were houses in the same area that were untouched or nearly untouched by the tornados and then there were houses that were demolished in the same area. Today we worked in a neighborhood where all the houses directly around us were completely gone. And for the most part even those still standing were severely damaged.

But the most challenging difference was what we were moving and sorting through. Yesterday, we were moving lots of limbs, trees, stumps and branches all into piles, very little trash or personal items. Today we moved a house and what was left of its content to the road so it could be hauled off to the dump. So we came across many personal items - a teddy bear, a trophy from little league, forks, spoons, pieces of dining room chairs, Christmas ornaments and decorations, a letterman jacket and a picture of one of the children with Santa Claus just to name a few things.

Today, it became much more difficult and much more real. Today, we were sorting through people's lives that had been totally destroyed and everything taken away from them.

Tomorrow we move further north from Ft. Payne and will experience and see even more devastation and destruction.

First Day Reflection by Rob Brown

"The tornado came across that hillside and killed that whole family, except for their 4 year-old boy.  I found his little sister laying dead in the pasture, all face down with her blonde curls spread out around her head.  I see that all the time, you shouldn't ever have to see that and I can't help seeing her.  We had to bring her body out in the bucket of the tractor cause we couldn't get nothing else past the debris"

"How did y'all survive?" I asked this as we stood on what had been a heavily wooded hillside, now covered with shattered tress and the remains of a home.

"Me and my wife and the neighbors got in a storm shelter just in time.  The shelter is an old milk truck body we buried in the hillside.  There were nine of us that made it inside.  The wind busted the chain we had holding the door closed and two of us just held on while it roared past us.  You could hear it bearing down after it come across the road.  Thirty-nine miles on the ground and in places a mile wide.  I just keep thinking about that little girl."

Rickie would take us to see the shelter later in the day.  We had spent 4 hours doing chain-saw work on his property, trying to clear debris so he can rebuild.  The shelter is literally a metal box with railroad ties framing the doorway and creating a windbreak.  Perhaps three feet of earth and reinforcing materials create a small hill over the shelter.  On the day of the storm it took hours just to get past the fallen trees and downed power lines that littered the hillside in a maze of shattered wreckage.

Pray for a man who survived a storm only to continually re-live the most brutal moments.

Patience is a Virtue

We arrived safely, everyone intact, at our home away from home.  We are staying at St. Philip's Episcopal Church, Ft. Payne, Alabama.  The daily schedule was to eat breakfast at 7 and be on our way by 8 a.m.  Interestingly breakfast was eaten and over by 7, dishes done by 7:20, and the waiting began at 7:30.  Wow!  Maybe it's because there are no coverings on any of the windows in the parish hall where we're staying so at 5 a.m, it was hard to sleep.  Perhaps it was just enthusiasm by the group to get the day going so the helping could commence.  I'd like to think it was the latter.

"When are we leaving?  Where will we be working today?  Do you know what's for lunch?"  All good questions, only one of which I have an answer.  Sometimes the not knowing is exciting.  Sometimes the not knowing is frustrating.  All things in good time...patience is a virtue.
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The Unknown

In just a few hours, 4 churches of the Piedmont Convocation of the Episcopal Diocese of Upper SC, will embark on the first ever convocation mission experience.  It's different - traveling with folks we don't really know that well, other than we are fellow Episcopalians.  It's new for some - never having been on a mission team, who will work together, eat together, and literally sleep in the same parish hall together.  It's an adjustment for all - spending hours in the full sun, the stifling heat, and the oppressive humidity, when we're used to working inside.  It is page after page of the unknown - from new acquaintances, a new state, a different bed, different food, sore muscles, dirty skin, dirty hair, to who is making dinner, who is taking out the trash, where will we be working, and what kind of work is there to do.  So many questions.  So much unknown.  And yet....we go anyway.

We go anyway - questions and all - the unknown and all - because that's what we are called to do as followers of Jesus.  We go, not knowing the answers.  We go, not sure of the work to be done.  We go, not sure if we can physically make it through the week.  We go as a group with unique gifts given to us by our creator, as many gifts in fact as there are people on this trip.  As our Epistle for this Sunday says, "Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good." (1 Cor 12: 3-13)

And that's why we go.....to use our gifts....to be of service.....for the common good.  We go, as it says in Holy Eucharist Rite One,  "to do all such good works....as thou hast prepared for us to walk in."

And so tomorrow - Pentecost - we will embark on the good works that God has prepared for us to walk in - to be in - to live in - to experience in.  Today, it is the unknown.  By mid week, I am certain it will be called one body, in Christ.