My Heart Breaks for Joplin, Missouri

So my intent was to post all the pics from corn planting this morning, but after what happened in the area yesterday evening my heart was just pressing me to do something else. 

If you have turned on your TV this morning and watched any national news you will have seen that there were some terrible storms that went through Southeast Kansas, Northeast Oklahoma, Northwest Arkansas, and epically Southwest Missouri. Namely Joplin, Missouri, where a tornado ran right through the heart of the town.

It is a sad report of everything that has happened . The path of the twister was reported to be 6 miles long and anywhere from 1/2 to 3/4 mile wide. It has destroyed about 25 - 30 % of the town. 

Not only did it take out major businesses such as Home Depot and Walgreen's but it also destroyed the high school and took and majorly hit one of the towns two hospitals. The hospital had to be full evacuated and all the critical patients take to the other hospital as well as setting up a make shift care facility in a local convention hall, where people who weren't critically injured can go.

The current death toll is at 89 people and is expected to go even higher as they continue to search through the rubble throughout the day.

From what I understand this number is just for the Joplin tornado and not counting any other tornado that may have touched down as the storm continued to hit surrounding areas.

What is going to make this extremely difficult is that they are going to be getting more rain today which will make the search and rescue even harder. As well as the possibility of tornadic activity once again.

This morning as Caleb and I were doing our morning reading we came across a verse that I learned as a small child and had forgotten where it was but I think it is such an encouragement in moments like these.

"So do not fear, for I am with you, do not be dismayed, for I'm your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."         Isaiah 41:10

Reading this is a comfort to me know that my Lord and Savior is here with me at all times and will be there with me. This is not just for comforting when large catastrophic events happen, such as what has happened in Joplin, but in everything that goes on in your life. Weather it's the loss of a loved one, the loss of a job, or whatever may be going on.

You know with all these terrible catastrophic events that have happened over the past few years around the world there have been may people that will say things like "there must be some bad people over there." or "God must be punishing them for their sins." but all that is terrible horrible things for people to say. These events have nothing to do with God punishing them because even though there may be some very immoral people in these different areas, there are also many wonderfully good people in these areas.

 As it says in Matthew 5:45 "He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous." 

Which means it doesn't matter who you are or what you have done bad things can happen to us all. How we handle these events and what we do with what we have learned from these hard times is what really matters. God is there for each of us and wants to help us through these tough times.


Here are some pictures of how horrible the damage was.  I pulled these pictures from The TODAY Shows website.

Here is a link to that page where you can watch video's about what has happened as well as some more photos of what has happened.

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/43132174/ns/today-weather/t/cut-city-half-death-toll-rises-missouri-tornado/

 

This is the hospital that was hit hard.






This is what one of the main streets in Joplin, where all the stores that you would do a lot of shopping at.  Just last week I was driving down this street doing a little shopping, it's hard to believe that it now looks like this.





These pictures just tell a part of the story of what has happened in this area.
I know many people may be wanting to help but have no way of making it to Joplin. I have been looking but since it just happened there really hasn't been that much done so far, but one organization that I know will be going strong helping all the victims is the Red Cross of the Ozarks. One of it's offices is actually located in Joplin and I can imagine that they are already out there working hard to help all of those who were affected.

http://www.redcross-ozarks.org/donate/

Above is a link to their page where you can donate if you feel so inclined.

I didn't do this for any other disaster that has happened, not because I didn't care about what was going on, but probably more because it didn't hit as close to home. This was a tragic event that happened in an area that I was in just a week ago and that I visit a bunch of different times throughout the year. On top of that I have some very wonderful friends that live in that area  who have been affected by this.

Here are a few links to the local TV stations websites where you can find more news.

Local ABC / NBC, KOMA 7, Fox 14

So PLEASE say an extra prayer for all of those who have affected by this as well as those who are out there working hard to find more survivors.

Love and Prayers for Joplin,

Janet Phillips


*Sadly I just heard that the death toll is up to 116 people and they are still searching. On the positive side there have been 7 people rescued alive today even though there has been rain coming down a lot of the day.

Another Organizations to support for help:

Convoy of Hope