Day 2 in Harveyville

Family and Friends,

Today (mar 3^rd) we had a few other soldiers of the Lord come with us to Harveyville.  We had seven people go, including Myself, Charles and Elvie Aiekens, Micah, Caleb, Jadon (which are my three older boys), and Adam Asebedo (who says he's also ours!) We had a very good work crew for sure! Today our group served in a variety of different ways. First some of us went to pack up belongings for the elderly which were having to move out of there demolition scheduled building. Some of us went to rake and pick up nails for the parade of dump trucks at the Methodist church and parsonage, which were both totally destroyed. After those tasks we all met at a farm just on the edge of town. We were told to start picking up debris on the land and out of the creek. Come to find out this debris were once the farmers out buildings and sheds, I believe he lost every one of them except a damaged pig pen. Our crew and the other teams that were there did such an amazing job separating the personals for the home owners and the rest of the pieces to be hauled away to the land fill. Even though the day(s) have been very exhausting, I believe that our team and the other volunteers would have just kept on asking the question, (where do we go next?) but by the end of this day the work needed done was going to have to be done by heavy equipment and dump trucks.

         While we were there serving I couldn’t help noticing how much love you feel from each person that came to help. When God talks about going and helping the needy, and that’s what you go and do. It is very evident that God is right there with you and everyone else serving, by the selfless actions you see and the love that you feel coming from each person. I feel that, if I noticed this that much and I am only one serving, I can only imagine how much love the Holy Spirit is allowing the people in the community to feel!!! This seems to be the eye of hope, or a blanket of peace that is unexplainable that makes a community like this one want to re-build and come back stronger. I thank each of you for your prayers, and please join me in continuing to pray for this community, and those other communities that experience some destruction to feel the same out pour of love as Harveyville has.

       With love, Pastor Joey Orebaugh

P.S. Starting Mar 4^th if you would like to serve the tornado victims of Harveyville you have to e-mail harveyvilletornado@gmail.com  and provide them with your name, address, phone number and how you might be able to serve. This may be the only way through the police barricades into town.

First Day In Harveyville!

 

Trip to Harveyville! First day

Today (Mar 2^nd) I left early with Chuck and Elvie (awesome couple), to Harveyville where the tornado ripped through and devastated the town, to serve and see what we could do to help. Once again another humbling experience for sure! There were so many homes destroyed, damaged, and families that were forced out of there homes, It will take a long time to re-build the town, but I know they will! There were too many volunteers to count, a very cool sight to see the hearts of every one so eager to help and serve any way they could. We spent the day digging through apartments with no more exterior walls and no roof on them, separating debris, weeds, sticks, and personal belongings. One elderly lady we met today had an incredible story of what happened to her. While the walls and roof was coming off around her, she was sitting in the dark on her bed. Now if you think about it God was totally with her, these were brick walls and an entire roof totally gone, and she was just sitting there! How amazing! Then after all of that she went to the rescue of her neighbors including her brother in one apartment on one side of her and a single mom with her two babies (which were knocked out) on the other side. (The babies are ok!) After spending some time with her listening to her story and praying with her she felt very blessed to have her life, and didn’t care so much about the material things. Please pray for the people and the community of Harveyville. We will be going back tomorrow with hopefully more people. We plan to worship God through the acts of our services.

             With love Pastor Joey Orebaugh

     P.S.  I will be posting some pictures that have been taken of the area in the next few days. God bless you!