Day 2/Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Joplin Mission

     We painted the ceiling and walls in a room, replaced a window, planted a tree, poured concrete to secure a porch railing, ripped out moldy carpet and cleaned a wet, moldy basement of debris.  We are very tired!  The painted tree  in the picture is called the Spirit Tree and is near the site of the high school that was destroyed in the tornado.  Everywhere there are signs of people expressing hope and thankfulness;  it is very humbling.  The hospitality of everyone towards the volunteers is awesome!

The June Joplin Mission Team is working hard to bring Hope to a nice lady named Janell.  We scraped her popcorn ceiling and patched the walls and ceiling, preparing them for painting tomorrow.  A list of repairs ranging from fixing a front door to the railing on the front steps were also done.  Janell lost her home and all of the contents during the tornado.  She was able to purchase an older home with the little insurance money she had but it is a real fixer upper!   She is living in the home while trying to repair it by herself.  Janell and her son in law were in a car, driving by the high school when the tornado hit.  They survived but only after having the vehicle picked up and tossed around.  People in cars around them were not so lucky and some lost their lives.  Her daughter and son in law lost their house as well.   Habitat for Humanity has chosen them to receive one of their houses being built.  Janell's story was heart felt and traumatic but also full of thanksgiving for the blessings of family and friends who did survive.

Easter Baskets of Blessings!
Last night several people from Church of the Shepherd gathered to sort and deliver the Easter Baskets of Blessings that were donated by the congregation and which will go to various agencies in the St. Charles area bringing HOPE to children and youth who may feel forgotten. The baskets go to the St. Charles Crisis Nursery, the Epworth Children's Home, and to our sister Hispanic church in St. Louis County. Thank you all for your generosity and for your time and efforts to let a child know that Easter is a time of HOPE!

Team Leader, Robert Richards, report on Tuesday regarding Joplin Mission Team's progress.

Day Two---We have the house complete and started the cutting for the
second one. We have been working at the UMC Warehouse building pre-fab home for
UMC and Habitat for Humanity. Sounds like that is what we will do the rest of
the week. Ivan has asked to do a side job on trouble shooting an electric
problem and he indicates that he might need us to finish out an electric job on
another house.The casseroles have been great, tell everyone thanks for
us. We have had a couple of other people join us for dinner at night and
share. Wed night we have invited our friends from Marshall to participate
in communion. Well thats it for now, its time for lights out, we are
tired.More to come.

Joplin Mission March 16, 2012: Church of the Shepherd's team is spending their last work day in Joplin today. We pray for a safe trip home tomorrow. The photo at the right is what was left after the tornado hit the sanctuary of St. Paul's UMC. One of our previous teams help to build a stage for St. Paul's temporary sanctuary.

This week our current team has spent the majority of their time building frames of houses in a giant warehouse preparing for other teams to reconstruct these frames on individual building sites. So far, the team has finished framing at least 2 homes. They also did some trouble shooting of electrical needs for various homeowners. The building blitz as begun with the lovely weather God has been sending, so sign up for an extended weekend team or June's week long mission team to help offer hope to our brothers and sisters in Joplin! They are putting their trust in us!

March 11-17, 2012: The Joplin Mission Team from Church of the Shepherd will be helping the residents of Joplin, Missouri this week as the warm weather brings the hope of finally doing extensive rebuilding now that most of the clean up has been completed. The team arrived Sunday, March 11, 2012 late afternoon at Byers Avenue United Methodist Church where they will stay until Saturday, March 17, 2012.

Monday, March 12: The team worked in a huge warehouse where experienced carpenters are constructing "prefab" houses for a future building blitz to be done by the Methodist Church and by Habitat for Humanity. These prefabed walls will be taken to various building sites in Joplin where volunteers under the direction or a foreman will reconstruct the walls and flooring. With spring coming so will the building blitz! We need volunteers for COS's April extended weekend mission that will leave Thursday, April 19 around 5:30 and will return Sunday, April 22. Consider taking a Friday off of work to help with the building going on in Joplin!

Picture from February Joplin Mission. New team leaves Sunday, March 11 for a week! Sign up to help out with the teams leaving for extended weekend missions on April 19-22 or May 3-6. The week long mission is June 3-9. Put your faith into action by helping God's children in Joplin. For more information e-mail donna_weaver@coswired.org

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