Hurricane aid

Have you heard me say that God keeps dropping things in my lap. Well, on Thursday I received an email from the Kokomo District Office listing a bunch of stuff that is needed in Mississippi, a larger church in town has secured a semi and they are making a connection in Blioxi Mississippi at a local United Methodist Church. So I got the bright idea that our whole neighborhood should work together and help fill up the semi, I made a flyer and but it on 300 doors of the houses in our Neighborhood. I gave them the list and said we would return on Saturday to pick it up. Today Chris, Andrew and I went back through the neighborhood and picked up a truck load of stuff. We gave everyone a thank you note inviting them to church to see how much stuff we collected together and how we will be praying for those in need. In the midst of that we met so many people. We met some folks who were from La. and haven't heard from their relatives, and they were about in tears. I had a conversation with two young African Americans about the perceived racism in the situation and listened to them without having to express my views. I met a young mother who gave me a half a bag of diapers as she was holding her tiny baby in her arms, I told her I did not want to take her last bag and she said she would stretch her new bag further. We had people bringing stuff to our door and having a chance to meet them. I met a 23 year old man and his five year old daughter. He has had her from birth, he had to quit high school to take care of her. He works at a meat processing company about 20 miles north of here. He dug through his cabinets and gave me some food. He was trying to clean his house. His daughter was so cute and polite. I asked if I could come back and see him again he said, please do. Had a guy named Bruce in the regular neighborhood who jumped in his truck to help out, he followed and we loaded and he helped us carry all of the stuff into the church. As we drove through the housing project, people just kept coming out of their house piling stuff into the back of our car. I got into a conversation with a young mother who really couldn't see the difference between 911 and present situation, she couldn't figure out why so much stuff was needed when no one collected the stuff for 911 victims. Not only did we collect a lot of stuff I learned a great deal about he neighbors and neighborhood.