A Day in Moore, Part II

And here are the photos of some tornado damage around the Warren Theatre in north Moore, Oklahoma. The large demolished building was a hospital. The parking lot was filled with ghostly, abandoned cars. It was the cars that shocked me most, crumpled and shattered. I didn't realize that wind could do that to a car- blow out windows, crush in doors, rip off tires. There was a strange, sick silence to the bright sunshine to the day. It was very similar to the time I visited Aushwitz at fourteen years old. A beautiful summer day, paled by the cold linger of death and destruction. God is very real, very powerful, and the tornadoes have been a great opportunity to witness to my coworkers, for which I am thankful. Even now, almost a month later, so much of the city lies in ruins. The girls and I found some small souvenirs in the rubble. We also took some scrap metal and formed a heart, which we hung on the gate by the hospital. The girls kept the card and I kept the flower. The roll of duct tape made me smile and think of the Myth Busters' episode on how you should always have some handy during a crisis. It's true!

A Day in Moore Part I

Not long after the tornadoes of late May ravaged through the south side of my city, I threw on a pair of boots and and gloves and drove down to help clean, salvage, and organize the mountain of rubble. It was almost traumatizing, even though I wasn't directly affected, to stand in the middle of a city completely bombed into debris. There was so much loss, so much grief, so much shock. It was good to be able to do something tangible to help, to do anything. Later, I went back to the tip of the demolition zone with my camera and took some pictures.
On that same day, I was able to have the privilege of spending the afternoon with two of my high school girls whom I taught all semester in Norman. I have missed my kids!!! Student teaching was such a huge experience for me... I miss their faces, their stories, and seeing them each day. I miss being a teacher, in a small way, in that I miss my kids. I wonder where they will all end up in life. Who knows? Life is strange and uncertain. When I left Community Christian School on my last day, the tears rolled down my cheeks as I retraced my journey up the highway for the last time. I cried on the first day, too, but in dreaded agony of what was to come. God was merciful to me. He gave me such a wonderful classroom, such a wonderful teacher, such wonderful kids. Sometimes, it doesn't feel like that semester was even real. It came, it went, it will never be again. That is life.
After we went to get snow cones, we went to lunch and then to see the wreckage around Warren Theaters. It was my first time to have a snow cone, which the girls were sure to make fun of me about =) I was so thankful that God spared all of my precious teenagers who lived in the direct area of the tornado. He is so full of mercy!!! Here are some of the photos from that day, starting with the early afternoon at The Lake, the snow cone place, and TGI Friday's. =)

Roadtrip to Idabel

Summer in Oklahoma City post graduation has been a strange feeling. However, despite the plethora of sad changes, the absence of educational pursuit has given one small benefit: the opportunity for new adventures. I've been able to participate is very few church or college activities during my time at Heartland, thanks to the heavy work hours I had to maintain in order to pay off my sizable monthly college bills. So when I heard about the trip to Idabel, Oklahoma, to run a VBS for a small church plant in the rural community, my first instinct was to decline. But then I realized that although I would be missing work and have to survive in close quarters with many people strange to me, I actually had the option available for once. And it was the definite voice of God coming through the soft darkness of my lonely lodging in Edmond at night as I prayed about His will, telling me that I should go. So I did. The experience was nothing like I anticipated... and so much better. The best parts of the trip were not documented with my camera, they were memories lived. I hold them in my heart. But in the quiet, free moments I did take a few snapshots of my time in Idabel, and here they are.

Top: Noah Vaughn (green) and Lucas Binswanger (blue)
Bottom left to right: Jenni Couser and Brad Couser and three boys Clay, Cason, & Creed, Johnathan Scruggs (red), Cody Pirkle (plaid), Jocelyn Dick (green), Megan Sprague (center), Sarah Estep (blue), Julie Hinton (black), Lindsey St. Hilaire (purple), Elizabeth Lyhn (striptes) and Noelle O'Brien (far right).
John and Grace Lande are hiding behind me with their two boys Uriah (right) and Luke (left)

