So here we are, back at Mt. Hope Church in Joplin. (Isn't the wet cement delightful?)
Day 3: Up at 6:00 and back to work!
Breakfast was weird. We were even more out of it than the day before. I for one kept spacing out and thinking, for some reason, about parakeets. I don't know why.
Miss Eve had all the "parentless children", as she called us (meaning kids whose parents weren't in Joplin) gather around her for a picture. I decided that, being a parentless child, I needed to make a fitting face. *pouts* (Top row, from left: Maddie, Miss Eve, me, Morgan. Bottom row, from left: Anna, Wil, Jameson.)
Sarah, Wil, Jameson and I did the bathrooms again. Mostly we just mopped and quoted stupid YouTube videos. We had a fantastic time.
Once again, we spent most of the morning and early afternoon in the distribution center, sorting clothes, cans, diapers, cleaning supplies and other items. We made a game of jumping on top of empty cardboard boxes so that we could fit them into the giant recycling bin outside, and a couple of us (not me) were brave enough to hop into some of the mini shopping carts the church had and ride down the wooden ramp outside the building. I thought about going, but the fact that half of the ramp is distinctly rail-less, I decided I'd rather be safe. Who wants to play Lady Bracknell with a broken arm?
 |
| Me and Maddie working in one of the pods. I REALLY really like this picture. :) |
At one point, we headed outside to the sheds again to organize the baby items (diapers, food, wipes) into "pods", which stood on the opposite side of the lot from the sheds. We had an excellent time hefting out enormous packages of size 3 diapers to one another and yelling, "Wes! Zach! Come get the huge heavy box of wipes!" They were heavy. We couldn't pick them up, but our guys could.
Can I take a moment real quick to say something about our boys? Kay, thanks. Our boys are amazing. They're complete and total gentlemen, all of them. They're sweet, polite, funny, smart, talented, and have this habit of rushing in front of us ladies to get to the door first so they can hold it open. As an example of their amazing-ness, when I was working in the toiletry shed by myself, I had at least three boys offer to stay and help. Another example: Maddie and I were trying to carry this huge heavy box to one of the sheds, practically dropping it. Wesley and Zekery were riding to the sheds in the flat-bed of a truck, but when he saw us, Wesley hopped out of the truck, ran over, and took the box, proceeding to carry it to the sheds by himself. Maddie, Julie and I decided to make it a point to tell the boys whenever possible how amazing they are.
Boys: (And I'm talking to all of you -- Wesley, Wesley P., Wil, Jameson, Zach, Zeke, Robert, Joseph) You are fantastic people. Us girls seriously wouldn't know what to do without you. :)
Anyway.
When we were done, Miss Eve called us back inside. One of the local colleges (or was it a high school?) had heard about us, and what hard workers we were. They had had a memorial gathering for the victims of the tornado the night before, and the football stadium was a mess. They had asked for some volunteers from our group to go and help clean up. Wesley, Sarah, Anna, Maddie, Zach, Robert and I all went.
First we cleaned up the bleachers on one side, picking up trash and carrying the bags to the dumpster, Anna, Maddie and I singing Les Miserable at the top of our lungs. Then we migrated to the other set of bleachers, where Wesley, Anna, Maddie, Robert and I climbed up to the very top of the cement towers on top of the bleachers. Anna climbed back down, because she gets vertigo. I don't. I love heights. (We're pretty even though; I'm absolutely terrified of swimming in the ocean, and of anything that lives in it, but she loves the sea. I'm too busy jumping around and screaming "JELLYFISH!!!" any time I see a shadow. Also, my Uncle Johnny pointed out a school of sharks, as I suppose it's called, not fifty yards away from us. I'm never swimming in Florida again.)
Eventually, though, I had to come down, because they were wanting us to clean up in the parking lot and grass around the field. Zach, Robert and I stayed in the stadium to pick up trash on and around the field, while Maddie, Sarah, Anna and Wesley went to pick up around the parking lots.
Robert, Ezakiel, and me. I decided to pout for just one more picture. No more, though, after this I'm a very cheerful parentless child.
For the record, I did not know that it was legal to drink and smoke on the premises of a college football stadium. Now I know.
After we were done with that, we went to a field outside of the stadium to help roll up this huge plastic orange fence that was there for some reason...
and when we were done, Miss Eve took our picture.
Aren't we just so hardcore? (From left: Sarah, me, Wesley, Maddie, Robert, Anna, Zach)
Then we hopped back into our car and headed back to the building, where we did a little bit more work in the distribution center, and then I decided that I was in truly desperate need of a shower, and it could not wait any longer.
After my shower (which, despite a rather noticeable lack of hot water, was divine), I went back into the distrib. center, ready to work. But where was everyone?
Everyone was back outside, reorganizing the baby items into the sheds, leaving the pods empty for more donations.
They had volunteered to do it, even after working so hard to get the diapers into the pods that morning.
Can I just say that my friends are amazing? 'Cause they so are.
I joined them, helping Maddie and Julie lift the huge boxes into the shopping carts so that the others could take them to the sheds for Jameson and Anna to organize. When we were pretty close to being done, we started giving each other rides in the shopping carts. I gave Wesley a ride, and accidentally almost tipped the cart over. Then he very "kindly" offered to give me a ride in return, during which he almost tipped me over. On purpose!!! Meany-head.
When we were done, we gave each other huge high-fives for being such hard, efficient, dependable workers, and headed back inside. We worked for a while more inside, until Julie decided that the huge pile of boxes against the wall had to go. We formed an assembly line, and got all the admittedly ugly boxes into one of the now-empty pods.
