Hello Everybody! We're back ... and exhausted! It was a great trip. We met people from all around the country, we did some serious bonding, and we did some excellent work. Whether it was hauling sheet metal a quarter mile across a field, dragging tree branches, or spreading dirty, dirty mulch, the work we did around Joplin was super rewarding. We are thankful to Ginny, Brenna, Stephanie, Blake, and the rest of our student leaders for doing all of the planning. Jonathan will also be fondly thought of for the many delicious meals we all ravished after several hard days' work. We're grateful for you who followed us here on our blog - and especially you donors who made our mission trip possible. Until our next mission trip, Wesley will be doing many exciting things right here in Albuquerque and at UNM! Be sure to stay in touch! Thank you all!

A Mulchitude of Fun

The day started off just as any other, all of us waiting in the car for Blake to finish getting ready....

Today our task was to lay fresh mulch onto a walkway in the FEMA housing neighborhood.  In the middle of the housing area was an open field with a playground and a walking path.  We got to work filling the wheelbarrows with mulch and trekking across the field to the path.  Then the people standing with rakes would spread out the mulch to cover the path.

We worked diligently in the morning and broke for lunch at 12. As we sat eating our PB&J sandwiches and drinking Capri Suns we realized, "The Lobo games starts at 3:10!" We could NOT miss the game. So we devised a plan to finish our work early, drive back to the church to shower, and make it to Buffalo Wild Wings (or B-Dubs as Tori would say) before tip off.

We hit the ground running.  In two hours, I personally raked over 50 wheelbarrows of mulch over the path.  By 2:30 we were covered in dirt, sweaty, blistered, sore, and the Reece boys ended up with their shirts off.  We hopped into the car, drove to the church, showered, scrubbed, rinsed, repeat, and made it to B-Dubs just after tip off.  The afternoon was full of wings and basketball and most importantly a LOBO VICTORY.  All in all, our last day in Joplin was extremely successful.      

                                                                                                                                       --Perri

Tiny Tim!

 Hello to all of our blog readers! 
This is Tori and Brett, and we are gonna tell you about our day. Today the boys and girls were at separate work sites.

Brett:What did you do today?

Tori: We had a battle of the sexes. All day. :P

Brett: I beat the girls at everything. We picked up scraps of debris and sheet metal on a two mile wide field. It was a little windy, but it was just enough to cool the sweat on my body. 

Tori: That's it?

Brett: Well, we found a tiny turtle and named him Tiny Tim. Then we sang a song about him. This is how it goes:

I found a tiny turtle,

I named him Tiny Tim.

I put him in the bath tub,

to see if he could swim!

He drank up all the water.

He ate up all the soap!

He tried to eat the bathtub,

but it won't go down his throat!

Mama called the doctor.

The doctor called the nurse.

The nurse called the lady 

with the alligator purse.

"Get out stinky doctor!"

"Get out stinky nurse!"

"Stay pretty lady with the alligator purse!"

Tori: Wow what a song. I wish I had seen the tiny turtle, but I was at another workplace this morning!

Brett: I'm not done talking about Tiny Tim. We rubbed his belly to try to get him to come out of his shell.

Tori: So anyway, the girls and I were at another work site and we cleared trees and branches and cleaned debris out of two fields. Brenna and I found a really twisted up mail box. Stephanie and Ginny found a child's play rake.  Unfortunately we don't have a song for this occasion. We were too busy being productive. :)

Brett: That song doubled our productivity. 

Tori: However, we joined forces at the boys work site in the afternoon. We did not get to meet Tiny Tim though... What did you think about the brinner (breakfast for dinner) I helped cook?

Brett: It was great! I loved having chocolate chip pancakes, bacon, and scrambled eggs at dinner time. It was a good change of pace. 

Tori: After dinner we had our devotional. We talked about the place of college kids in today's church. Then we had worship in the historic sanctuary of the church we are staying at!

Brett: Then I played like a pro during our two on two soccer game with Jon, Blake, and Ginny.

Tori: Except when you biffed it and started bleeding everywhere.

Brett: We don't talk about that.  
Tori: After our busy day we played a game of Celebrity, which is a game of charades mixed with catch phrase.
Brett: That game was pretty fun; we need to play it more often!
  

  

This was a very good day. Both of us are enjoying our time in Joplin, and so is the rest of the Wesley Crew! It's amazing to see the hope of these people even after this tragedy.    

 

Timber!

Good evening, Albuquerque! And whoever else is reading our little blog!


This was our second day of work with Americorps, and as Brenna mentioned yesterday, our assignments are different every day (so far, who knows about tomorrow!). We and hundreds of other volunteers from all over the country headed over to a large wooded area which was in the center of the tornado's path.

There are hundreds, probably thousands, of dead trees on this property, and they all need to be cut down and removed - it's a site that's under consideration for the new hospital!

A lot of chainsawing has already happened, and there are Missouri mountains of debris all over the place - that is to say, about 10 feet high.  We formed bucket brigades with groups from all over the country - I met a boy from Atlanta and a girl from Ithaca - and passed branches and debris hand-to-hand.

