Helping out a community

Saturday morning our whole family joined my son's cub scout pack to help out local farmer. In case you don't live in Oklahoma, I will fill you in on what happened this past week.

On Tuesday several tornadoes ripped through the state. One of the tornadoes hit 10-15 miles from us. The officer was on his way home from work . I had the kids in their motorcycle helmets in the laundry room with a bag packed. The weatherman was literally yelling into the tv saying, "If you can't get underground, you need to leave and get out of it's path!" It was about 15 miles from us. The officer called and said, "Get ready because when I pull into the driveway we are leaving!"

He pulled up into the driveway and we all piled into the car. As we were pulling out, my daughter started crying, saying, "What about Hobbs! What about Hobbs?" Hobbs is our dog. The officer couldn't take it so we grabbed stinky Hobbs and put in him the back of the car. We headed south to the safety of a McDonalds. It was interesting with the officer, kids and stinky Hobbs all in our car. We prayed for people we knew were in the possible path of the tornado. It was scary. We were safe. Hobbs didn't want to get out of the back of the car when we got home. We had to drag him out.

Back to Saturday.

My son's cub scout troop decided to get together and help a local farmer clean his field. We met at a church at 8:30 a.m. and rode a bus to the farm. This fulfilled a small wish of the kids. They have always wanted to ride a bus. They see the school buses picking up and dropping off kids and well since they are homeschooled.....

She's pretending like she's driving daddy's car.

They got to ride a bus today. Both the kids and I were all packed into one seat.

Waiting to leave.

They don't look real excited here, but they were.

The damage was a site to see. We cleaned up a 40 acre field. As we were walking down the field, the wheat started out waist high on the kids. When we got to the portion of the field the tornado had crossed the wheat was completely flattened. You could tell how wide the tornado was. Amazing. Across the street from the field, we saw one house with all of its walls standing, but the roof was gone and there was nothing inside the house. Next to it about 50 yards or so was another house. Half of the house was standing, complete with the roof, but the other half of the house was a cement slab. Nothing. Strange.

We had large black trash bags for debris. There were a lot of shingles, wood, and metal. There were foot long pieces of wood buried six inches deep in the dirt. We had white trash bags for personal belongings. We ended up finding some pictures, a Christmas ornament, an ax, a purse, and a few other belongings.

It was kind of muddy. At first I thought, "Well that's a bit annoying!" but then I thought if it wasn't muddy it would be terribly dusty! That was my "Pollyanna" moment. There's always something to be thankful/glad about.

It was hot, but there was a breeze. When we finished the first field, my daughter was pretty much done. We were going to hang out and cool off while everyone else did the second field. Another mom asked me to watch her daughter. So we sat under a shade tree and had a snack while they cleaned up the second 40 acre field. The girls were entertained by a ladybug for about 20 minutes.

The whole time we were out there, I kept talking to my children about service for others. We should look for opportunities to help serve others to show them God's love for them. Serving others makes you thankful for how God has blessed you. Serving others is a great way to show others God and you care. Serving others makes you less selfish because it takes the focus off of "me" and puts it on "others".

I wasn't sure my kids were getting it when we were half way done with the first field. There was a little bit of complaining and whining going on. I won't even tell you what they said when I told them we had to walk back over the first field and had another field to do. :) My son told me later though by the time we got back on the bus he felt really good about helping the farmer. I hope we get more opportunities to serve others. I hope we recognize the opportunities to help others.

Oh... and it wasn't just good for the kids. It was good for me and the officer. I realize I am completely selfish too. I didn't particularly want to spend my Saturday morning walking in a wheat field. The officer had offered to just take the kids and let me stay home. However, I really felt God telling me I need to spend this family time together. I'm so glad I did. How can I show my kids how to serve others if I don't? How can I show how important it is if I don't make it a priority? How can I show them serve others if I say, "I'm just too busy to do that right now."?

I John 3:18
Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth.

Ephesians 2:10
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.