For a while it was just me and Julie organizing clothes in the distrib. center. At some point some other people showed up and we decided to form a massage train (which was wonderful) and then it was just me and Julie again for some time. Not that I'm complaining. No, we had an absolutely wonderful time doing inventory and discussing (teehee) boys.
Then they brought in this huge trailer full of furniture donations, and the boys helped to bring those in, while the girls brought in boxes and boxes and boxes and boxes and boxes of cans. "Guess what, guys!... MORE CANS!!!"
But the work wasn't over yet! The other building, the part of the building that was actually where the church met, needed to be cleaned. I helped to vacuum a little bit, and then helped one of the ladies there who was getting ready for Sunday school classes move her things. Jameson, Anna, Zeke, Wil and I dusted and vacuumed the sanctuary, which had this in it...
Totally amazing, right? It's made out of scraps and pieces that people brought in out of their homes after the tornado. Whenever I needed alone-time, I liked to go just sit in front of it and pray.
Then I suddenly felt the urge to go pray and pray and pray.
I left the building, shoving my iPod into my pocket as I went. I turned on my favorite worship song ("Where You Go I Go" by Brian and Jenn Johnson) and just started praying, walking in circles around the outside of the building, just praying. Worshipping God, praying blessings over the church and the people in it, over the people of Joplin. As I walked, the sky grew darker and darker, the air got heavy and warm, and the wind picked up. The clouds, which had been there all day, started to look scary. I looked away and kept praying.
I'm not entirely sure why I had the sudden need to be by myself and pray like that. All I know is that, when I was done, when I felt that I could go back inside and start working again, the clouds were lifting, the air was cool, the wind had died down and the sun was peeking through again.
So I went back inside, and Jameson and I helped one of the ladies who worked at the church clean out the attic a bit, vacuuming and sweeping up sand and carrying teaching supplies down the stairs for her.
At that point, we were finally done. I was ready and happy to be able to rest, but... Something in me was sad.
This was our last day to work for Mt. Hope Church. Tomorrow, we would begin rehearsals on the new stage. We would perform, and then we would say goodbye.
I didn't feel that we had done half of what we could have for this church. There was so much more we could have helped them with, so much more we could do. I wasn't the only one who felt this way. For a while longer, Wesley, Julie and I wandered around, hoping someone would give us a job to do, but the work for the day was done. It was time to rest. I went to take my nap feeling sad and lazy.
This time I woke myself up (much to Julie and Anna's disappointment -- they had been planning to come wake me up with some extremely loud toy they'd found somewhere. I laughed at them) and ate dinner with the rest of the group. We played cards, talked loudly, laughed louder, and then split into groups. At first I stayed with Julie and Maddie, but then decided to join Anna, Wil, Wesley, Jameson, and two other volunteers who had come up with another group and watch them play their card game.
After a while Wil and I got bored and started looking at funny pictures on his phone. We showed some of them to one of the other volunteers, and he started to get the giggles. Then we came across this...
The kid could not stop laughing. He literally was unable to quit. He started laughing so hard that the rest of us started laughing, not at the above picture, but at how hard he was laughing.
Wil was wailing, Anna was squeaking, Britney (the other volunteer), Wesley and I were rocking back and forth, slapping the table, and Jameson was complaining about how his cheeks hurt.
Everyone else started to join us to see what was so funny. By the end, we were a huge group of teenagers rolling around in our seats, gasping for breath.
And then Miss Eve came over. Time to go! We were going to go bowling.
Into the cars we piled. When we got to the bowling alley we formed groups of five, paid for our shoes and lanes, and got ready to bowl. I was on a team with Wesley, Joseph, and three kids from the Stained Glass Theater -- Drew, Luke, and Emma. Julie and her team were in the lane next to us, so I was pretty happy with how it worked out.
Here we are, grinning for the camera. And yes, my flip-flops were on the table.
Wesley and Joseph were actually somewhat competitive (imagine!) but me and the kids decided that we'd rather have fun than compete with each other. We granny-bowled, gutter balled, and ran around giving people high-fives and yelling "EMBRACE THE GUTTER BALL!!!" Eventually, we got Wesley into it. It was amazing, and so much fun.
When our game was over, I didn't even bother to check the scores, I just high-fived Joseph. "Good job!"
"Uh, thanks. I didn't win, though."
"Oh! Who did?"
"You..."
"Wait..." I turned around to check the score-board, sincerely confused. "You mean I have points?"
Yes, Julie and Wesley laughed at me. I hadn't exactly been trying to win.
Oh well. Gutter balls are still amazing.
Our team was one of the first ones done, so for a while after that we hung out in the arcade section, being goofy. Then I wandered back over to watch the last team, Rebecca's, finish up.
Rebecca and Zekery were in the middle of a heated competition. Zekery had taught Rebecca to bowl. On her first try, she got a strike. After that, however, she found herself losing and getting gutter balls. I tried to tell her to embrace them, but Zekery was taunting her and being a pill. So, just like that, the student became the enemy.
I still don't know who won. I spent the whole game trying to hack Sarah's phone. It didn't work.
Finally we were done and headed back home. Jameson and Wil's moms had arrived, bringing with them my costume. I ran to hang it up, grabbed a delicious fudge egg from the cafeteria (perhaps not a wise choice at 11:30 at night, but what did I care?) and called my mom. I regaled her with the entire week's events, raving about my friends and the church and bowling and the people from Stained Glass and telling her how amazing everyone was. She chuckled at me, told me she was so glad that I was having such a good time, and bade me good-night. Happy, full of chocolate and love, I retreated to my dorm, where I talked with Julie for about a half hour, and then went to sleep.
Part 4 should be up on Saturday. I hope you're enjoying this series!
No comments:
Post a Comment