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Rebuild Oklahoma Mission Trip March 26, 2015 Thursday update By: Crystal Swoverland The beginning of Day 3 started out beautiful and sunny, although a bit windy and chilly. Had we not just experienced the sirens, torrential rain and hail, one would have never suspected there was a tornado that touched down in a nearby town just hours before. After a large breakfast prepared by the amazing Chef Joel, we were ready for our days' assignments. We were split into three teams once again with some of us scraping and painting a house, others working with Habitat for Humanity, also scraping paint, tearing down and rebuilding an old addition and removing trees, shrubs and brush from a fence line. Still another team set out for a bathroom remodel, where they were later rerouted to another site to work on a playground. One of the themes of the week has been for us to be "fluid," to be willing to go with a plan that is not quite complete or to change in the middle of said plan. This has been quite challenging for me personally as I quite enjoy having a plan and sticking to it while being very productive in the process. As plans change, there tends to be a period of time that things are "messy." People are being moved around, assignments are changing and it can feel a bit frustrating to the control freak in me. But as our day progressed, our teams became more "fluid" as we were being pulled from one job to help on another. Eventually all of us made our way to Moore to help with the clean-up effort that was happening there as a result of the tornado that had touched down the night before. Our team set to work by walking up and down the streets offering help with putting tarps on roofs and moving massive mounds of branches, fencing and random debris to the curbs. After working all afternoon on a disaster relief site, we all left with a whole lot more perspective than what we had started out with this morning. We witnessed neighbors helping neighbors, a community of people working together to clean up not only their own yards and homes, but their neighbors' as well. After helping clear out debris and fencing from a yard, I mentioned this to the homeowner, I said, "It's so awesome to see the community out here helping each other like this!" To which she replied, "What else are we supposed to do?" Did she know Jesus? I'm not sure, but she knows the simple truth that we are to love our neighbors as ourselves. We are to help those who can't help themselves and we are to be the hands and feet of Christ! We also witnessed friends and families standing in their yards, working together with smiles on their faces. Actual smiles, some were even laughing, all the while standing in the rubble that remained of their homes. It was a simple reminder to me that the stuff we tend to accumulate and hold onto so tightly doesn't matter at all, it is the people in our lives that matter. The people we love and who love us that really matter. The neighbor across the street, the single mom and the elderly lady who really matter. Every single one of those people matter to God and because of that, should also matter to us. Today was about perspective and community and serving each other. I'd say it was a very rewarding day for us all! Blessings, Crystal Swoverland
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