None of Self and All of Thee

I know that most everyone here knows about the monster tornadoes that ripped through the South Wednesday evening. I know that a lot of you have probably suffered damages, or you know personally people who have. There is a congregation in Tuscaloosa that has lost their building to the monster tornado that ripped through there. The Central church of Christ was completely ravaged and we decided, almost spur of the moment {as I am sure many things have been lately… you can’t really plan extensively for things like this}, that we would try to get a group together to take supplies up to Tuscaloosa and help the Central church of Christ as much as we possibly could.

Yesterday was a busy day for many of us as the congregation here, as many as we could get in touch with, worked hard to gather supplies and basic necessities to distribute to those in need in Tuscaloosa. Our kitchen area was filled to bursting with clothes, food, toiletries, candles, diapers, and so much more.

You have to understand… we had about 8 hours to collect all this stuff. This is also around the time when people were getting off work or for some still working. We weren’t able to call everyone up but those whom we did call… boy did they deliver! We are SO proud to be associated with this giving, selfless congregation. What a blessing!

Anyway, so we went to bed after midnight and we were up at 6:45 rushing to get ready. This included getting ourselves ready and making sure we had everything ready for Benjamin to go to the babysitter’s house. We were so blessed by Mrs. Amelia who agreed promptly to keep him all day for us on such short notice. I am serious she was here around like 9PM last night and we asked her then and she was so happy to oblige. This meant that we could both go with the folks to Tuscaloosa to help and not have to worry about Benjamin getting in the way. We toyed with the idea for a while of bringing his stroller so he could sit in it and everything but once we got there… it would not have been possible or safe for him to be there.

We set off around 7:40 for Tuscaloosa. It’s about an hour’s drive for us and we made good timing I’d say. Once we got into the city you could start seeing the destruction but it was really getting heavier the closer we got to the church building. As we were driving I could feel my heart drop to the pit of my stomach as I saw the houses and buildings that were just leveled to the ground, and the trees and electric poles that had been felled. Members of the National Guard were blocking off some roads {hummers, heavy-duty guns, the works} that were impassable to the public. We finally got to the building and I was … speechless. There are no adequate words to describe what we saw. A picture speaks a thousand words, so here are a few thousand for you:

{one of the soldiers hung his jacket on an up-turned desk outside to better help out}

{The church van crushed by the steel beams}

{church bus also crushed}

{can you believe it?}

{mattress hanging on a tree}

{I read that there were tons of old, old trees all over this neighborhood – gone.}

{can you tell that the wall is leaning? there is a sign that warns you that the wall could very well fall at any given moment}

{there is glass EVERYWHERE.}

{there is another chandelier tangled up against the wall too}

{looking at the neighborhood}

{National Guard at the end of the street}

{this was upstairs in a classroom that as you can tell was blown pretty much away. Carl took this and he says that it was just totally undisturbed. Isn’t that crazy?}

{another shot from upstairs looking out at the houses surrounding}

Absolutely incredible… considering there were six college-aged members in the building at the time of the tornado, and they reportedly said that it lasted about 15-20 seconds… and that is all it took for this tornado to rip this beautiful building apart.

I’m going to be completely honest with you, though. It wasn’t the total destruction of this building that touched my heart, nor the rubble that used to be houses littering the streets. What touched my heart more than anything else was the fact that this congregation of the Lord’s people were not concerned with their building. Yes, there were people bringing out things as they could to salvage, but most people were not concerned with the building. Instead, they were feeding fellow tornado victims. I watched as they had an assembly line of people packing lunches of hotdogs and hamburgers into grocery bags, including a slip of paper that personally invited the people who would receive these to worship with the church of Christ in their area. These lunches were passed out to people everywhere in the area. And not only that but they had tables and tables of clothes and toiletries and diapers and food and other things for people to come and get what they needed.

I couldn’t help but to think that this congregation was being that light on the hill, shining through this dark time in so many people’s lives. This is what Christians should do in the face of such destruction. Use it as an opportunity to reach out to others and show them the love of God.

Like many others in Alabama I am sure, I left there changed, and for the better.

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Would you like to help? Your prayers are valued more than anything, but if you would like to help in monetary efforts, here are a few links to check out:

http://www.servealabama.gov/2010/2011%20Tornadoes/Response.aspx – The Governor’s Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives
http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2011/04/alabama_tornadoes_how_you_can.html – A list of places you can donate to in Alabama
http://www.alredcross.org/index.asp?IDCapitulo=DRGYJ0Q5XZ – The American Red Cross
{Call: 1-800-RED-CROSS (1-800-733-2767) and you will be prompted to a menu that includes financial donations
Text: "Red Cross" to 90999.}
http://www.everribbon.com/ribbon/view/442 - To specifically donate to the church for their rebuilding.

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Higher than the highest heaven,
Deeper than the deepest sea,
Lord, Thy love at last has conquered:
“None of self, and all of Thee.”
None of self, and all of Thee,
None of self, and all of Thee,
Lord, Thy love at last has conquered:
“None of self, and all of Thee.”