After a few hours of this, I became curious as to how much wood we were actually moving - about 48,000 pieces an hour! For 6 hours! As Stephanie put it, we were seriously backlogged.  Everybody really enjoyed this project - it was nice to get to interact with lots of other groups and to talk about what we all had in common.

 We had lunch at Cunningham Park, and had lots of fun messing around on the fancy new playground equipment!

Our appetites were enormous when we returned to First UMC to prepare our meal. Jonathan and his awesome meal team put together an All-American feast, with burgers, dogs, and baked beans! I am still so full I can barely type this.  Stephanie led a devotion on the hope that can come out of suffering, and I definitely see that everywhere in Joplin, in the citizens, the volunteers, and even the sides of buildings. We're so thankful to have a chance to share God's love and fulfill that hope with the people of Joplin!

Aren't Mondays Always Full of Poop???

                                                                       Greetings!!!

Today has been an exciting day for us as we began our work here in Joplin. After getting a decent night's sleep we all woke up and ate breakfast and made our sack lunches for the day. The boys also spent a good amount of time today fretting over who will be in their [brackets] for the NCAA tournament. The other school staying at this church also made it to the tourney, so there's no doubt that a dance fight will happen at some point this week. 

We then drove to the AmeriCorps headquarters to get our work assignments. It was a mad house. There were so many work crews ranging from junior high to college age students. After talking with one of the coordinators later in the day, we learned that 600 volunteers came through AmeriCorps today. Needless to say Joplin is going to to get swarmed with volunteers during this year's spring break weeks. 

We were assigned the task, along with about twenty or thirty other work groups, to go to some farm property and help clean up debris. Our coordinators said that a lot of the town has already been cleared out, but the county has been somewhat neglected. There have been reports of cows getting injured by nails and other things that are in their pastures. So, that is what Wesley helped out with today. A lot of what we picked up included pieces of plastic, parts of shingles, and loose insulation.  It sounds like a pretty straight forward job right? Well add on the fact that we had to dodge massive amounts of cow poop in this pasture, and there is a whole other challenge! There were huge piles of poop about every one or two feet.  You know how people sometimes find the face of Jesus in a tortilla or grilled cheese? Well today I attempted to find the face of Jesus in one of the thousands of cow pies that we walked around. No success.

We took a lunch break, and because there were so many people on this pasture, we basically finished, and were then split up and moved to other fields that would need our debris gathering skills. We moved to another field down the road and continued our work of picking up things. 

We finished up a little earlier then expected, so we then went on a tour of Joplin and got a look at some of the destruction. Just a quick bit of facts we learned today. The tornado was about mile and a half wide and traveled for six miles. 8,000 buildings were destroyed, and around 160 lives were lost. 

                                       Here is an aerial view from Google of the Tornado's path

We drove to Cunningham Park, which was revamped when Extreme Makeover Home Edition visited Joplin. There was a beautiful fountain and memorial set up to remember the lives that were lost, honor the volunteers that have helped restore Joplin, and to celebrate the Miracle of the Human Spirit. We drove past the 7 houses that Extreme Makeover built as well. Then we traveled to where the Joplin High School used to stand, to see that it was now in piles and has fittingly changed its name to Hope High School.

                                                 The former Joplin High School

  After returning from our tour we made an expedition to Wal-Mart, and later ate some delicious spaghetti. Ginny led the devotional which focused on the factual nature of the destruction that this tornado had on this city, and the immense hope that this town has due to their faiths and the love of others.

Be sure and check out the blog tomorrow for a breakdown of what happened. We have no idea what we are doing as far as work goes, and so each day brings a new adventure!

Brenna

And We're Off!

Much like famed traveler Waldo, Wesley is on an adventure! It began this morning before the sunrise - a time of day most of us have only seen a handful of times.

The next twelve hours took our two cars, crammed with luggage and students, across Eastern New Mexico, the Texas Panhandle and Oklahoma. Although the hours of travel were fatiguing, the tedium was alleviated by naps, snacks, and Catchphrase.
A few rest stops and fast food meals later, we arrived in Joplin at the First United Methodist Church. We're looking forward to sharing our accommodations with a group of twelve students from Marquette who arrived yesterday. Tonight we'll have a brief devotion and (hopefully) a full eight hours of much-needed sleep. Tomorrow morning, fully revived by a hearty breakfast, we'll head to the Americorps HQ to receive our job assignment and start work.

On our way to First UMC, we got a glimpse of the havoc wreaked by last year's tornado. Tomorrow, in the sunlight, we'll really see the extent of the devastation from which the City of Joplin is still recovering. We've already been amazed by the generosity of First UMC and our Albuquerque family who supported this trip. We're sure that, starting tomorrow, we'll be amazed by God's plan for us and the other volunteers here - to rebuild and restore hope to this brave community.
Thanks for following us on our blog (Waldo, as you can see above, is literally following us). A different student will be posting news of our adventure each day so you can see what we're up to!