Southeast reaches out to Joplin
By Ruth Schenk | .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
When a killer tornado hit Joplin, Mo., Sunday, May 23, the devastation hit home at Southeast.
In Louisville, Southeast Teaching Minister Kyle Idleman, Worship Leader Brian Sites and Post Worship Leader Matt Bayless tracked the devastation in the
town they once lived in after the deadly, 200 mph tornado cut a path a mile wide and six miles long. It left 139 people dead, 500 injured and 29 people still
missing as of May 28, according to a Reuters report.
By that night, they began making plans to take relief supplies to College Heights Christian Church, which quickly became a hub for relief in the community.
At the same time, Indiana Campus Student Minister Cody Walker and his wife Rachael packed up their family after a Sunday night phone call from Joplin. A
neighbor rescued Cody’s mother from the rubble of her home there, and they were still searching for Cody’s brother, who had gone to a movie at a nearby
theater. He later was found, unharmed, at a friend’s house.
The Walkers weren’t sure what they would find at the end of the eight-hour drive. They arrived in Joplin early the next morning, about the same time as the U.S.
Outreach team at Southeast was packing a truck with generators, lights, batteries, bottled water and food for Idleman, Bayless and Sites to take to College
Heights and Christ’s Church of Orongo.
Miles of carnage
Nothing prepared the Walkers for what they saw in Joplin: Miles of carnage; blocked roads.
It was difficult to find anything with no landmarks or street signs. Cars literally were wrapped around trees. There was nothing left of whole neighborhoods. Big
box stores such as Home Depot looked like they had been bombed.
Cody’s mother hid in the shower during the tornado. She had little memory of all that happened, but she remembered the force of the wind.
It was difficult to find what was left of the family’s home. Only two of four walls are still intact. There is no roof. All possessions were destroyed.
The next morning, the family searched through the rubble for keepsakes.
“Joplin will never be the same,” Cody said. “My family will never be the same, and I will never be the same. I watched my mom weep over torn photos of her
grandparents, childhood, my brother’s baby book and our family Bible. I also saw her laugh when she pulled her bath robe out of the closet where it still hung
untouched by the carnage. We joked that not even the tornado wanted her bath robe.”
Monday night the Walkers headed to College Heights Christian Church, walking in just as Idleman, Sites and Bayless arrived with the truckload of supplies. It
was exactly what the church needed for outreach.
Empowering the local church
Idleman said that outreach from Southeast meant a lot to people in Joplin.
“I love the generosity of our people at Southeast,” he said. “Because of the knowledge and experience of our staff, we were able to be first-responders in
Joplin.”
At College Heights, Idleman saw a wall map marked with at least 50 dots where the homes of church members were decimated. Teams from the church
were going to each location to see what could be salvaged in the rubble.
Later that day, Idleman stood with his childhood best friend in front a pile of “nothing”—all that was left of his friend’s home.
Sites said that though Joplin is not huge, it is a lighthouse that reaches around the world.
“Joplin is important not because of commerce, location, influence or size, but because there are world-impacting ministries headquartered there,” he said.
“Joplin is a city where God is busy at work impacting the world.”
Joplin is home to Ozark Christian College; Christ in Youth, a ministry that connects teenagers to Christ; The Bridge, a cutting-edge youth ministry and Good
News Productions, International, an organization that is accelerating global evangelism through media.
Even now, emergency teams and cadaver dogs continue to pick their way through the rubble of thousands of homes and businesses as shaken family
members look for missing family members and mementoes in the rubble.
Sites, Idleman and Bayless unloaded supplies under a little overhang at College Heights Christian Church that said, “Worship Center.”
“I saw all those folks working, serving and helping under the banner of the worship center,” Sites said. That was profound. At that moment, the center was
used for pure worship.”