We arrived in Moore on Thursday, June 6. Our church (Heritage, Rock Island, IL) was sending a semi load of supplies and wanted us to help coordinate the delivery on the ground in Moore, so while they were gathering supplies we had a little extra time to prepare and travel. We stopped for a night in Lebanon to visit Dad and Mom, and then headed on the next day. Our dear friends, the Ticknor's, had already arrived in Moore and had secured a place for us at Surburban Baptist Church where they were staying and working (they could only do this because we are "little", only needing one parking place. On Friday we scouted the location for delivery and storage of the items coming from our home church, due in the next day. (The supplies were for Poured Out, a disaster relief organization from Michigan, headquartering out of May Avenue Wesleyan Church, in OKC., but were being stored off-site at a storage facility.)
After visiting May Avenue church Friday morning and making sure everything was ready for delivery, we stopped at the church hosting the relief agency we were signed up to work through. They told us we weren't needed! Try back next week! We had gotten approval from them before leaving home, so this was a surprise to us. (They just had so many volunteers they really didn't need more just then.) So we went back and cleaned out a storage shed at May Avenue.
Saturday morning the semi was scheduled to be unloaded at 9:00. We got there half an hour early to make sure all was ready, only to find that the truck was almost half unloaded already! And we met Steve Adams, co-founder of Poured Out. After chatting with him awhile, he convinced us to move over to May Avenue and work with Poured Out for the summer! So looks like tomorrow will be moving day. We will miss being close to Ticknor's, but we will have electricity - which with temps already in the 90's, will save our generator a lot of hard use.
The skid loader and shrink-wrapped pallets made the unloading so much easier!
Loading much needed supplies to take to the church to use for
volunteers, distribute to needy families, and use in the field
The city of Moore donated storage space until supplies
were needed; they were all gone within a week.
The unloading crew
Saturday afternoon, Vaughn and Jake took us out to see some of the devastation. Pictures can't start to show all the damage, and some times you simply forget to take pictures as you look at all the horror around you. How the death toll was not much higher is simply a miracle. See a later post for pictures.
This afternoon, after church, we visited the Oklahoma City National Memorial, site of the Murrah Building bombing in 1995. The Ticknor's have made us honorary grandparents (a most delightful job!) and included us in their outing. The memorial is a lovely tribute to those lost the day of the attack. The Gates of Time are separated by a reflecting pool, and there are 168 empty chairs on the side remembering the victims. Especially heartbreaking are the 19 smaller chairs for the children killed. As we gathered by the Survivor Tree, the Ranger explained how the tree was almost dead, and investigators wanted to cut it down to search for blast evidence, but it was spared and began blooming again, and still thrives today.
So, it is Oklahoma - and what do you do after church Sunday night in Oklahoma?? Some people go out for ice cream. But not our guys!
For now, it's time to secure for travel, and get some sleep, 'cause tomorrow is moving day! (But only a few miles.)
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