Social Action Weekend USA

Imagine looking out of your kitchen window and seeing a kilometre-wide cyclone headed toward your home. As it approaches, it uproots trees and tosses them into nearby fields. The roar of the wind is deafening, windows break, and nearby buildings creak and moan as they are lifted from their foundations. For many living in the mid-western United States, this description is all too familiar. Tornadoes ripped through the area in May 2008 killing 23 people and injuring around 150. Hundreds of homes and businesses were destroyed, causing millions of dollars in damage to property, farm equipment, and livestock. During the weeks that followed, local organisations worked to meet immediate needs. However, the process of rebuilding their lives and homes is just beginning for most of the tornado victims. That’s why 75 students from seven Newfrontiers-USA churches across the Midwest met at Christ’s Church of Joplin for the Social Action Weekend in October 2008.

Working in teams at seven different locations, volunteers picked up debris, built fences, and performed basic home repairs. At any given site, a team might find chunks of flooring scattered across a field, an overturned vehicle, large pieces of tin stuck in the ground or wrapped around trees, and toys and clothes strewn out in the yard. Damage from the tornadoes was so widespread that many of those we helped had not yet been reached by local disaster relief organisations.

In addition to meeting physical needs, volunteers looked for opportunities to meet their spiritual needs, listening to stories and offering encouragement. At one work site, the team learned that the piles of debris they were clearing used to be a dairy farm. The elderly owners had hidden inside their mobile home while a tornado destroyed their barns. It then turned toward their mobile home, lifted it in the air, and tore it in half before setting it back down. The couple were still recovering from injuries when our volunteers came to help. Amie Fox of Jubilee Church in St. Louis worked at this site and heard the couple’s story. 'At the end of our work day, we asked Judy, the dairy farmer’s wife, if there was anything in particular we could pray for them about and she requested, "Quick restoration." Their thankfulness for our service became increasingly meaningful to us as she elaborated on the effects of the storm. After we prayed for them, she thanked us again, reiterating how they so needed the help, and asked if there were any more of us. We told her there were... and that we were working on making more!'

Many volunteers were encouraged by stories of faith from tornado victims. A group of young men who spent the day building fences for a farmer were amazed at his testimony. Pete Braeckel from Christ’s Church of Joplin led this team and told the family’s story: 'The man we helped was a believer, and this guy was in the storm. He stood on top of a hill on his property and saw the tornado coming at him, and he prayed to Jesus for his family’s safety. He commanded the storm to move and it moved enough to save his life and his family’s lives. He had major damage to his property, but his family was protected.'

Throughout the weekend, volunteers heard countless stories like these. In the midst of great pain and loss, many tornado victims were still eager to talk about the ways in which God’s presence and protection had been displayed for them. Another volunteer commented, 'It is an incredibly humbling experience to stand in a pile of rubble and ashes that used to be someone’s home while they speak to you about God’s goodness and grace. You go home and look at your car and house and think, :"I will never complain again!"'

Lane Clevenger of Christ’s Church of Joplin, who worked with local disaster relief organisations to plan Social Action Weekend, was pleased with what was accomplished. 'I want to thank everyone who participated in the weekend. It was amazing to see so many lives impacted in such a practical way. I am confident Jesus was pleased!'

Lynn Fleshman
Christ's Church of Joplin, Missouri