Today is the day, my friends! My sun rash is in full bloom! Now, for me at least, this is quite the shock! Take one look at the group you will find that I, Stephen Supernor, am the strongest and burliest man on this crew. My enormous size and stature makes that evident. One would think a person like me would have skin as resilient as sand paper, but somehow my outer most dermis is weathered and burned to an itchy crisp!
But surely there have been many more events that have left an impression on me than the rays of the sun leavin a nasty rash on my arm! Yesterday the whole group took a day trip to Branson, Missouri and on the way we saw the destruction of Missouri's most recent tornadoes. There were entire buildings and hotels whose structures were warped; windows were smashed, they were toppling over, and some lots were completely cleared. And FEMA did not declare this a disaster, although the damage would say otherwise. The path of destruction a tornado takes is truly sporatic. In some cases, one home will be completely flattened to the ground, while the next door house will have only minor damage. This shows how unpredictable and deadly tornadoes are. There is no mercy, and tornadoes truly do not discriminate.
Take, for instance, the families that were torn apart in the episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition that we watched on Tuesday night. One mother had two of her three children torn out of her arms, never to be seen again. Another mother lost her son under a utility pole, the mass crushed his skull and he did not make it. These extremely young children had a full life ahead of them cut way too short by a tornado. Another family who had just retired lost their entire home to the storm and, at age 70, it is really hard to rebuild (although this couple wanted to live out their lives in Joplin). There are so many stories like this, of great loss and suffering due to this tornado. Seeing the support they got from the Extreme Makeover Team and the hope and community that can be restored to a place like Joplin from human good works truly inspired me to take myself seriously in helping this family we are working with through Project 195.
There's so much more to say, but I'm off to another productive work day!!!
Til next time
Stephen
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