SGVServe.org

Awana and Jeff

The church we’re staying at, hosts an Awana group, a children’s ministry. Some of us thought it was named after a native american word or something, but the founders of Awana derived the Awana name from the first letters of “Approved workmen are not ashamed” as taken from 2 Timothy 2:15 of the Bible.

An early morning breakfast and a devotional from Jeff, that was coincidentally based on 2 Timothy 2:15. he didn’t know why we were smiling, as he wasn’t part of our discussion from the night before.

Skip and RRR

We chose to pack into one big church van to make our rounds in meeting some of the local organizations.. Pastor Matt and Mike introduced us to Skip of RRR ranch, a pretty passionate man of God that genuinely loves trying to serve. He has some pretty creative projects going on at the ranch to help out people in crisis.

Frank and Lorraine

We also met Frank and Lorraine, victims of the recent hurricane. Tough story. Their home had originally been built for a tornado, but due to fire and reconstructions over the years, the most of the walls had been rebuilt without some of the tornado reinforcements. When the hurricane hit last year, their home was destroyed except for the last wall with the reinforcements. Looters also took some of their belongings, and both Frank and Lorraine are disabled. The new rebuild also includes an above-ground tornado shelter with easier disabled access

CBF

After lunch we visited with Chris of CBF. His temporary role became permanent in coordinating relief efforts in the area. We heard sobering information about the number of people that are uninsured for tornadoes, and even more so, recent earthquakes. He was a great resource of information and encouragement

OKC Memorial

We had enough time to run over to the OKC Memorial downtown. I have to admit, as Californians, we definitely remember the horrible bombing, but visiting the site was incredibly saddening. So many lives lost, so many children, and such a big part of the heart of this city died that day. Lorin noted the chain link fence attached to the memorial site had letters from family members to the ones lost in the bombing. One was from a girl, now 19 years older, writing to her mom. Lorin started to cry.

Dinner and Devotional

Laura cooked tacos for us tonight, and later joined us for our time of singing and sharing. Millie had us reflect on personal times of devastation whether by a tornado or otherwise, and God’s faithfulness.

We all shared about our impressions of first day of scouting.
-Some shared of personal feelings meeting with victims and the memorial,
-Others shared about gratefulness for others on the team,
-Some gave good input on the organizations we met today.

Thanks for your prayers

We’ve had people contact us, concerned for our safety with recent tornadoes. We’re fine. It’s about 100 miles away from us, but we can also see how unpredictable these storms are.

Within a period of 20 years, this area has suffered a major terrorist attack, frequent terrifying tornadoes, and more recently, increased earthquakes.

Yet they stay faithful. Yet they still have hope. But you can tell that hope is being drained at times. Pray for them, and pray that we can show them they are loved by God.

FamilyLife is a Christian Ministry with staff in Arkansas. Yesterday, they lost a staff member and two of his daughters in the tornado that touched down.

Here is a reprint of an email that was released.

A day of extreme emotions here at FamilyLife.

He died as he lived … protecting his family.
Rob Tittle, a FamilyLife staff member and kindred spirit warrior for the family, died last night in the tornado that crushed parts of central Arkansas.  Two of his daughters—Tori, age 20, and Rebekah, 14—were among the 14 killed in the storm. 

Rob, 48, and his wife Kerry, had heard the tornado warnings and were shepherding their nine children under a stairwell when the tornado disintegrated their home.  Rob was doing what a man does—putting his family first—when the twister hit.

All that is left is a grim grey slab of concrete.


Whitney Tittle, age 19, posted this on Facebook: “This is Whitney from a friend’s house, my mom, and my six brothers/sisters are alright.  We have lost three of our family … Dad, Tori and Rebekah, prayers would be appreciated.  The house is gone stripped from the foundation.  The Lord Gives and the Lord Takes away, Blessed be the Name of the Lord.

Minutes later and less than ten miles away, Barbara and I peeked out from under the stairs as the storm passed in front of our home.  It tends to get your attention when the TV weatherman says the tornado is bearing down on your street!  We could see the wall cloud crossing a lake, less than two miles away.

Thankfully the twister missed our home, but it chewed its way across the Arkansas River Valley and smashed into the small community of Mayflower (population 2312) where another staff couple, Dan and Kirsten Gaffney, lost their home and their two cars.

Dan saw the twister coming across the river and hurriedly moved his wife, six children, two dogs, a bunny rabbit, and a lizard into the master bedroom closet, which was designed as a storm shelter.

He closed the door.  And as the seconds ticked by, Dan said to his children, “This is the day of salvation!  If you haven’t accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, NOW IS THE TIME TO DO IT!”

A moment later, the tornado tore into their home, sucking the vent plate out of the top of the shelter.  Dan said, “The pressure in that shelter was ten times that of any airplane ride I’ve ever taken!” 

The twister was gone and with it their home.

They peeked out of the vent and all they could see was a landscape marked by massive devastation.  They couldn’t get out of the shelter, so they called 9-1-1.  Neighbors arrived and it took them 30 minutes to get the family out.  They were stunned to find a car leaning against the shelter.

The family could smell gas leaking, so they walked more than two miles, some barefoot and others wearing adult shoes.  They met a friend who took them out to get a pizza and some cookies.

Riding in a van, one of the Gaffney children said, “This is the worst day of my life!”  To which 10-year-old Julia, who has prosthetic legs, replied, “That may be, but we need to talk about the good things!”  The rest of the ride was spent celebrating the “good things.” 