Better Business Bureau

Well I know I'm a girl, and small, and blonde. I suppose that to many people, I look pretty vulnerable and gullible. Maybe I am. I think the next educational direction I pursue should be automotive mechanics 101. My car broke down last week and I've been waiting on Pep Boys at the corner of N Penn and W Memorial to run diagnostics and give me a quote. Supposedly, not only did I blow a belt and idler puller, but also my water pump and pulley. Well I had the 200$ to fix the belt but not the additional 600$ for a water pump, so I was fixing to just put it up for sale on the side of the street or something. Providentially, a friend got me in touch with a mechanic at the church (PTL!) who offered to fix the water pump for half price. The trouble started when I got the car towed to his shop, and he called me to say he couldn't fix it, because the pump wasn't broken! Wasn't even leaking! I guess if it came down to trying to decide if my water pump is bad or not, I'd be forced to trust a mechanic because at the moment I don't even know where it's located under the hood. The crooks at Pep Boys would have charged me all that money for a part I don't need and labor they weren't going to spend, and I would have been none the wiser. Definitely signing up for Mechanics 101 this fall!!! But in all seriousness, isn't God good?! I got to drive my car home yesterday without a penny more than what I'd spent to get the belt fixed. And Jonathan Steele, on behalf of Shepherd Automotive on the Broadways Extension Highway, didn't charge me at all! Wouldn't take anything except a gift car to lunch at Panera Bread, the least I could do for them. God is so good to have my back. Now I'm trying to file a complaint with OKC Consumer Fraud Agency and the Better Business Bureau. It's a tribute to the fact I'm working on my temper that I don't march back into Pep Boys and show them how much trouble a little blonde girl can give them! A big thanks to everyone who is praying for me while I'm on my own in Oklahoma City. God is so good to me, and this world is pretty crazy. I mean really, a water pump? At least they didn't try to tell me my headlights were out of hallogen fluid. I'm not that blonde!

Tornados

It's been a pretty crazy year. Beyond everything falling apart in my own life, mother nature seems to have thrown in the towel as well. In the blistering fast days of this year Oklahoma City has experienced earthquakes, record hail, ice storms, and now tornados. Two F4's on Sunday, and of course the massive F5 on Monday that destroyed half of Moore and displaced over 15,000 people. Latest I checked, death toll was up at 91 and climbing. It feels like half my city is gone. The other half is limping in a surreal state of disbelief. Haven't met a person yet who hasn't been affected. The highway is pretty much on lockdown into Moore thanks to the flood of refugees and volunteers. As soon as I figure out my car situation (water pump and belt blew out), I'm hitting the road to Moore myself to help dig through debris. Moore is where I taught all semester at Community Christian School. I'm so relieved to be here in for my high schoolers and go help them out. A lot of them have lost their homes but God has been good enough to spare their lives, and my own. All I can say is, what a year.

Her Name is Bailey

Sometimes friendships begin in the most unlikely places. Like my friendship with Bailey Starkey, former freshman roommate who drove me insane. Not really insane, but certainly we had our differences and the relationship never grew past general cordiality. We had a fun semester last spring, and then summer came and our lives took different paths and almost a year passed without us even stopping to say hello. To me, Bailey was one of those sweet little Heartland girls who was just a little too different from me.

Different how? When Bailey came up to me this spring with a serious look on her face, with all the fervor of the spirit of the Lord, and announced, "We need to be friends again!" she invited me to have green tea and crochet. I couldn't have been more appealed if I had been invited to watch cows swish their tails all day. A tea party?! Who even drinks tea in coffee-and-energy-drinks-driven college?! Who has time to sit around and crochet?! And if I were to sit around, I wouldn't want to be plucking at yarn like an old spinster and having to talk, that is, socialize, my free time away. I'd rather read, write, run, or sleep. I was appalled at the idea but unable to turn her down.

So this semester I've spent an absurd amount of time watching Bailey sew, knit, crochet, or hem while sipping on honey-sweetened green tea on the floor of her dorm room. Why? Because she's incredibly talented and it's fascinating to watch her create amazing designs with little effort; and because green tea is actually pretty healthy; but mostly, because there was just a spirit of the Lord about her that was undeniable. It was the kind of friendship that I'd always wanted, the kind that was bedrocked on prayer and the Bible. Of all the friendships I've had, I've never had one where the other person just incessantly pesters me with encouragement, prayer, and Bible verses. In a time when I'm trying to draw as astronomically possible close to the Lord, Bailey's spirit and friendship has been like an electric charge. Strengthening, convicting, and very inspiring.

Today she called me all the way from Mt. Vernon, Washington, to tell me she safely arrived home. So far away! I was lamenting a while back that I wouldn't ever be able to chat with her during the summer when she kindly reminded me that phones still work in Washington. I felt so blonde =) And she left me her beta fish, Zibbia, to watch for the summer. A girl fish! So now my crowntail Patrick has a girlfriend!!! He is pretty crazy about her, but I am nervous that they both survive the hot summer without me forgetting to feed them.
When I think about praying with Bailey this past semester, I think about all the cares and heartaches in our soul and how God answered. For eight years she has been praying for her dad's salvation, and as we joined in prayer, it was just a few weeks before she came running down the sidewalk aglow to exclaim the wonder of answered prayer: Her dad had unexpectedly gone to church at gotten saved!

In that sweet embrace as we rejoiced of the Lord's goodness to hear our prayers and change hearts and lives, I knew why Bailey meant so much to me. She was giving me hope. Hope for me, and hope for the future, and hope in God's goodness.
Thank you, Bailey.