"Were You Affected by The Tornado?

So many people have asked me, "Were you affected by the tornado?"  I always hesitate before I answer.  Was my family directly in the tornado?  No.  Did we lose friends, property, or a job?  No.  Did it change our lives dramatically?  Yes.  The Joplin Tornado changed all our lives.

Our focus for the last 15 months has been on helping the Joplin community recover.  We've done so through Joplin Family Worship Center.  Our "help" has taken many forms.  We've housed volunteers at our place, cooked for hundreds at a time, cleaned, unloaded trucks, pulled massive pallets of supplies into our church sanctuary on pallet jacks, organized supplies for distribution, prayed with victims, given out furniture, supplies, clothing, food, and other things in our church's distribution center, and basically helped whenever we were needed. 

My husband is the Director of Operations and Community Liasson for JFWC Resource Center.  That means he's basically the go between church and community.  He attends lots of meetings, runs our distribution center with as many as 30 employees, coordinates building projects, coordinates volunteers, up to 500 at times during the summers, coordinated giveaways of CROCS shoes, wooden toys at Christmas, thousands of wrapped Christmas gifts for needy families, an Easter outreach with Kenneth Copeland Ministries.... You get the idea.  Our family has been affected.  More importantly, our family is helping to effect change for the better in our community.

God, our creator, is amazing.  Jesus is amazing.  The Holy Spirit is amazing.  They have done amazing things in the Body of Christ throughout the Joplin area and throughout the country.

Even FEMA has noticed a difference in how Joplin is recovering in comparison to some other major disaster cities.  They recognize that it is the Faith Community.  We know who that is.  ~smile~

Amazing things have been done. Amazing things are yet to be done.  I encourage you to pray and ask the Lord how you can be part of the amazing.

I'm ask you to pray earnestly for the people of Joplin.  A social worker told our pastor that post traumatic stress has lead to an increase in divorces, child abuse, and suicides in our community.  We need to pray for mental as well as physical recovery for our community.  People need the Lord.  Nothing and Nobody else can bring forth full recovery.

Thank you so much for your prayers and your support.

Laura Lane
Trusting in the Lord

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May I suggest?

Meet Jesus

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