Tornados are full of tragedy, but also have threads of irony.  Today a photo was posted on Facebook by a local weatherman, who asked, “Anyone recognize the name?”  It showed Emily and Noah Tittle’s name on a UPS package and an old photo of Kerry when she was a toddler.  The items were found in Heber Springs, Arkansas—80 miles from the Tittle’s home.

Today has been a day of extreme emotions here at FamilyLife.  We mourn the loss of a good man and coworker and his two daughters, and at the same time we celebrate the survival of so many children and family members.  The news could have been much worse.

One last post from Whitney Tittle: “Dear friends, Do one thing for me.  Hug your dad.  Hold him tight and don’t let go, that man is the greatest gift God gave to you.  Tell him you love him, tell him you will always Love him.”

Pray for the Tittles and Gaffneys in their journey with Christ.

After meeting with a couple partner associations, going to memorial.

Very rainy at times.

Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum http://goo.gl/maps/BfZxf

The Bad News

Just as we’re here to assist in a region devastated by tornadoes, they have a flurry of activity today. Apparently 12 died in tornado activity.

The Good News.

We’re fine. Untouched, but it still kind of puts things in perspective.
Millie asked about precautions in case of a tornado, and we were told to heed the warnings very seriously, and given some advice including to go to the center of a building

Your recap video and slide show:

Click here for Slideshow

Send Off

It was a little different today. Our commissioning was part of a very “unplugged”, low-key, Pastor-Cory-only service. He did the worship (singing) a capella (a rarity) and it had a very low key feel to the whole service. Even when we went up front to receive prayer, it seemed very laid back and casual.

Although it’s typical for our individual support groups to go to the airport with us, since we were leaving directly from church, we made it easy for them. We had our support group prayer time right after the 8:00 service at church itself. No driving, no dodging luggage carts at LAX, very nice, very simple.

A few dedicated supporters came to LAX to see us off, but apparently some of them had ulterior motives, including visiting Britt’s out in El Segundo. We don’t blame them.

Touch Down, Round Up

…in Oklahoma City, we split up our team to two vans that went to Walmart for supplies, then to Hilltop Baptist to meet Pastor Matt and his family, and meet us for dinner.

A small trio waited for Paul to fly in from Mississippi, working as part of a missionary leave that Habitat workers get. We’re honored that his leaders allowed him to join us, and he chose us as his first missionary leave.

Chow Down

…at Van’s Pig Stand, owned by a family associated with Pastor Matt’s family. Food was good and plentiful. We left too late to get our Uncle-Roy-Ice-Cream, but we made it back to the church in time to…

Break Camp

Got a tour of the facility. It’s basically an old school, including a large gym with a couple of showers. So much is provided for us: toiletries, towels and much more. Our facilities are nice and clean, although a few of the guys opted to leave our room and sleep in the gym.

Thanks!
Long day of touring sites and meeting organizations tomorrow!

Thanks for your support!

Paul is joining us from Mississippi. Flight arrives a bit delayed….

Tommy, Roy and peter wait for our honored guest while the rest of the team make the initial Walmart run and stop by Hilltop Baptist Church, our home for the week

We’ll be dining at Vans pig stand. Apparently its owned by good friends of Hilltop baptist pastor’s parents….

The restaurant got damaged in the recent tornado in Moore, and they just recently rebuilt and reopened a few months ago

It seems like a familiar story like The Shed in Mississippi.

So dinner tonight will be with all the members of the team including Paul and our host, the pastor’s family of Hilltop Baptist

Just one leg makes a difference. Much less fatiguing than a red eye …
Landed, bathroom break and then a prayer of thanksgiving for safe travel

We’re learning to make our immediate thanksgiving prayer just that and not our usual dissemination of info as well….

A couple times in Mississippi, we got down to luggage claim so late they took our bags off the belt and stored them….

Old dogs can learn new tricks

Craig’s devotional was from Colossians 3  that we should serve in Gods name. In humility. Part of our history in Mississippi was serving as much as we could. We’ll try to do the same here….

Flight Info

We’ll be commissioned at church tomorrow morning, then a quick dash off to LAX for our flight. Unlike prior years, where we’d take a late night flight, this one leaves closer to noon.


For those that are interested, we’ll be flying 
Flying to OKC: UAL Departing LAX Sunday, April 27 at 12:53 PM. arriving OKC 5:40 PM (UA6442)

Weather Warning

OKC has had some severe weather warnings for the last couple of days, and then this came across from accuweather :

A multiple-day outbreak of severe thunderstorms, including tornadoes, is set to begin Saturday night. The outbreak is likely to be the worst of the season so far and may end up being one of the top severe weather events for the season. 

While the 2014 severe weather season has gotten off to an unusually quiet start, a strong surge in severe weather is forecast for the balance of this weekend.

People will need to keep a close eye on the weather, watch for rapidly changing weather conditions and pay careful attention to severe weather and tornado warnings as they are issued.

Even as we prepare for OKC, saw a flyer from the Habitat Affiliate in Mississippi featuring our very own Millie and Pam, working on the women’s build from 2013!

Lorin led the Children’s message

At Evergreen SGV, we have the kids be part of our main church service. We like our families to worship together, so that the kids understand that their experience is shared with their parents.

One of the way to appreciate them being part of our general service is a special message directed right at the kids. The adults usually get a lot out of it too 🙂

Lorin’s comfort with the kids and sweet side is evident in her teaching.

And.. Jeff was a good sport 🙂

https://plus.google.com/photos/100553897392507669531/albums/6003356638635828369?banner=pwa

http://vimeo.com/91897095
 

Oklahoma Relief Scout Team 2014 Children’s Message from SGV Habitat on Vimeo.